in Design
Designing chapter openers
The first page of each chapter is where a book shows its design most clearly. What goes on it, and how the parts work together.
Most pages of a novel are, deliberately, the same. The chapter opening is the exception. It is where the design of the interior becomes visible, and it recurs throughout the book, so it has to be good enough to see many times without tiring of it.
What a chapter opener contains
At its simplest, a chapter opener has three elements: some indication of the chapter, such as a number or a title or both; space; and the start of the text. Everything else, including ornaments, initials, epigraphs and part titles, is optional.
The indication should match the book. Numbers alone suit many novels. Titles invite the reader to anticipate. Numbers written out as words, set in small caps or a light display size, have a different tone from large figures. The choice is partly editorial, and it should be agreed with the author before the design is fixed.
The sink and the page
Chapter openings usually start lower on the page than a normal text page. The space from the top of the text block to the start of the chapter heading or text is called the sink or drop. It gives the reader a clear signal that something new is beginning, and it provides room for the heading.
The sink should be consistent throughout the book, and it should relate to the grid. If the body text runs on a baseline grid, the first line of text on a chapter opener should sit on one of its lines, so that it aligns with the text on the facing page. A common approach is to measure the sink in whole lines of text.
In many books, chapters begin on the next available page, left or right. In others, particularly more formal or illustrated books, each chapter begins on a right-hand page, the recto, which can leave a blank left-hand page before it. Recto starts look grand but add pages, and in a book with many short chapters they can add a lot. Parts, if the book has them, more often start on a recto.
By convention, the running head is omitted on a chapter opening page. The folio, the page number, is either omitted or moved to the foot of the page; a page number printed in a different position from the usual one is often called a drop folio. The opening page should look clean.
The first paragraph
The first paragraph after a heading is normally set without an indent, since the indent exists to mark the start of a new paragraph and there is nothing before this one to separate it from. The same applies after scene breaks.
The opening words are often set in small caps, either the first word, the first few words or the whole first line. Setting the whole first line makes the result depend on where the line breaks, which can produce awkward half-phrases. Setting a fixed number of words, or a complete phrase, is usually more satisfying. A drop cap or raised initial may accompany the small caps.
Keeping it consistent
Chapter openers are built from paragraph and object styles in the layout software, so that every opener behaves in exactly the same way. Individual exceptions should be rare and deliberate. Long chapter titles need a plan: a heading that fits on one line in chapter three may run to two in chapter nine, and the design has to accommodate both without moving the first line of text.
It also helps to look at the openers as a set. Print them out and lay them side by side. A design that works well on one page can feel heavy or repetitive over twenty, and the problem is much easier to see all at once.
The chapter opener should announce a beginning and then give way to the text.