Space before chapters titles in ClassicThesis

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

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}