Can't shift/position \chapter with titlesec?

Question

Somehow I my attempt to change the placement of \chapter seems not to work. I would like to that my chaptertitle begins right at the top of the page. Do I need to change the plain pagestyle?

\documentclass[paper=15cm:23cm, headinclude=true, numbers=enddot, draft]{scrbook}

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}

\usepackage[automark]{scrpage2}   
\renewcommand*{\headfont}{% 
\normalfont\sffamily\scshape} 
\renewcommand*{\chaptermarkformat}{} 
\renewcommand*{\sectionmarkformat}{}

\usepackage{titlesec}
\setkomafont{chapter}{\huge\normalfont\sffamily\bfseries}

%Position of Chaptertitle
\titlespacing{\chapter}{0pt}{-50pt}{20pt}

\begin{document}
\chapter{This first chapter}
Hi there.
\end{document}

Answer 1

If you define both the \titleformat and the \titlespacing, then you can have complete control:

\documentclass{scrbook}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage{titlesec}

\setkomafont{chapter}{\huge\normalfont\sffamily\bfseries}

%Position of Chaptertitle
\titleformat{\chapter}
            {\usekomafont{chapter}}
            {\thechapter.\hspace{1em}}
            {0pt}
            {}
\titlespacing{\chapter}{0pt}{-50pt}{20pt}
\begin{document}
\chapter{This first chapter}
Hi there.
\end{document}

I am not sure at the moment why you cannot just use \titlespacing, but it probably has to do with the way KOMA redefines the section styles. Note that you do not need to use the advanced interface – it suffices to issue any of the of titlesec commands that actually touch the format. Thus, you can also use the easy setup, specifying one of the class options rm, sf, tt, md, bf, up, it, sl, sc as described in the manual:

\documentclass{scrbook}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[sf,bf]{titlesec}

% This is optional when the easy-setup is used:
%\setkomafont{chapter}{\huge\normalfont\sffamily\bfseries}
%\titleformat*{\chapter}{\usekomafont{disposition}\usekomafont{chapter}}

% Position of Chapter title
\titlespacing{\chapter}{0pt}{-50pt}{20pt}
\begin{document}
\chapter{This first chapter}
Hi there.
\end{document}

Answer 2

The following code works fine.

I introduced titlesecs command \titleformat, which is made for such efforts.

Notes:

• I’ve added a font package (kpfonts is only an example, but an excellent), because without that your definition for the pagehead didn’t work.

• I’d use the pagestyle scrheadings, so I’ve added the according command.

• Together with KOMA-Script it is recommended to use the package’s own font switch commands also for scrpage2 influenced font attributes (see KOMA-Script manual, section for scrpage2).

• On the other hand this KOMA-Script own font switch for “chapter” does not work here with \titleformat; it seems, it’s another KOMA-Script and titlesec incompatibility. But there is cure by the use of \usekomafont inside the \titleformat definition (thanks to mforbes for this idea). Note, that the documentclass option headings=big, which also should set the chaptertitle to \huge, does not work either!

• I’ve changed your absolut values for title separation into relative ones: \baselineskip and em instead of pt.

    \documentclass[%
    paper=15cm:23cm,%
    headinclude=true,%
    numbers=enddot,%
    draft,%
  ]{scrbook}%
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  %\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  
  \usepackage{kpfonts}
  
  \usepackage[ngerman,latin]{babel}% option "latin" only because of use of "lipsum"
  
  \usepackage[automark]{scrpage2}
  \pagestyle{scrheadings}
  \renewcommand*{\chaptermarkformat}{}% no numbering in the pagehead
  \renewcommand*{\sectionmarkformat}{}
  %%% works, but is not recommended together with KOMA-Script:
  %\renewcommand*{\headfont}{
  %\normalfont\sffamily\scshape}
  %%% This is the recommended way:
  \setkomafont{pagehead}{\normalfont\sffamily\scshape}
  
  \usepackage{titlesec}
  \setkomafont{chapter}{\normalfont\sffamily\bfseries\huge}
  
  \titleformat{\chapter}
              {\usekomafont{chapter}}
              {\thechapter.}
              {1em}
              {\filleft}
  
  %Position of Chaptertitle
  \titlespacing{\chapter}{0pt}{-3\baselineskip}{2\baselineskip}%
  
  \usepackage{lipsum}
  
  \begin{document}
  
  \chapter{Lipsum Lapsum Lepsum Lopsum Lupsum Lypsum}
  \lipsum[1-5]
  
  \chapter{Lorem Ipsum}
  \lipsum[6-10]
  
  \end{document}