[scribus] How to move the very first character of a line leftwards

[Gregory Pittman]

On 05/30/2017 02:16 PM, ZASKE Martin wrote:
> On 30.05.2017 14:22, Gregory Pittman wrote:
>> On 05/30/2017 05:54 AM, ZASKE Martin wrote:
>>> Dear list:
>>>
>>> In summary: What is the best way to horizontally move the leftmost
>>> character of a line of text in a text-frame?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> background, for those who want to know more detail:
>>>
>>> Making a book, trying to make it nice.
>>>
>>> The main text is printed in 16pt. The first letters of each chapter are
>>> styled as Initial Caps in 36pt. (What is the singular of Initial Caps?)
>>>
>>> Text is aligned as Justified, even using the Optical Margins feature on
>>> both sides. I am using it for the first time and I like that optical trick.
>>>
>>> Now our Initial Caps, being very big, are showing a too wide distance
>>> from the left text-frame border. It is very ugly for example on a
>>> capital E. I believe the gap is caused by the inbuilt values of the
>>> characters for each specific font. I need to hack it, to align better.
>>>
>>
>> A way that seems to work after a fashion is to create a Paragraph style,
>> and set the line indentation for the body of the paragraph a few points,
>> maybe 1.0 to 3.0 as needed, then create a negative indentation of the
>> first line by the amount needed to line up the drop cap with the rest of
>> the paragraph. You will see that the negative indentation of the first
>> line cannot be any larger than the positive indentation of the body.
>>
>> The only other thing I would add is that I see drop caps overused quite
>> a bit, or created with parameters that interfere with reading the text
>> and aside from that are unattractive. So as with many embellishments,
>> they should be used sparingly.
>>
>> Greg
> 
> 
> Thank you Greg
> 
> For discipline and efficiency I am working entirely with styles. Our
> book only has got three chapters and one introduction, so we have got
> four initial caps only: "E", "Ʊ", "A" and "B". Each of those letters
> needs a unique "kerning" to align properly with the left border of the
> text frame. Our alphabet has got 33 letters, so I am hesitant to use a
> style approach (and many styles) for something I would like to tweak
> visually.
> 

What you're saying then is that you need 4 styles -- not so many,
really. Just Clone your style, rename appropriately, adjust the
indentation as needed, you're done.

Greg