Divi 5 can do multi-column body text, drop caps and small caps from the Design tab, with no custom CSS. Which means the magazine-style layouts that used to need a stylesheet and a quiet afternoon are now a few fields.
Better still, the controls live where you already work — same Design tab as fonts, colors and spacing. No Advanced tab. No CSS box. No !important written in frustration at 11pm.
TL;DR: Divi 5 adds seven text controls: Text Columns, Drop Caps, Paragraph Spacing, Line Wrap Style, Hyphenation, Small Caps and Text Direction. Each solves a real editorial problem. Use columns and drop caps sparingly, set Line Wrap to Balanced on headings and Pretty on body copy, and reduce column counts on mobile.
The Seven Text Styling Controls
Each one fixes a specific problem rather than just adding decoration.
1. Multi-column body text
Enter a value in Text Columns to shorten line length. Long lines are genuinely harder to read — your eye loses its place on the return trip. Two columns on a wide screen fixes it instantly.
There are separate column controls for Link Columns, Unordered List Columns, Ordered List Columns and Heading Text Columns (H1–H6). Two-column bullet lists are an underrated trick for long feature lists.
2. Drop caps
Set the Drop Cap Line Size in body text settings — three lines is a sensible starting point. Supporting controls: Drop Cap Spacing, Font, Font Weight, Text Color, plus Capitalization, Font Style and Text Shadow.
A drop cap says "the article starts here." Use one per article. Two drop caps is not twice as editorial, it's half as credible.
3. Paragraph spacing
Applied inside the text option group, so the spacing travels with the text rather than being a margin you set separately and forget. Default unit is em, and it also accepts px, %, rem, vw, vh, vmin, vmax and functions like calc(), min(), max() and clamp().
em is the right default here — paragraph spacing that scales with font size stays proportional at every breakpoint.
4. Line Wrap Style
Three options, and this is the one nobody knows about:
| Option | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Default | Standard browser behavior |
| Balanced | Headings — evens out line lengths |
| Pretty | Body copy — prevents a single orphaned word on the last line |
Balanced on headings is close to free quality. It stops the classic six-words-then-one-word heading that makes a page look slightly amateur for reasons clients can never articulate but always sense.
5. Text hyphenation
A per-text-type toggle. On for narrow columns where long words and URLs need to break cleanly. Off for headlines, always — a hyphenated headline looks like a mistake.
6. Small caps
Found under Text Capitalization, alongside All Caps, Capitalize, Lowercase and All Small Caps. Perfect for bylines, labels and section markers. It's the typographic equivalent of lowering your voice slightly — present, not shouting.
7. Text direction
Standard Horizontal, Vertical Right To Left, or Vertical Left To Right. Genuinely useful for side labels and vertical section headings. Also genuinely easy to overdo, so: one vertical element per page, maximum.
How to Build the Magazine Look
A practical order of operations:
- Set the body text first — font, size, line height. Everything else builds on this.
- Add one drop cap to the opening paragraph, at three lines.
- Set Line Wrap to Balanced on all headings and Pretty on body text.
- Try two Text Columns on longer body sections, if the layout is wide enough.
- Small caps on the byline and any section labels.
- Set paragraph spacing in
emso it scales. - Reduce column counts on tablet and phone, and switch any vertical text back to horizontal.
That last step isn't optional. Two columns of text on a 375px phone screen produces columns roughly one word wide, which is less "magazine" and more "ransom note."
Because each text type styles independently — headings, body, blockquotes and lists can all have different columns, wrapping and hyphenation — you can build a proper typographic hierarchy. And once you like it, save it as a preset so it's reusable; stacking and nesting presets is how you keep this consistent across a whole blog instead of restyling every post.
My Take: Restraint Is the Whole Skill
Here's my one strong opinion: every one of these controls looks better used once than used everywhere.
I've built over 100 Divi sites and the typography failures are never "too plain." They're always the same story — someone discovers drop caps, and by paragraph four there are three of them, the pull quote is vertical, half the body is in small caps, and the page looks like a ransom note assembled by someone with excellent taste and no discipline.
Real magazine design is mostly restraint. One drop cap. One vertical label. Consistent columns. The dramatic bits work because everything around them is calm. Remove the calm and nothing reads as special.
My rule: pick two of the seven controls for any given post layout, and use each once. That's it. If you want the editorial feel, the wins are in Line Wrap Style and paragraph spacing — the invisible ones — not the showy ones.
Also worth remembering that typography choices affect load and layout stability, so if you're stacking variable fonts on top of all this, keep an eye on Divi 5 speed. Beautiful text that shifts on load isn't beautiful.
Straight Answers
Can Divi 5 do multi-column body text without CSS? Yes — the Text Columns field in the Design tab, with separate controls for links, lists and each heading level.
How do you add drop caps? Set Drop Cap Line Size in body text settings. Three lines is a good start.
What is Line Wrap Style? Default (browser), Balanced (best for headings), Pretty (avoids orphaned words in body copy).
Where are these options? The Design tab, alongside fonts, colors and spacing. No custom CSS needed.
Should I use hyphenation? On for narrow columns. Off for headlines.
Does Divi 5 support vertical text? Yes — Standard Horizontal, Vertical Right To Left, and Vertical Left To Right.
The Last Word
The point of all this isn't to make a blog post look like a print magazine. It's to borrow the parts of print that make content easier to enter, scan and actually finish. Shorter lines. A clear starting point. Rhythm between paragraphs. No orphaned words.
Divi 5 hands you all seven controls in the Design tab. The skill is using two of them.
Pick your two, check it on a phone, and resist the drop cap on paragraph four. If your blog layout needs an editorial once-over, I'm around — and I'll only use one vertical heading, I promise.
This is a summary of Elegant Themes' original post, "How To Create Magazine-Style Blog Posts With Divi 5's New Text Styling Options". All credit for the original content goes to Elegant Themes.