Adding full-page illustrations before chapters in classic-thesis

Question

I use classic-thesis, and I would like to do the following: each chapter should begin on an odd page (right on a dual-page view), and on the left page should be displayed a picture I choose.

would that be possible?

thank you

EDIT:

with classicthesis, this will put title pages on the right pages instead of the left :

\documentclass[10pt, a4paper,twoside,openright,titlepage]{scrreprt}

\makeatletter
\newcommand\ChapImage{\huge image page -- should be on the left!}
\newcommand*\Invcleardoublepage{
\clearpage\if@twoside
  \ifodd\c@page \null\newpage\if@twocolumn\null%
  \newpage\fi\fi\fi
}
\renewcommand\chapter{%
  \if@openright
    \ifodd\c@page{\clearpage}\else{\Invcleardoublepage}\fi
    {
    \pagestyle{empty}
    \ChapImage
    \clearpage
    }
  \else
    \clearpage
  \fi
  \thispagestyle{\chapterpagestyle}%
  \global\@topnum\z@
  \@afterindentfalse
  \secdef\@chapter\@schapter
}
\makeatother

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}                  % la codifica dei font
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{changepage,calc}                % per impostare i margini del frontespizio
\usepackage{lipsum}                       % genera testo fittizio

\usepackage{classicthesis-ldpkg}          % carica molti pacchetti utili a ClassicThesis

\usepackage[eulerchapternumbers,%         % numeri dei capitoli in Euler
            subfig,%                      % compatibilità con subfig
            beramono,%                    % Bera Mono come font a spaziatura fissa
            eulermath,%                   % AMS Euler come font per la matematica
            pdfspacing%                   % migliora il riempimento di riga con PDFLaTeX
            ]{classicthesis}              % lo stile ClassicThesis

%\usepackage[english]{arsclassica}         % modifica alcuni aspetti di ClassicThesis

\begin{document}
\pagestyle{plain}
\begin{titlepage}
\changetext{}{}{}{((\paperwidth  - \textwidth) / 2) - \oddsidemargin - \hoffset - 1in}{}
\null\vfill
\large
\sffamily

{Title page}

\vfill
\end{titlepage}

\pagenumbering{roman}
\pagestyle{scrheadings} 

\clearpage
\lipsum[1-4]

\clearpage
\setcounter{tocdepth}{2}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\tableofcontents
\markboth{\spacedlowsmallcaps{\contentsname}}{\spacedlowsmallcaps{\contentsname}} 

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\chapter{First chapter}
\lipsum[1-10]
\chapter{Second chapter}
\lipsum[1-8]
\chapter{Third chapter}
\lipsum[1-10]
\chapter{Fourth chapter}
\lipsum[1-8]

\end{document}

Answer 1

The basic idea is to redefine \chapter as defined in the corresponding .cls file. I used scrbook.cls, but the modifications needed are clear mutatis mutandis for other classes). To guarantee that all chapters will begin in an odd numbered page and that the images get included in the (even numbered) page before the beginning of the chapter, I used an auxiliary command \Invcleardoublepage that acts as an "inverse" to \cleardoublepage: it flushes all material and starts a new page, but starts in a new even numbered page.

Finally, with the help of the xparse package I defined a \MyChapter command with one optional arguments (the entry for the ToC) and two mandatory arguments (the title of the chapter, and the name of the image to be used).

\documentclass[11pt,a5paper,footinclude=true,headinclude=true]{scrbook}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[linedheaders]{classicthesis}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\newcommand\ChapImage{}

\makeatletter
% A command that acts as an "inverse" cleardoublepage:
% flush all material and start a new page, start new even numbered page
\newcommand*\Invcleardoublepage{\clearpage\if@twoside
  \ifodd\c@page \null\newpage\if@twocolumn\null%
  \newpage\fi\fi\fi
}
\renewcommand\chapter{%
  \if@openright
    \ifodd\c@page\clearpage\else\Invcleardoublepage\fi% NEW
    \thispagestyle{empty}\ChapImage\clearpage
  \else\clearpage
  \fi
  \thispagestyle{\chapterpagestyle}%
  \global\@topnum\z@
  \@afterindentfalse
  \secdef\@chapter\@schapter
}
\makeatother
\DeclareDocumentCommand\MyChapter{omm}{%
  \renewcommand\ChapImage{\includegraphics[width=.95\textwidth,height=.95\textheight]{#3}}
  \IfNoValueTF{#1}
    {\chapter{#2}}{\chapter[#1]{#2}}
}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

\MyChapter[Entry in ToC]{Test Chapter with an Image}{image1}
\lipsum[1-3]

\MyChapter{Another Test Chapter with another Image}{image3}
\lipsum[1-3]

\end{document}

I used the demo option for graphicx to make my example compilable for everyone, do not use that option in your actual code.

If the document uses \part, then the following redefinition (or a similar one if the class is not scrbook) should also be added to the preamble:

\renewcommand\part{%
  \if@openright
    \ifodd\c@page\clearpage\else\Invcleardoublepage\fi% NEW
  \else\clearpage
  \fi
  \thispagestyle{\partpagestyle}%
  \if@twocolumn
    \onecolumn
    \@tempswatrue
  \else
    \@tempswafalse
  \fi
  \partheadstartvskip
  \vbox to\z@{\vss\use@preamble{part@o}\strut\par}%
  \vskip-\baselineskip\nobreak%
  \secdef\@part\@spart
}

Answer 2

I would define a command that would call both the image as well as the chapter,

\documentclass[oneside]{book}
\usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\pagestyle{empty}
\makeatletter
\def\chapter{\clearpage\thispagestyle{plain}\global\@topnum
   \z@\@afterindentfalse
   \secdef\@chapter\@schapter
}
\makeatother
\title{My Picture Chapters}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\newcommand{\chapterwithpic}[3][]{%
  \includegraphics[width=1.2\textwidth]{./graphics/#3}
  \chapter[#1]{#2}
}

\chapterwithpic[option]{Amato}{pic}
\lipsum
\end{document}