---
name: Raised cap
slug: raised-cap
category: typography
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: An oversized opening letter that sits on the first line's baseline
  and rises above the text, rather than sinking into it.
aliases:
  - name: raised initial
  - name: stick-up cap
  - name: elevated cap
tags:
  - editorial
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - drop-cap
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: initial-letter (MDN)
    url: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/initial-letter
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: the big opening letter rises instead of sinking
---

A raised cap is an opening letter set several times the size of the text, with
its foot on the first line's [baseline](/baseline) and the rest of it standing up
above the block. Only the first line makes room for it: the letter takes its
width out of that line and nothing else, so every line below starts at the left
margin as usual. The name reads as decoration but the geometry is the whole
term, because the letter's own baseline is what anchors it, and its
[cap height](/cap-height) is what decides how far into the margin above it
reaches.

The word to keep it apart from is [drop cap](/drop-cap), and the pair is
symmetrical. A drop cap sinks below the first baseline, so its foot lands on the
baseline two or three lines down and those lines all indent to clear it. A
raised cap sits on the first baseline and pushes the line above it up, taking
room out of the space over the block instead of out of the block itself. Both
answer the same brief, giving a reader a place to start, and they fail
differently: a sunk letter mis-set by half a line drifts off the baseline it
should be resting on, while a raised letter mis-set collides with whatever is
above it.

That difference is why a raised cap is the easier of the two to hold together in
a fluid column. A drop cap has to know how many lines it spans, and the number
changes with the measure, the leading, and a reader's text size, so it needs a
new size at every breakpoint to keep its foot on a baseline. A raised cap only
has to sit on one baseline, which does not move, and only has to be given
headroom, which a page can simply reserve. It also asks nothing of the wrap: the
first line runs beside the letter and the rest of the paragraph is untouched, so
none of the ragged fitting a sunk letter needs applies. Like any initial, it
replaces a [first-line indent](/first-line-indent) rather than joining one,
since the letter is already announcing the start.

In CSS both belong to `initial-letter`, which takes a size and a sink: the first
number is how many lines tall the letter is, the second how many lines it drops.
Write `initial-letter: 3 1` and the sink is one line, which is the raised cap.
The property applies to `::first-letter`, so a specimen that needs the letter to
be a real element (as the one on this page does, since the stage has to be able
to point at it) sizes the letter directly and lets it rise out of a line box of
its own, which is the same arrangement stated by hand.