Been working my way through the examples in the Columns Manual, the Details
Manual etc. and had some thoughts on additional features.
Versals come in many different flavors, of which the conventional dropped cap
is just one. Even that facility could use a tweak. Conventionally, to provide
a transition from the dropped cap to the normal text, the rest of the first
word, or the next two or three words, or sometimes the entire first line is
put in a small caps typeface. I cobbled up my own macro for this for a
particular book I typeset:
\def\drop#1#2{%
\noindent
{\head #1}
\vskip -20pt
\noindent
\hangindent=1.7em
\hangafter=-2
{\sc #2}
}
But this is not the only type of versal. Sometimes a large capital letter
(perhaps in italics) is centered on the top of the textblock thus:
\def\drop#1#2{\noindent\hglue .4\hsize{\tfd#1}{\sc#2}}
Now there are other variations seen in fine books, such as a dropped initial
cap partly or completely protruding into the left margin, often colored gray.
The first macro above could be modified for a specific case. A general macro
is more challenging.
A matter of continuing interest is the sidebar, which can be placed in the
outer margin, or flush left or right in a paragraph, or partly protruding
into the outer margin. Usually these sidebars will have a gray background and
often have a border. It appears that creating the sidebar separately as a pdf
graphic and then importing and placing it would be the easiest way home.
Context already has mechanisms for flowing or wrapping text around a graphic.
How well the wraparound feature works when more than one short paragraph is
involved I have not tested yet.
In any case I will continue to explore these layout features, and if anything
interesting shows up I will share.
--
John Culleton
Short list of publishing/marketing books:
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf
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