Placing picture above \chapter?

Question

Can anyone recommend/provide an example as to include pictures in the chapter headers? Any packages known for this?

I have read about fncychap which looks great, but would still require add'l programming to include pictures which is what I would apparently need anyway.

Answer 1

Here's an example using the memoir class; perhaps one of the other options would have an easier approach. You'll need to load some sort of package like memoir or KOMA-Script or fncychap to be able to write this sort of thing without too much programming, but as you can see below, there's still some manual bits and pieces.

\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\renewcommand\chapterheadstart{%
   \vspace*{\beforechapskip}
   \noindent
   \smash{%             = don't take up any vertical space
      \raisebox{1cm}{%   = place graphic at a certain height
       \rule{5em}{5em}% = insert graphic
       }%
   }%
\par
}
\begin{document}
\chapter{foo}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here's a solution using book (or report) class and the titlesec package. I include it here mainly for reference, since I would strongly recommend using the memoir class over book for any large project. But if you are bent on using the standard classes, titlesec provides a simple solution to the problem.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\chapter}[block]
 {\rule{1in}{1in}% (to auto-insert graphic use) \includegraphics{\chaptername-\thechapter-graphic}
  \normalfont\huge\bfseries}
  {\\\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter\\}
  {0pt}
  {\Huge}
\titlespacing*{\chapter}{0pt}{0pt}{40pt}
\begin{document}
\chapter{A chapter}
\end{document}