Heading Background Style
You can use a Heading Background to add a backdrop behind the first page of an element in your print edition.
Configuring a Heading Background
Any Style can be configured to use a Heading Background. With the Style selected, click the Configure button:

In the list of Style features, select Heading Background:

Heading Background Presets
Vellum comes with built-in Heading Background presets that you can easily incorporate into your book:

The Heading Background you select will be automatically applied to every Chapter of your print edition.
Custom Heading Background
If you have your own artwork you’d like to use for a Heading Background, use the Create Custom button below the carousel. You can then provide and configure the image to use as a background:

To clear your custom background and return to presets, click the ⓧ shown in the upper left.
Layout Controls
Before adding your image, use these controls to configure how you want your background to appear:

Page Span specifies whether the image takes up a single page or spans an entire two-page spread.
When configured as a spread, the image will span both pages whenever the opposite page is empty (e.g. for Chapter 1).
Image Extent determines how much of the page is filled by the image:
- Margins
- Reaches the margins set in Print Settings
- Safe Zone
- Fills the page up to a small border at the edges
- Full Bleed
- Completely reaches the edge of the page, with no visible border
Note: Full Bleed is automatically selected when you make your image span the full spread
Size Recommendations
As you adjust layout controls, Vellum will display the Ideal Size for your image. An image at this Ideal Size will match the layout you’ve configured and meet resolution requirements for printing.

If you are working with full bleed, the image you add should match these dimensions exactly.
Creating an Image Template
If you need help getting an image to the exact size recommended by Vellum,
click the
button to
create a template:

✨ This feature was added in Vellum 3.8.4. Make sure you are up-to-date.
You can use this template as a guide in image editing software, or send it to a designer. If you need a template before you begin formatting, you can also make use of pre-made Full Bleed Image Templates.
Adding an Image
To add your background image, click the image widget to choose an image from your files, or drag an image here from the Finder:

After you add your image, Vellum will check that it meets guidelines for high resolution printing:

You’ll see a green check if your image meets these guidelines. Otherwise, you’ll see a warning like the following:

To handle this warning, replace the image with one that matches the provided Ideal Size.
Appearance Controls
Use these controls to adjust the appearance of your image and the text that appears over it:

Image Presence adjusts how dark the image appears. Decreasing this value can improve the legibility of text that appears over the background.
Use White Text will make the text over the background white (along with any ornaments). You can use this option if your background image is very dark.
Note: If you haven’t provided an image, Use White Text will change the background to black.
Full Bleed Scale
When you add an image that doesn’t exactly match the available size, Vellum will display a control for Full Bleed Scale:

In this example, the provided image is wider than the spread. You can guide how Vellum should compensate by choosing from these options:
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Fit Entire image fits into available space, with whitespace filling the remainder |
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Fill Image fills all available space, with extra content cropped |
Vellum defaults to Fill for a new image.
For more precise control, you can use an image editing program to resize and crop your image exactly to the size recommended by Vellum.
✨ This feature was added in Vellum 3.8. Make sure you are up-to-date.
Individual Elements
In some cases, you may want a heading background to appear on a specific element and not on all elements of a particular type. To do this, use the Apply To popup:

Selecting Individual Elements will reveal the Using Name text field, which allows you to name the background. Enter a descriptive name so that it is easy to find in an element’s Heading Background menu.
An element will show this menu when:
- You have a heading background that applies to Individual Elements
- You don’t have a heading background that applies to the selected element’s type
When it’s available, this menu will appear in the gear menu to the right of an element’s title:

You’ll also find the Heading Background menu in the main menu, under Chapter. You can use this version of the command to set the heading background for multiple elements at once, if necessary.
Using Multiple Backgrounds
In some cases, you may want to use unique heading backgrounds across multiple elements.
To add an additional background, press the Use Multiple Backgrounds button:

For more details, see our guide to Using Multiple Heading Backgrounds.
Full Bleed
Using a Full Bleed background will increase the dimensions of your generated PDF to account for a bleed region. For instance, a 6 × 9 inch book might result in a PDF with a size of 6.125 × 9.25 inches.
By default, Vellum will use a bleed region that’s appropriate for KDP or IngramSpark. If you are using a different service, you can customize the bleed region in Vellum’s Print Settings.