[Tex/LaTex] Space before chapters titles in ClassicThesis

chaptersclassicthesisspacing

I want to add some space before the chapters titles in classicthesis to get an effect like this thesis so I have modified the classicthesis.sty in this manner:

% chapters
\ifthenelse{\boolean{@linedheaders}}%
{% lines above and below, number right
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]%             
    {\relax}{\vspace*{0.125\textheight}{\raggedleft{\color{Maroon}\chapterNumber\thechapter} \\ }}{0pt}%
    {\titlerule\vspace*{.9\baselineskip}\raggedright\spacedallcaps}[\normalsize\vspace*{.8\baselineskip}\titlerule]%
}{% something like Bringhurst  
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]%
    {\relax}{\vspace*{0.25\textheight}{\mbox{}\oldmarginpar{\vspace*{-3\baselineskip}\color{Maroon}\chapterNumber\thechapter}}}{0pt}%
    {\raggedright\spacedallcaps}[\normalsize\vspace*{.8\baselineskip}\titlerule]% 
}

I want to ask you if this is the right manner to put that space and if the space is put in the right quantity.

Best Answer

It's never a good idea to modify directly a .sty file; that said, classicthesis uses the titlesec package to format the sectional unit headings and, in particular, it uses

\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{1\baselineskip}{1.2\baselineskip}

to control the space before and after chapter titles, so you can simply change the third (space after) and fourth (space after) arguments according to your needs; you can do this in the preamble of your document without changing classicthesis.sty. A simple example:

\documentclass[11pt,a5paper,footinclude=true,headinclude=true]{scrbook}
\usepackage[linedheaders,parts,pdfspacing]{classicthesis} % ,manychapters
\usepackage{lipsum}

\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{*12}{*7}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents 

\chapter{Test Chapter One}
\section{A Section}
\lipsum[1-6]
\chapter{Test Chapter One}
\lipsum[1]
\section{A Section}
\lipsum[1]

\end{document}

Of course, instead of the values I used (refer to the documentation for titlesec) you can use any valid length.

enter image description here

If the changes in spacing must apply only to numbered chapters, instead of using \titlespacing, a solution using \titleformat to discriminate between numbered and unnumbered chapters (with the help of the numberless key) can be used; in the following code I illustrate this approach in the case of the lineheaders option; for numbered chapters a space of 8\baselineskip was added before the title and 2\baselineskip was added after the tile; unnumbered chapters maintain their original settings:

\documentclass[11pt,a5paper,footinclude=true,headinclude=true]{scrbook}
\usepackage[linedheaders,parts,pdfspacing]{classicthesis} % ,manychapters
\usepackage{lipsum}

\titleformat{\chapter}[display]%             
  {\vspace*{8\baselineskip}}{\raggedleft{\color{halfgray}\chapterNumber\thechapter} \\ }
  {0pt}{\titlerule\vspace*{.9\baselineskip}\raggedright\spacedallcaps}
  [\normalsize\vspace*{.8\baselineskip}\titlerule\vspace*{2\baselineskip}]
\titleformat{name=\chapter,numberless}[display]%             
  {\relax}{}
  {0pt}{\titlerule\vspace*{.9\baselineskip}\raggedright\spacedallcaps}
  [\normalsize\vspace*{.8\baselineskip}\titlerule]

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents 

\chapter{Test Chapter One}
\section{A Section}
\lipsum[1-6]
\chapter{Test Chapter One}
\lipsum[1]
\section{A Section}
\lipsum[1]

\end{document}
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