# Numeric lettrine is too small

I'm using the lettrine package to create drop numerals as are used in a number of religious texts, but the number is coming out too short.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{libertine} % this is the font I'm using
\usepackage{lipsum}    % for generated text

\begin{document}
\lettrine{1}{}
\lipsum[5] % generate sample text
\end{document}


The above code produces this output. Notice that the numeral 1, while aligned with the bottom of the second line, is not aligned with the top of the first. I suspect this is because in the Libertine font, numerals are shorter than capital letters.

This is my desired output. Notice that the numeral 1 is aligned with the bottom of the second line and the top of the first. This looks much better in my opinion.

the 0.3 here makes it 30% bigger which might be a bit too much, adjust to taste.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{libertine} % this is the font I'm using
\usepackage{lipsum}    % for generated text

\begin{document}
\lettrine[loversize=0.3]{1}{}
\lipsum[5] % generate sample text
\end{document}

• Aha! 0.2 seems to work pretty well. – Andrew Ray Aug 1 at 14:49

The problem doesn't come from the font, but from the fact that \lettrine expects a second argument, which is by default in small caps. You can change that with \LettrineSecondString:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\renewcommand*{\LettrineSecondString}{F}
\usepackage{libertine} % this is the font I'm using
\usepackage{lipsum} % for generated text
\begin{document}

\lettrine[nindent=0.25em]{1}{}
\lipsum[5] % generate sample text

\end{document}


g

• I can't reproduce your output. – egreg Aug 1 at 21:24
• With this very code??? B.t.w., I've seen I had forgotten to align the first two lines of text, which I've fixed. Do we have the same version of lettrine? Mine is 2.23. – Bernard Aug 1 at 21:39
• Same version. I get a smaller 1 with both pdflatex and xelatex – egreg Aug 1 at 21:57

You can use a modified version of Bernard's answer (I cannot reproduce his output).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{libertine} % this is the font I'm using
\usepackage{lipsum} % for generated text

\renewcommand*{\LettrineSecondString}{\strut}
\setlength{\DefaultFindent}{0.5em}
\setlength{\DefaultNindent}{0pt}% this would be added to the findent

\begin{document}

\lettrine{1}{}\lipsum[5] % generate sample text

\end{document}


Note that you should leave no space after \lettrine{1}{}.

This way you need not guess appropriate values for loversize (and so not break parallel with XeLaTeX.