Creating drop capitals using side floats A drop capital is a large sized letter, word or text. Normally, the drop cap applies to the first letter of a paragraph. In XSL FO drop capitals effect created using side floats. XSL FO Recommendation, Chapter 6.10.2 "fo:float" In this test you can see both graphic and textual drop caps created with fo:float that has float="start". F loats dimensions derived from its content width/height, accompanying text should wrap around floating block. Drop capital in this paragraph implemented using side float that contains fo:block with single big letter "F". Floats dimensions derived from its content width/height, accompanying text should wrap around floating block. Drop capital in this paragraph implemented using side float that contains fo:block with single big letter "F". Textual drop cap created with the following code: <fo:block margin="0pt" padding="6pt"> <fo:float float="start"> <fo:block margin="0pt" color="red" text-depth="0pt" font-size="62pt" line-height="40pt" font-weight="bold" font-family="Courier">F</fo:block> </fo:float> loats dimensions derived from its content width/height... </fo:block> loats dimensions derived from its content width/height, accompanying text should wrap around floating block. Drop capital in this paragraph implemented using side float that contains fo:block with gif image depicting letter "F". Floats dimensions derived from its content width/height, accompanying text should wrap around floating block. Drop capital in this paragraph implemented using side float that contains fo:block with gif image depicting letter "F". Graphical drop cap created with the following code: <fo:block margin="0pt" padding="6pt"> <fo:float float="start"> <fo:block> <fo:external-graphic src="url('Images/f-cap.gif')"/> </fo:block> </fo:float> loats dimensions derived from its content width/height... </fo:block>