Consider the code:
\documentclass[foolscap]{octavo} % to get a small image
\usepackage{lettrine,lmodern,xcolor}
\usepackage[tracking=true]{microtype}
\input GoudyIn.fd
\renewcommand{\LettrineFontHook}{\usefont{U}{GoudyIn}{xl}{n}}
\fboxsep=0pt % padding thickness
\fboxrule=0pt % border thickness
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\lettrine[lines=3,loversize=.30,findent=.21em,nindent=2.5pt]{\fcolorbox{black}{blue!35}{T\kern-.04em}}{his} is an example of the use of a lettrine where the letters following the lettrine appear in small caps. All is fine.
\vspace*{7pt}
\lettrine[lines=3,loversize=.30,findent=.21em,nindent=2.5pt]{\fcolorbox{black}{blue!35}{A\kern-.04em}}{} lettrine where there are no letters to be displayed in small caps. Notice the difference in the spacing of the two displays.
\vspace*{7pt}
\lettrine[lines=3,loversize=.30,findent=.21em,nindent=2.5pt]{\fcolorbox{black}{blue!35}{A\kern-.04em}}{} lettrine where there are no letters to be displayed in small caps. Notice the spacing between the lettrine itself and the word "lettrine".
\vspace*{7pt}
\lettrine[lines=3,loversize=.30,findent=.21em,nindent=2.5pt]{\fcolorbox{black}{blue!35}{A\kern-.04em}}{} lettrine where no letters are displayed in small caps. Notice again, that in the previous example, the spacing between the lettrine itself and the word "lettrine" immediately following was off. But now it's fine.
\vspace*{7pt}
\lettrine[lines=3,loversize=.30,findent=.21em,nindent=2.5pt]{\fcolorbox{black}{blue!35}{A\kern-.04em}}{} lettrine where there are no letters to be displayed in small caps. Notice again, that in the previous example, the spacing between the lettrine itself and the word "lettrine" immediately following was off. But now, in this paragraph, all again is \emph{not} fine.
\end{document}
which produces the output:
Notice that in the first of the five paragraphs, where there are small-capped letters following the lettrine — all seems to be fine.
In the second paragraph, the `A' lettrine constitutes a word, and so there are no small-capped letters following it. Compared with the first paragraph, we see that the spacing of the entire paragraph has been slightly increased.
The third paragraph, which is longer than the previous two, has shifted the word "lettrine" farther to the right than before, yet a similar phenomenon does not occur in the lines that follow.
In the fourth paragraph, things seem to be back to normal.
Alas, when we increase the length of the paragraph a little in the fifth example, things seem to revert back to what they were in the third example.
QUESTION: Can anyone point out why these discrepancies might be occurring and how I might prevent such things from happening, so that when I have no small-capped letters following the lettrine, all might be displayed as in the first paragraph?
Best Answer
I don't think it's really related to having small caps or not just that any change anywhere in the paragraph, removing a word adding a comma, ... can change the line breaking in the whole paragraph.
The difference between
T{his} isandA{} lettrineis that you get a word space after the dropped-cap+ empty argument so in loose lines it is a larger space.On the word space before lettrine, compare a normal word space, a fixed unstretched word space or no space
from
}{A\kern-.04em}}{} lettrine}{A\kern-.04em}}{}\mbox{ }lettrine}{A\kern-.04em}}{}lettrine