Heading Background Style

Layout Controls

Before adding your image, use these controls to configure how you want your background to appear:

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:

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:

	Fit Entire image fits into available space, with whitespace filling the remainder
	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.

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.