Formatting Chapter Headings

Question

I am using documentclass book and generating short chapters (one or two pages each). The chapter headings use too much space. I want the title at the top of the page, not pushed down.

I reduced some by changing

Chapter 1.

Chapter Title Here

to

1. Chapter Title Here

The code to achieve this:

\titleformat{\chapter}
  {\normalfont\LARGE\bfseries\color{DarkBlue}}{\thechapter.}{1em}{}

but the line is still too far down the page.

I can see the answer in How to format the chapter heading?

but I do not understand what to do with the vspace command. Please excuse my ignorance, but the syntax of latex is really arcane.

Answer 1

If you can switch to the memoir class the solution is as easy as use:

\chapterstyle{article} 

Example:

\documentclass[a4paper]{memoir}
% some code only needed to show margin boundaries and dummy text
\usepackage{xcolor} 
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry} 
\makeatletter
\def\Gm@hrule{\color{blue!50}\hrule height 1pt depth\z@ width\textwidth}%
\def\Gm@vrule{\color{red!50}\vrule width 1pt height\textheight depth\z@}%
\def\Gm@hruled{\color{blue!50}\hrule height\z@ depth1pt width\textwidth}%
\makeatother
\usepackage{lipsum} %dummy text

% The important thing:
\chapterstyle{article} 
% try reparticle, komalike, crosshead, tandh, verville, etc. 
% Use "texdoc memoir" for more options.  

% Optional 

%\renewcommand{\chapnamefont}{\normalfont\huge\bfseries\sffamily}
%\renewcommand{\chapnumfont}{\normalfont\huge\bfseries\sffamily}
\renewcommand{\chaptitlefont}{\normalfont\huge\bfseries\sffamily}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Lore ipsum}
\lipsum[1]
\section{Some section}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}