In a written work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a work, a chapter or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. It is often several lines in height and is sometimes ornately decorated.

In the early history of printing the typesetters would leave blank the necessary space, so that the initials could be added later by a scribe. Historically initials were frequently decorated with ornamentations or motifs which referred to the action of the text.

The word comes from the Latin initialis, which means standing at the beginning.

Image:Conversation-saints 01.jpg|An illuminated initial Image:Conversation-saints 02.jpg|Another example

Types of initials

The initial may sit on the same baseline as the first line of text, at the same margin, as it does here. This is the easiest to typeset on a computer, including in HTML. An example follows:

Wikipedia is an international Web-based free-content encyclopedia. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Alternatively, the initial may be in the left margin, with the text indented, as shown here. In word processors and HTML, this can be implemented using a table with two cells, one for the initial and one for the rest of the text. The difference between this and a true drop cap can be seen when the text extends below the initial. For example:

W

ikipedia is an international Web-based free-content encyclopedia. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

With a drop cap, the initial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph, pushing some normal-sized text off these lines. This keeps the left and top margins of the paragraph flush. An example of this is the following paragraph:

W

ikipedia is an international Web-based free-content encyclopedia. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

See also

• Typography
• Monogram

References

• Typolis

typography | Book design

Initiale | Inicialas | Anfang (typografi)