droplet

A package for creating dropped capitals in typst.

Usage

The package comes with a single dropcap function that takes content and a few optional parameters. The first letter can either be passed as a positional parameter, or is automatically extracted from the passed body. The rest of the content will be wrapped around the dropped capital by splitting it into two paragraphs. The parameters are as follows:

Parameter	Description	Default
height	The height of the dropped capital in lines or as length.	2
justify	Whether the text should be justified.	auto
gap	The space between the first letter and the text.	0pt
hanging-indent	The indent of lines after the first.	0pt
overhang	The amount by which the first letter should hang into the margin.	0pt
depth	The space below the dropped capital in lines or as length.	0pt
transform	A function to be applied to the first letter.	none
..text-args	Named arguments to be passed to the text function.	(:)

#import "@preview/droplet:0.2.0": dropcap

#set par(justify: true)

#dropcap(
  height: 3,
  gap: 4pt,
  hanging-indent: 1em,
  overhang: 8pt,
  font: "Curlz MT",
)[
  *Typst* is a new markup-based typesetting system that is designed to be as
  _powerful_ as LaTeX while being _much easier_ to learn and use. Typst has:

  - Built-in markup for the most common formatting tasks
  - Flexible functions for everything else
  - A tightly integrated scripting system
  - Math typesetting, bibliography management, and more
  - Fast compile times thanks to incremental compilation
  - Friendly error messages in case something goes wrong
]

Extended Customization

To further customize the appearance of the dropped capital, you can apply a transform function, which takes the first letter as a string and returns the content to be shown. The font size of the letter is then scaled so that the height of the transformed content matches the given height.

#import "@preview/droplet:0.2.0": dropcap

#dropcap(
  height: 2,
  justify: true,
  gap: 6pt,
  transform: letter => style(styles => {
    let height = measure(letter, styles).height

    grid(columns: 2, gutter: 6pt,
      align(center + horizon, text(blue, letter)),
      // Use "place" to ignore the line's height when
      // the font size is calculated later on.
      place(horizon, line(
        angle: 90deg,
        length: height + 6pt,
        stroke: blue.lighten(40%) + 1pt
      )),
    )
  }),
  lorem(21)
)