How to Create a Drop Cap (Large First Letter) in Google Docs

A “Drop Cap” is a large capital letter at the beginning of a paragraph that drops down across two or more lines of text. This classic formatting technique, often seen in magazines and novels, adds a professional and elegant touch to articles. While Microsoft Word has a dedicated Drop Cap button, Google Docs lacks a native feature for it. However, you can easily create the exact same effect using the Drawing tool.

How to Create the Drop Cap

We will create the large letter as a custom image and wrap the paragraph text around it.

1. Open your document in Google Docs.
2. Highlight and delete the very first letter of your paragraph (e.g., if the word is “Once,” delete the “O”).
3. Leave your cursor exactly where the letter used to be.
4. In the top menu, click Insert > Drawing > New.
5. The Drawing canvas will open. Click the Text box icon (a “T” inside a box) in the toolbar.
6. Click and drag to draw a small box on the canvas.
7. Type your single capital letter inside the box.
8. Highlight the letter and use the toolbar to change the font (e.g., Georgia or Merriweather) and increase the font size significantly (e.g., 48pt or 60pt).
9. Click the blue Save and Close button in the top right corner.

Wrapping the Text

Your large letter will now appear in the document, but it will ruin the spacing of your first line. We need to format it to sit inside the paragraph.

1. Click once on the large letter you just inserted.
2. A small formatting menu will appear directly underneath it.
3. Click the middle icon, which says Wrap text when you hover over it.
4. A new “Margin” dropdown will appear. Change the margin from the default (1/8″) to 0″ to bring the text closer to the letter.

The rest of your paragraph will flow elegantly around the giant letter, giving your Google Doc a professional editorial design.