Drop Cap Design Tutorial
This guide instructs the reader how to create the
below Drop Cap Character in Adobe Illustrator. It does
not cover how to purchase, download, or log in to
Illustrator. Furthermore, it is not an introduction to the
software, and some prior knowledge on Adobe Suite
may be necessary to understand the tutorial.
Adding Curved Accents
Final Drop Cap
Set Up
1. Open Adobe Illustrator. This tutorial was
written using the 2023 version of Illustrator. a pen with a line.
2. Create a “Web” document with the dimensions
set to 800 x 600 px.
The “S”
3. Using the type tool, draw a text box and type
the letter “S.”
4. Highlight the glyph and in the character menu,
select the typeface
5. Adjust the glyph’s point size to fill the artboard,
approximately 500 points.
6. Adobe Illustrator will pull up a contextual menu
with variations of the glyph, select the third
option, which is italicized.
• If this menu does not automatically
pop up, set the letter to italics using the
glyph menu (U+0053 SJIS: 53 Italics
(Ital)). You can open the glyphs window
by selecting “Window” at the top of
your screen, then “Type,” and then
“Glyphs.”
Glyph menu
7. Select the “S” and open the “Fill” menu and
select the gray shade fifth from the left in the
Grays Folder. This color is R=102, G=102, and
B=102.
8. Select the “Curvature Tool” from the toolbar,
which is the sixth tool and the icon resembles
9. Using that tool, draw one point at the edge
of the serif on the bottom of the “S.” about
halfway up the accent. Draw a second point in
the bottom of the curve created by the letter.
Illustrator will generate a straight line.
Mid-point of path creation
10. To curve the line, make a third point in the
center of the line, still using the curvature tool.
Click and drag from the anchor point to create
an arc.
• Illustrator may automatically fill in your
shape. If this occurs, select the “Fill”
menu and hit “none” to remove this
color.
• If Illustrator does not automatically
add a stroke, increase the stroke to .25
points. Illustrator should automatically
set the stroke to be the color black
(R=0, G=0, and B=0).
11. Copy the path using Command+C and paste it
using Command+V.
12. Using the selection tool, move the path above
the original, filling in more of the empty space.
17. Repeat steps 11-13 again, this time filling in the
space along the top of the “S.” Repeat these
steps until a path begins at the bottom-most
point of the serif possible. The path may not
be able to be moved to the exact bottom of the
serif, but it is fine as long as the path does not
extend beyond the letter.
18. Using the Type tool, right click on the “S,” and
select “arrange,” and then “bring to front”
to move the “S” in front of the paths. This
should hide any overlap of the paths onto the
letter. If the edges of paths are visible, undo
the arrangement and adjust them before
repositioning the “S” to the front of the page.
19. Make any adjustments as needed. You may
undo and redo the arrangement to easily
access the paths.

13. Using the curvature tool, you can adjust the The Final Drop Cap
path to better fit the curve of the “S.” There will Congratulations on creating your Drop Cap! Your
be anchor points across the path that can be character should resemble the below image.
moved across the path horizontally. The curve
can be adjusted by moving the anchor points
vertically.

14. Repeat steps 11-13 on the bottom of the “S,”

filling in the empty space line by line until
there are paths along the entire serif. This
should take between four and five lines,
depending on how much space you put
between them.

Completed bottom of “S”

15. Move your focus to the serif at the top of the
“S.” Create a new path using the curvature tool,
placing your first point halfway up the serif,
and the second at the top of the curve.

16. Adjust the fill and stroke as needed. This path

should resemble how the first path on the
bottom of the “S” looked, just rotated to match Final Drop Cap
the top of the letter’s curve.
Title: Bebas Neue (TT) Regular, 62/74.4
Subheads: Acumin Variable Concept Wide Bold, 11/14
Text: Acumin Variable Concept Regular, ragged right, 11/14
Captions: Acumin Variable Concept Regular, ragged left, 11/14