Typesetting help!

I hope this is the correct forum so I don't get flamed, banned, crayons thrown at me by Jeh et cetera.

I'm typesetting my own book and I absolutely love drop caps. However, my book poses a sorta-kinda problem. The book is 18 essays. Some are of one person, some are of multiple people split into "mini essays."

So. Question.
Take the opening essay, "C" about my mother having cancer. Drop-capping (is that a word?) is appropriate. But in "Christmas," I tell our relationship through different years of Christmas and each year gets its own heading. It seems sloppy to drop-cap the first word in 2008 when there's already "2008" as the heading for that mini-essay. (They aren't mini essays. I just don't know what else to call them. Sections? Chapters in chapters? Blah)

The essays "Sex" and "Goodbye" are all the same format as "Christmas" with each heading the story of a different person.

Ugh. Opinions?

Medievalist said:

What you want is not so much a typesetter as a designer.

I can figure out how to execute the design created by a designer, as a typesetter, but I'm not the person to ask to do the design.

I'd try a couple samples, print them on a laser printer, and see how they look.

One possibility, depending on the typeface used, might by small caps for headings inside a "chapter" or essay.

And drop capping the first letter of the first word of each one.

I'd want to see how it looks; it's quite possible it would be revolting, 'cause I am Not A Designer. I got no taste.

Click to expand...

No, no, my god, you're a genius. I just did that quickly with one of the essays in inDesign and it's beautiful. The continuity is what I had issue with and this completely resolves it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.