The beauty and quality of Versal letters depends very much on their freedom; touching-up or trimming after they are made is apt to spoil them; and when good letters are made with a free hand, minute roughnesses, which are due to their quick construction, may be regarded as shewing a good rather than a bad form of care-less workmanship (see (c) fig. [164]).
SPACING & ARRANGEMENT OF VERSALS
(Allowing for the special treatment of Versals called for by the extreme freedom and elasticity of their pen forms, the following remarks apply generally to the spacing and arrangement of coloured capitals in written pages)
Versals accompanying Small Text are generally dropped below the writing-line, so that their tops are level with the tops of the small letters (fig. [86]).
Sizes of Versals.—Letters which are of the same importance—i.e. serve the same purpose—are usually of like size and form throughout; and the more important a letter, the more it tends to be elaborated and decorated (see figs. [90], [92]).
Special words in Text marked by Versals.—Where coloured capitals are used throughout the text (fig. [92]), the colours are usually varied (pp. [134], [185]). [p123]
Line beginnings marked by Versals.—Where every line on a page begins with a coloured capital, the majority of the forms are kept rather plain (see (5) p. [136]). They may be effectively treated as a band of simple or variegated colour (p. [136]). This is a common treatment for a list of names or a poem; sometimes, especially if there are many lines, simple-written capitals (p. [297]) may be used instead of Versals.
Verses or Paragraphs may be marked by Versals set in the text (a), or part in margin, part in text (b), or wholly in the margin (c, fig. [86]). The marginal capital is the simplest, and it has the advantage of leaving the page of text entire; it may, however, sometimes be desirable to break the continuity by an inset capital, especially in cases of closely written text, or of stanzas not spaced apart (see p. [138]).
The first word of a paragraph, which is begun with a Versal, is often completed in simple-written capitals of the same colour as the text (a, fig. [86]).
Various ways of marking Paragraphs.—(a) The paragraph marks