chapter in the middle

[babadockia]

Hello everybody!
I have a question to all the epub wizards here:
I have a doc, or a docx file, calibre and sigil and what I would like to do is to place the chapter in the middle of the page, you know, like on printed books.
Maybe this question have been asked before, but couldn't find the answer.
I attached two pictures for example

[Toxaris]

You magic word of the day is margin. You can try it in Word and if you use styles correctly and my add-in, it might work. I am not sure, because it depends on the source of course. At least the add-in will produce a clean ePUB for you.

If it doesn't work directly, open the ePUB in the Sigil or the Calibre editor (not the Calibre conversion!). There use margins-top and margin-bottom for the specific elements to create empty space. Be careful though, as resizing of fonts might greatly disrupt this.

[JSWolf]

If this is an eBook to be sold, please don't waste that much screen space. It just looks awful (IMHO).

[dwig]

If you keep the blank space at the top (margin-top) modest there will be little issue with user changes in the font size.

I commonly do this for each chapter using the following CSS:

h2 {
  text-align: center;
  margin-top: 4em;
  margin-bottom: 0em;	
  }

where the chapter title is set as an H2 heading and often followed by a thin ornament:

<h2 id="heading_id_2">CHAPTER I</h2>
  <p class="center">
     <img alt="" height="34" src="../Images/Ornament19-211x34.gif" width="211" />
  </p>

link to complete ebook: http://happythursday.com/Lakemere/20...rlderrbiggers/

[babadockia]

Thank you everybody for the quick replies, I will try when I'll get in front of my computer.
My chapter are set as h1. But I will see. Thanks again

[babadockia]

well, nothing much happened. maybe i am too stupid for this kind of craft

[Toxaris]

You did link the stylesheet to the actual (X)HTML?

[mrmikel]

Also if you mistype, it won't work either. Browsers are very tolerant of errors, e-readers, not at all. Not a reflection on you, we have all spent too much darn time wondering what was happening when a semicolon was missing or a bracket.

[theducks]

A keyword: Center (EPUB 2 does not support a vertical centering. I am with the Wolfman on no GIANT whitespace. Some Decorations in moderation

margin: 2em 0 ; /* shorthand for top and bottom 2em sides 0 */
text-align: center;
text-indent: 0;

BTW with Sigil if you use h3 (or any h#) for chapter heads, the TOC generator will pick up those magically

[JSWolf]

One of the things I change in a publisher ePub is large wasted space in chapter headers. Why do it?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One of the things I change in a publisher ePub is large wasted space in chapter headers. Why do it?

It is wrong to remove them.

[theducks]

It is wrong to treat an e-reader as a full size sheet of book page.

Balance is a word the publishers seem to have forgotten.
'Our way or else'

No covers, or plain 'generic' ones.
Huge whitespace. Fixed dimensions (eg indent: .25in ) used
Quality check (mostly on backlist titles) missing
Overuse of High density decorations or total removal

And while it is not 100% a publishers fault:
Lack of embedded (subsetted) display fonts.

[eschwartz]

Well, these examples and suggestions (and reference to ASOIAF which does it quite well) look fairly reasonable and balanced. And Jon isn't distinguishing.

So I figured, since he is so fond of explaining to people why things are "wrong", I'd contribute a similar line of thought.

[babadockia]

thank you all for your replies and suggestions. I have tried but all I did was to center it. I am too dumb for all this.
why would I want it? because I like it, and, if possible, I would like my e-books to look as close possible to the print ones. I even go in bookstores and check for the typefaces used to print, and then I try them in my books. I know, you will all say that an e-book is not hard copy, but still...
I am reading on a T68 with cool reader or alreader.

[Toxaris]

Can you show us some code from the HTML and from the stylesheet?