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
Title size	10 to 48 pt
Title alignment	Left · Centred · Right

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. 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%.

Ornaments

Above the title and below the title each take a rule, a glyph or an image.

Kind	What it is
None
Rule	A horizontal line, with a width and thickness
Glyph	A typographic ornament
Image	Your own artwork

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

Opening band

Art across the top of a chapter’s first page. Set per book here, or per chapter in the Chapter panel of the writing rail.

Control	Range
Height	2 to 50% of the page
Strength	0 to 100
Position	Across the top edge · Behind the title

Scene breaks

What separates two scenes inside a chapter.

Ornament	Prints as
Blank line	nothing
Asterisks	* * *
Dinkus	⁂
Bullet	•
Fleuron	❧
Diamond	◆
Short rule	———

Where a chapter starts

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