Pictures in a chapter opening

What this is for

A chapter's opening page can carry pictures: a glyph or banner over the title, a line between the title and the header rows, a flourish under the whole header before the prose begins, a background behind the first page, or a full-page plate facing the chapter. This page is about choosing them and sizing them. The same pictures print in the paperback and (apart from the background, which needs a page to sit behind) in the ebook.

Where the setting lives

Open Chapter header setup—in the manuscript list on the left, hover the Chapters heading and click the small gear beside it—and look for Images. What you set there is the book's: every chapter prints it. A chapter that wants its own—a different glyph for the interludes, say—gets it from its … menu, Chapter images…; once a chapter has its own set it ignores the book's, slot for slot, and the menu says (own) so you can tell.

The five places

• Above the title — a glyph or a banner over the chapter title.
• Between title and header — under the title, over the sub-header rows (the stellar date, the point of view).
• Below the header block — under everything, before the first line of prose.
• Chapter opening page background — behind the text of the first page, in print only. You can set how strongly it prints (less fades it toward the paper) and the colour the page's type takes over it, so black words don't vanish into a dark picture.
• Plate facing the opener — a full page on the left, with the chapter opening on the right. Tick Runs to the edge if it should bleed off the sheet; otherwise it stays inside the margins.

For each slot, Choose… opens the picture chooser—your uploads, your series', everything you keep for all your books, and the Stock library of ornaments that comes with Write (see Choose a scene-break ornament for the shelf). None empties the slot; the picture stays in your library.

Screenshot: Chapter header setup open at Images, showing the five slots—Above the title, Between title and header, Below the header block, Chapter opening page background, Plate facing the opener—each with Choose… and None.

Height, width and air

The three line pictures take the same measurements, all in lines of your book's leading so the first line of prose stays on the grid:

• Height — how many lines tall, 1 to 12. A thin rule wants 1 or 2; a banner over the title might want 6.
• Width — how much of the measure the picture may take: the full width of the text, two-thirds, half or a third. A long thin rule usually wants less than the whole line.
• Air — lines of space around the picture, none, one or two. For the picture above the title the air goes below it, between the picture and the title (there's already room above, where the title drops down the page). For the other two slots it goes on both sides.

The line under each slot tells you the size that prints and whether the file is sharp enough for it; a stock ornament or an SVG always is.

A picture in place of the title

Some books have artwork for each chapter's name, and the words of the title shouldn't print as well. Set the artwork as the picture Above the title (for one chapter, from its … menu, Chapter images…), then tick Hide the chapter title.

On the page, the chapter then opens like a chapter with no title: the picture, then the chapter number if your book prints numbers, then the header rows. The title isn't lost. It still names the chapter in the manuscript list and the outline, it's listed in the contents (with its page number), and in the ebook it's the picture's description, so a reader using a screen reader hears it.

In the editor, the title still shows on the opening page, faded and marked title not printed, so you can read it and change it.

Screenshot: the Chapter images window, with a picture chosen Above the title and Hide the chapter title ticked; beside it, the Pages view of that chapter's opening with the artwork and no title.

One-ink pictures follow the page

A stock ornament is drawn in a single ink and takes the colour of the page wherever it prints—black in the paperback, white when a reader's app is in night mode or the editor's page is dark. If you draw your own as an SVG painted in currentColor, it gets the same treatment.

Seeing it

The opening page in the editor shows the pictures in place as you set them, and the Pages view shows the chapter as the book prints it.