Recipe 1.4 Setting a Simple Initial Cap

Problem

You want a paragraph to begin with an initial cap.

Solution

Mark up the paragraph of content with a p element:

<p>Online, activity of exchanging ideas is sped up. The 

distribution of messages from the sellin of propaganda to the 

giving away of disinformation takes place at a blindingly fast 

pace thanks to the state of technology...</p>

Use the pseudo-element :first-letter to stylize the first letter of the paragraph, as shown in Figure 1-7:

p:first-letter {

 font-size: 1.2em;

 background-color: black;

 color: white;

}

Figure 1-7. A simple initial cap

Discussion

The CSS specification offers an easy way to stylize the first letter in a paragraph as a traditional initial or drop cap: use the :first-letter pseudo-element (:first-letter isn't supported in most browsers, including Internet Explorer 4 and 5 for Windows, Netscape Navigator 4, and Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh).

Wrap a span element with a class attribute around the first letter of the first sentence of the first paragraph:

<p><span class="initcap">O</span>nline, activity of exchanging ideas is sped 

up. The distribution of messages from the selling of propaganda 

to the giving away of disinformation takes place at a blindingly 

fast pace thanks to the state of technology...</p>

Then set the style for the initial cap:

p .initcap {

 font-size: 1.2em;

 background-color: black;

 color: white; 

}

Initial caps, also known as versals, traditionally are enlarged in print to anything from a few points to three lines of text.