I am struggling with getting the first pages of my chapters laid out as
desired. What I want on the top third of the page is a roughly 2 inch square
graphic on the left with the chapter number and chapter title on the right
in large print. The following chunk errors out as shown but works when
hard-coded.  Am I headed off in the wrong direction by trying to use columns
in this way? Previously, I tried treating the chapter number and title as
text with startfiguretext. It works but I can't format the chapter titles to
fit properly. Any suggestions for a ConTeXt beginner?
 
 
\def\ChapterTop#1#2{
    \startcolumns[n=2]
        \placefigure[left]{none}{\externalfigure[chief]}
    \column
         \switchtobodyfont[26pt] {\ss\bf\sl #1}
         \blank[large]\blank[large] 
          {\ss\bf #2}
     \stopcolumns}
 
\setuphead[chapter]
 [command=\ChapterTop, header=high,footer=pagenumber,page=center] 
 
\input c:. %chapter used to test the code

Hi!

I think you search for something like this:

\def\ChapterTop#1#2% bottom-aligned
  {\framed[width=broad,offset=overlay]
    {\framed[width=2in,height=2in]{GRAPHIC}\hfill
     \framed[align=right]{#1\blank[2*big]#2}}}

\definetext[ChapterFoot][footer][pagenumber]

\setuphead
  [chapter]
  [command=\ChapterTop,
   header=high,
   footer=ChapterFoot,
   numberstyle=\ssbid,
   textstyle=\ssbfd]

\starttext  \showframe
\dorecurse{3}{\chapter{First Chapter}\dorecurse{5}{\input tufte}}
\stoptext

Greetings
Andreas