Chapter openings

A reader sees a chapter opening more often than any other page in the book, and it is where a typeset book most obviously differs from a manuscript.

The title

Control	Range or options
Chapter title	On / off
Title size	10 to 48 pt
Title alignment	Left · Centred · Right

Off, every chapter opens on its numeral alone. One chapter can answer differently — a name hand-lettered into its opening picture has no use for a typeset title under it — from the Chapter panel of the writing rail, where Title and Number each follow the theme, print, or stay unprinted for that chapter only.

The chapter number

Switch it off entirely, or set how it reads:

Control	Options
Number style	1, 2, 3 · I, II, III · i, ii, iii · One, Two, Three · ONE, TWO, THREE · one, two, three
Before the number	Free text — usually Chapter
After the number	Free text — usually .

Spelled out is the trade convention for fiction: Chapter One rather than Chapter 1. Numerals suit non-fiction, where a reader looks chapters up.

Drop cap

A large initial spanning the first lines of the chapter.

Control	Range
Drop cap	On / off
Depth	1 to 8 lines

Two lines is the shallowest that still reads as a drop cap. Three is the usual choice for a novel.

Sinkage

How far down the page the chapter title starts, as a share of the page height. A deep sink — a quarter to a third of the page — is what makes an opening feel like an opening rather than like a page that happens to have a heading on it.

The Poetry theme sinks to 32%; most fiction themes sit between 18% and 26%.

Around the title

What sits above the title and what sits below the title are each chosen from one shelf:

Choice	What it is
Nothing
A mark	A typographic ornament from the face — an asterism, a fleuron — or one of Nueel’s drawn marks: bead, lozenge, annulet, hexagon, sexfoil, daisy, sprig, trefoil, star, sun
Short rule	A horizontal line
A headpiece	An engraved ornament across the top of the opening — a vine, an arabesque, a volute, an engraved rule. Above the title only; More headpieces opens twelve further rules
Your picture	Your own artwork

A mark takes a Size, in points, the same way a glyph does. A headpiece or a picture takes three settings:

Control	Range
Width	20 to 100% of the text width
Strength	0 to 100
Where it sits	Over the title · Behind the title · In the head margin
Alignment	Left · Centred · Right — over the title only

Each headpiece is drawn at its own proportion, so you set how wide it runs and its height follows. That is what keeps a hairline rule a rule instead of stretching it into a slab, and it means swapping one for another leaves the same air above your title. Your own picture is treated the same way: it keeps its shape and takes the width you give it.

A headpiece over the title is set to the left, the centre or the right of the text block, which is what Alignment decides. In the head margin and behind the title it stays centred: those decorate the page rather than the title, so they do not take the title’s side.

In the head margin is a masthead near the top of the page. It does not stand in for what sits above the title, so a chapter can wear both: a mark over the title and a masthead above it.

Behind the title centres the art on the title and prints the words over it — a wash, or a plate with the chapter’s name lettered into it. Lower the strength until the words read; or, for a plate that already carries the name, switch the chapter’s typeset title off in the Chapter panel.

Back matter takes no ornament by convention, whatever this is set to.

One chapter can answer differently — a prologue with nothing over its title, a chapter whose name is painted into its own picture — from the Chapter panel of the writing rail, where the slot above the title follows the theme, holds nothing, or holds something of the chapter’s own.

Scene breaks

What separates two scenes inside a chapter.

Ornament	Prints as
Blank line	nothing
Asterisks	* * *
Dinkus	⁂
Bullet	•
Fleuron	❧
Diamond	◆
Short rule	———
Bead, Lozenge, Annulet, Hexagon	a drawn mark
Sexfoil, Daisy, Sprig, Trefoil, Star, Sun	a drawn mark

The drawn marks are not characters from a typeface: they are engraved ornaments drawn by Nueel in the colour you choose, so they print identically in every format and never depend on the face having the glyph.

Where a chapter starts

Covered in widows, orphans and page breaks — it is a pagination decision rather than a decorative one.