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Section 2.2 of Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style deals with vertical rhythm. I want to try out some of his lessons in scrbook, to hone my LaTeX skills. Specifically, I want to define the leading of headings and spacing before and after them. For a text set 11/13, that is 11pt type and 13pt leading, Bringhurst lists four possible heading styles:

% A)    11/13 small caps,   13pt above, 13pt below
% B)    11/13 bold u&lc,     8pt above,  5pt below
% C)    11/13 caps,     26pt above, 13pt below
% D)    14/13 italic u&lc,  16pt above, 10pt below

With KOMA scripts, the use of the titlesec package is discouraged. The documentation of the sectsty package says:

"If you just want to change the fount used for all sectional headings, you shouldn’t use sectsty with any of the KOMA-script classes. Instead, you should redefine the \sectfont command provided by the KOMA-script classes. If you’d like different sectional headings to be printed with different styles of type to each other, or if you’d like to underline sectional headings or play other games that you can’t do with the KOMA-script \sectfont command, then sectsty might be of use with the KOMA-script classes."

Therefore I tried using this package. In a MWE (KOMA v. 3.18) I had

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{scrbook}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[]{blindtext}
\listfiles

\usepackage{sectsty}
\setkomafont{disposition}{\normalfont}
\sectionfont{\scshape\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont} % A
\subsectionfont{\bfseries\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont} % B
% C: \uppercase makes errors
\subsubsectionfont{\itshape\fontsize{14pt}{13pt}\selectfont} % D

\begin{document}
\chapter{Bringhurst heading examples}
\blindtext
\section{Typography Exists To Honor Content}
\blindtext
\subsection{Good Typography Is Like Bread}
\blindtext
\subsubsection{Ready to be admired, appraised and dissected before it is consumed}
\blindtext
\end{document}

I didn't know how to make all characters of a heading uppercase. With \fontsize I took care of the leading, but only the vertical space before the heading is affected.

I have read one should use \RedeclareSectionCommand. However, using these commands after the sectsty commands overrides them. Moreover, an unwanted ident is added to the paragraph right after the heading. Instead, I found the combination of \RedeclareSectionCommand and \addtokomafont does (I think) what I want.

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{scrbook}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[]{blindtext}

\setkomafont{disposition}{\normalfont}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[
  beforeskip=13pt,
  afterskip=13pt]{section}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[
  beforeskip=8pt,
  afterskip=5pt]{subsection}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[
  beforeskip=16pt,
  afterskip=10pt]{subsubsection}
\addtokomafont{section}{\scshape\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont}
\addtokomafont{subsection}{\bfseries\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont}
\addtokomafont{subsubsection}{\itshape\fontsize{14pt}{13pt}\selectfont}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Bringhurst heading examples}
\blindtext
\section{Typography Exists To Honor Content}
\blindtext
\subsection{Good Typography Is Like Bread}
\blindtext
\subsubsection{Ready to be admired, appraised and dissected before it is consumed}
\blindtext
\end{document}

Still the indent remains. My questions for you are:

  • How do I remove the indent?
  • When using sectsty, the space before the chapter number and the chapter name dissapears. Also the vertical space above it, even when I haven't assigned any commands to change Chapter. Why?
  • Is there a better way to accomplish these heading styles?

Thank you for reading!

5
  • 2
    Note that the reasons not to use titlesec with the Koma classes apply equally, as far as I know, to any similar package, which would include sectsty. That is, you'll lose functionality in the same way. I'm guessing that sectsty redefines e.g. \chapter{}, probably to resemble the defaults, but those defaults are not Koma's defaults. In general, I think for this kind of experimentation, you would be better using a standard class since you don't want the constraints Koma imposes.
    – cfr
    Aug 22, 2015 at 20:58
  • Why should I avoid KOMA in this case? To what constraints are you referreing to? In the CTAN description of the bundle it is stated: "The KOMA-Script bun­dle pro­vides re­place­ments for the ar­ti­cle, re­port, and book classes with em­pha­sis on ty­pog­ra­phy and ver­sa­til­ity " (my emphasis). Thank you for your answers!
    – Bubastis
    Aug 23, 2015 at 9:32
  • Hi @cfr. I just read your comments on this question: How to make nice chapter headings without titlesec. I think I understand your point about avoiding KOMA for these sort of experimentation (baking a cake with a blowtorch). But if in the end I choose to use scrbook, I wanted to try it with KOMA
    – Bubastis
    Aug 23, 2015 at 10:18
  • 2
    KOMA reduces the degree of freedom you have to format your document. It makes certain decisions for you which are in line with various plausible claims about what constitutes good typography. If you want to make all those decisions yourself, you are better off using a standard class. If you are happy to vary the format within the constraints KOMA imposes (at least for the most part), then it makes much more sense to use KOMA. The same is true for Memoir, for example.
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2015 at 12:39
  • FYI I posed a related question, which may be useful.
    – user10274
    Aug 24, 2015 at 10:40

1 Answer 1

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As explained in the manual, a negative value for beforeskip disables indentation before the text following the heading; a positive value keeps the indentation.

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{scrbook}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[]{blindtext}
\usepackage{leading}
\leading{13pt}
\recalctypearea

\RedeclareSectionCommand[%
  beforeskip=-13pt,%
  afterskip=13pt]{section}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[%
  beforeskip=-8pt,%
  afterskip=5pt]{subsection}
\RedeclareSectionCommand[%
  beforeskip=-16pt,%
  afterskip=10pt]{subsubsection}

\setkomafont{disposition}{\normalfont}
\addtokomafont{section}{\scshape\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont}
\addtokomafont{subsection}{\bfseries\fontsize{11pt}{13pt}\selectfont}
\addtokomafont{subsubsection}{\itshape\fontsize{14pt}{13pt}\selectfont}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Bringhurst heading examples}
\blindtext
\section{Typography Exists To Honor Content}
\blindtext
\subsection{Good Typography Is Like Bread}
\blindtext
\subsubsection{Ready to be admired, appraised and dissected before it is consumed}
\blindtext
\end{document}

indentation manipulation

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  • I had forgotten the line \setkomafont{disposition}{\normalfont} in the second MWE. Only then do the \scshape and \bfseries take effect. Else, the headings are all bold like in the standard definition. The negative values in beforeskip is what was missing, thank you! One more thing: do you know how to make a heading uppercase?
    – Bubastis
    Aug 23, 2015 at 9:05
  • @MarcvanDongen This is not, as I understand it, a real document: the OP is just trying stuff out and wanted help with some quite specific points. My answer was intended to address those points. There are all kinds of reasons why you wouldn't use this in a real document. For one thing, subsubsections are much more prominent than sections an subsections. I agree that changing the font size while keeping the interline spacing is problematic for multiple lines, but that wasn't really the question as I understood it.
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2015 at 12:35
  • @MarcvanDongen Well, the OP is reading Bringhurst. Do you have a reference you could point the OP to?
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2015 at 12:41
  • @cfr is right, this is not a real document, I was merely implementing those four options listed by Bringhurst, not caring about the hierarchy of the heading. @Marc van Dongen In this case, with the main text set with a leading of 13pt, "intrusions to the text should should equal some multiple of 13 points" (Section 2.2.2), as you also noted. Moreover, the long subsubsection title is still a one-liner when using \setkomafont{disposition}{\normalfont}.
    – Bubastis
    Aug 23, 2015 at 13:46
  • @MarcvanDongen ^^
    – cfr
    Aug 23, 2015 at 13:58

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