Query-driven collection cards print an unsuppressible dropcap and Read More over the media

[georgeolaru]

The defect

A query-driven collection card prints a dropcap and a Read More label that no setting can suppress. On a
media-led card the dropcap lands in an ink bar across the artwork.

novablocks_get_collection_card_markup_from_post derives $dropcap from the post title's first letter and emits it
under a bare if ( ! empty( $dropcap ) ) (lib/block-rendering.php:2981-2985, 3057-3076). There is no
showDropcap attribute anywhere; the recipe capability only switches a class. showButtons: false and
cardHoverEffect: "none" are both set and neither reaches it.

The only gate is incidental: the title must contain a Latin letter.

Measured

Same page, same image count, eleven real records:

construction	images	dropcaps	Read More
query-driven supernova (grid)	2	2	2
query-driven supernova (carousel)	2	2	2
core/query + core post blocks	2	0	0
manual supernova-item cards with images	2	0	0

Two escapes exist — and neither reaches a carousel

Reported so this issue does not send anyone to fix something that already works:

1. core/query with core post blocks escapes it entirely, stays at raster, and keeps the query. Good for grids
   and indexes. Not available to a carousel, which is a collection capability.
2. Manual cards escape it, but are disqualified where media matters: a manual card emits
   sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 33vw" regardless of columns: 1, so at 1440 the browser fetches the
   480 px derivative and paints it into a 1393 px box — 2.93× above raster, measured on 6 of 19 images, against
   a query-driven control at raster on the same page. Hand-authored cards also freeze the set: the payload is
   stored inline with no reference to the term or query, so tagging a twelfth record changes nothing.

So for a media-led carousel there is no escape at all, and the label is unavoidable.

The ask

A way to suppress the card's dropcap and its Read More on the query-driven path — an attribute alongside the
existing card toggles would be the obvious shape, since showButtons and cardHoverEffect already live there and
authors will look for it beside them.

Acceptance

• A query-driven card can render with no dropcap and no Read More.
• It works in the carousel layout, not only in grids.
• Existing cards are unchanged unless the new setting is used.

[georgeolaru]

Fixed in ff4e0ed.

Root cause, in two parts.

1. Only post-driven cards print the dropcap and its Read More (lib/block-rendering.php, and the blueprint path in post-format-card-blueprints.php). But the dropcap CSS was imported only by the Card item stylesheet (supernova-item/style.scss), and WordPress loads a block's stylesheet only when that block renders. A query-driven collection with no Card item inner blocks (e.g. seeded or programmatic content) never loaded it, so the markup rendered unstyled. It showed "W Read More" in a dark bar over the media with the Original ratio, and in every card link's text.
2. No per-collection switch existed. showButtons and the hover effect never reached the dropcap.

Fix.

• The dropcap styles now ship with the Cards Collection stylesheet, the parent that is always present, so the markup is styled wherever it's printed.
• A new Dropcap toggle under Elements Visibility (showDropcap, default on) appears for query-driven collections. Off removes the dropcap and Read More markup on the server and in the editor preview.
• The default isn't saved into the block and isn't a data-* attribute, so existing content renders byte-identically: the rendered HTML of three default pages differs only in asset ver= strings.

Visual proof

Acceptance checks

Fresh pxg-smoke site: query collections in 6 layouts, with and without Card items, and the Hive hover effect.

Case	Before	After
Query cards without Card item blocks	"W Read More" visible over the media (24px bar) and in link text	0 visible; link text is just the title
Hive site, Dropcap on (grid, carousel, Collage)	letter missing on query-only pages	designed hover letter + Read More
Hive site, Dropcap off	no way to turn it off	0 dropcaps, 0 Read More in the markup; media and link kept

• Checked independently at 1440 and 390: no dropcap renders visibly on the query page, and link texts are the post titles.
• Toggle page: the three "on" collections keep 4 dropcaps each, and the three "off" collections have 0.
• Editor: the Post Editor preview matches. The toggle updates live and saves "showDropcap":false.

Tests

• New tests/php/card-dropcap-visibility-contract.php, supernova/dropcap-style.test.js, a toggles test and a post-card contract case.
• Each was mutation-checked. npm test passes.

Notes

• Behaviour change on Hive/Felt sites: query-only pages there now show the designed hover dropcap, which was silently missing before.
• Label: "Dropcap" also hides the Read More label on the media.
• Separate follow-up: other Card item styles (e.g. item flex and overflow) still don't reach query cards without Card item blocks. Worth its own issue.