Drop caps in non latin alphabeths?

[berga83]

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Hi everybody, I have a document with some paragraphs starting with drop caps that needs to be translated in various non latin alphabeths. I can imagine that drop caps don't have any sense in arabic since all letters are tied together, but would it make any sense in Greek?

[Reed Reibstein]

Greek seems to have at least a historical basis for drop caps: See Aldus and Estienne.

[Reed Reibstein]

The newspaper Al-Shabiba of Oman uses drop caps on its features page, but perhaps it's not common practice.

[berga83]

thank you very much, really helpful info that confirms what i thought. i will stick to drop caps in greek but don't think i will use them in arabic, i think it would look strange to detach letters that have to be attached.

[Reed Reibstein]

Glad to help. I'm not a native Arabic, but Arabic letters do have a normal form in which they are not attached to other letters (called isolated). So it's certainly possible that it's not usual in the Arabic-reading world, but it's not entirely an imposition. (Certainly not like italicizing Arabic!)

[Riccardo Sartori]

don't think i will use [drop caps] in arabic, i think it would look strange

As far as I know, Arabic allows very decorative typography (the limits reside more on the software side. For example, you will need the Middle-East version of InDesign to properly set a text in Arabic).