Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!eutrc3!tuewsd!wsineel
From: wsineel@lso.win.tue.nl (e.vriezekolk)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: looking for TeX macro to do the following
Message-ID: <815@tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl>
Date: 11 Jan 90 12:15:18 GMT
References: <1990Jan9.180731.25450@ecf.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Lines: 36

In article <1990Jan9.180731.25450@ecf.utoronto.ca> apollo@ecf.utoronto.ca (Vince Pugliese) writes:
>
>one of the guys is trying to pull off the following effect:
>
>***** hrough blackest day,
>  *   Through  darkest night,
>  *   Let no evil escape my sight
>  *   For those who worship evil's might 
>  *   Beware my power
>Green Lantern`s light!
>

I am using the following LaTeX-macro:

\newskip\@droplen
\setlength{\@droplen}{-\baselineskip}

\newcommand{
\Dropcap}[1]{
	\par\noindent\settowidth{\hangindent}{\Huge #1}%
	\hangafter=-2\hbox to 0pt{\hskip-\hangindent%
	\raisebox{\@droplen}[0pt][0pt]{\Huge #1}\hfill}%
	\ignorespaces}

I hope  I made no typing errors here. The only problem is that
the biggest character (\Huge in LaTeX) is as high as two lines
of text in the 10pt style.
This macro only looks fine in a 10pt text. The above example
would be:

:
:
\Dropcap{T}hrough blackest day,.... (rest of paragraph)

I hope this can help you.
Eelco Vriezekolk (wsineel@lso.win.tue.nl)