Just following up on my own post. The following code has the effect I was after. If you want to use it as a template, you'd be advised to read my method in constructing such ugliness. To remind you, I want to increase the font weight of the chapter number, but not increase the font weight of the chapter title. Thus, facing my usual dilemma -- so many commands and no f*cking clues, I added the \string command immediately before the parameter containing the chapter number, #1, to see what #1 actually contained. If you do this, you'll see that #1 contains something else, infact #1 starts out as ``dostartattributes@@ko ... ''. I've no idea how to read the source code, so at this point, I decided to redefine my chapter style parameter \BigHeadFont locally, before #1 is expanded. And so, if you read the code, you'll see a font definition \definefont[BigHeadFont][SerifBold at 40pt] buried deep within the code. This seems to work, although redefining font definitions on the fly is probably not good practice. I also wanted to move the chapter number, up to the top right hand corner of the main text area. I did this increasing the amount of glue until the number was pushed outside its box. Here is the code: %% chapter head layout \setupcolors[state=start] \setuplist[section] [style=boldslanted, align=right, interaction=all, symbol=1, width=0.5em, pagenumber=no, before=, after=] \setuphead[chapter] [header=empty, style=BigHeadFont, alternative=command, command=\ContentsHead, page=right, after={\blank[2*big]}] \definefont[BigHeadFont][Serif at 24.9pt] \def\ContentsHead#1#2% {\setupframed[frame=off] \framed[width=\hsize,offset=overlay] {\placesidebyside {\doifelsenothing{#1} {\framed[width=.6\hsize]{}} % dummy {\framed [width=.6\hsize,offset=1em,strut=no,align=right,background=screen] {{\tfa In this chapter:} \blank \placelist[section][criterium=chapter]}}} {\framed [width=.4\hsize,strut=no,align=left] {\definefont[BigHeadFont][SerifBold at 40pt] %% Typeset Chapter Number \hbox{% \vbox to 24.9pt{% size of BigHeadFont \vss #1}}} \vfilll}} %% Typeset Chapter Title \llap{\lower29.9pt\hbox{#2\hskip1em}}} % 24.9pt x 1.2 \starttext %\showmakeup \chapter {Berend} \section {Botje} \section {Botje} \section {Botje} \stoptext