Large first character in paragraph causing extra line space

[dustnik]

I added a large first character to the opening paragraph of my document. Although it doesn't appear to dip below the rest of the text, it causes the line below it to be lowered slightly. I tried fooling around with Word 2007s line-spacing stuff with no success. Any ideas?

[gmayor]

Did you use the DropCap function or roll your own? What front and size are you using for the text as it seems to work as intended in Word 2007 here with the default settings.

[dustnik]

It's not a drop cap which is why it's so weird. I simply made the first character size 30, italic, and the font Georgia.

[Guessed]

Ideally you would use the drop cap function to make the character. However...

All typefaces contain information that specifies how much white space is needed above and below for one 'line' depending on the font size. This space is necessary to avoid descenders on one line overlapping with the ascenders on the next line. It stands to reason that a larger font size needs more space for the descenders.

You can select the oversized character and then open the Character Format dialog and change its position to lowered and gradually increase the amount until the line spacing appears correct.

[Lugh]

Originally Posted by dustnik

I simply made the first character … font Georgia.

Is the rest of your paragraph text also Georgia? What size is it?

[Moonshine]

Perhaps an inserted Text Box, with no border or background, with your chosen font & size inside could be useful to you.
You can place the Box where you want without interfering with line spacing:

[gmayor]

Originally Posted by dustnik

It's not a drop cap which is why it's so weird. I simply made the first character size 30, italic, and the font Georgia.

There's your problem. Use a drop cap and set the font in the DropCap options and you won't have line spacing problems.

[dustnik]

The drop cap feature doesn't behave correctly for me, but that's a whole different post. Besides, some of the opening paragraphs are very short, and drop caps don't look right.

[dustnik]

No, the rest of the text is 11 pt Ariel.

[dustnik]

Ideally, that would work, but the whole dropcap thing doesn't behave for me the way it should.

[dustnik]

I figured out what I was doing wrong about the padding on the sides, so now it's all looking great. Thanks for all the help here.

[Stefan Blom]

In addition to the other suggestions made, you can specify a fixed value for Line Spacing (if you are not using the Drop Cap feature). This will ensure that text lines are equally high regardless of font size.