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From: gerland@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (James R. Gerland)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: one BIG letter
Summary: first letter of paragraph larger than rest.
Message-ID: <30782@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 16 Jul 90 13:05:14 GMT
References: <1990Jul14.201529.9977@csusac.csus.edu>
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In article <1990Jul14.201529.9977@csusac.csus.edu>, brian@babbage.csus.edu (Brian Witt) writes...
>I'd like a style definition that produces one large letter at the beginning
>of a paragraph.  

I picked this up off the net quite a while ago but I don't know who to credit.
( \bigfirstlet{T}his works ) :

\def\bigfirstletter#1#2{{\noindent
    \setbox0\hbox{\Huge #1}\setbox1\hbox{#2}\setbox2\hbox{(}%
    \count0=\ht0\advance\count0 by\dp0\count1\baselineskip
    \advance\count0 by-\ht1\advance\count0 by\ht2
    \dimen1=.5ex\advance\count0 by\dimen1\divide\count0 by\count1
    \advance\count0 by1\dimen0\wd0
    \advance\dimen0 by.25em\dimen1=\ht0\advance\dimen1 by-\ht1
    \global\hangindent\dimen0\global\hangafter-\count0
    \hskip-\dimen0\setbox0\hbox to\dimen0{\raise-\dimen1\box0\hss}%
    \dp0=0in\ht0=0in\box0}#2}

Jim...