Drop Caps

When referencing the printer PDF make sure to look at the beginning paragraph of each new section/chapter to see if small caps exist. Sometimes the InDesign export doesn’t include the small-caps. If small caps are written in the CSS with something like:

css
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p.first:first-line {
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  font-variant: small-caps;
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  text-transform: none;
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}

Review the line and remove the CSS declaration if it modifies the entire line and not the intended selection only.

Rewrite the <p> tag to a <span> tag, remove first:first-line and set the value to small_caps, smallcaps or smallCaps in the CSS, example:

html
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<span class="”small-caps”">foobar</span>

html
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<span class="”smallcaps”">foobar</span>
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<span class="sc">foobar</span>

Renaming

If a section begins with a drop cap letter the name can be replaced, example:

Before

css
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._idGenDropcap-1 {
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  font-family: 'Times New Roman';
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  font-size: 2.7em;
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  line-height: 1.2;
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  float: left;
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  margin: -0.16em 0.09em 0 0;
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}

After

css
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.dropcap {
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  font-family: 'Times New Roman';
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  font-size: 2.7em;
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  line-height: 1.2;
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  float: left;
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  margin: -0.16em 0.09em 0 0;
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}

Channel Issues

We experience a lot of issues with Amazon regarding drop cap. While we try to always implement the same design so the title is seamless between print and digital for some reason Amazon's rendering issues clash with the drop cap's CSS.

If a rework issue was created for the drop cap the drop cap should be removed and the removal should be noted in the file (example: 20-11-11_amazon_reworks.txt) by commenting out the CSS:

css
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/* .dropcap {
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  font-family: 'Times New Roman';
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  font-size: 2.7em;
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  line-height: 1.2;
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  float: left;
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  margin: -0.16em 0.09em 0 0;
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} */

It is encouraged to create an Amazon only title (example: eISBN_mobi.epub) and the Distribution spreadsheet updated with Amazon Only.