Hi Andrew, Andrew wrote:

I have heard that layers can be used. But there is no section on layers in the current reference manual. Where does one find information on this aspect of ConTeXt?

You are right that there is no complete, from-the-ground-up, description and explanation of the layers mechanism. A reasonably good text, however, is in the MetaFun manual [1,2]: section 5.3 (Positional graphics > More layers). The "Pseudo columns" (pdfpages 11-13) section of the "It's in the details" manual [13 is shorter and covers only a few specific use cases, but it's a nice little start and has some information that the MetaFun manual does not have. The MWE below is based mainly on that text. NB: I rarely use layers, so the MWE may not reflect best practices. [1] print version: http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/metafun-p.pdf [2] screen version: http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/metafun-s.pdf [3] http://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/details.pdf I hope this will help you on your way a bit! Best wishes, Sietse \setuppapersize[A6] \setuplayout [columns=3, % add a horizontal grid, 3 equal columns columndistance=12pt,]% 12 pt(?) distance between them % The layer `textlayer` will be the background % of the `text` typesetting area. \definelayer[textlayer] \setupbackgrounds [text] [background=textlayer] \showgrid % make the mechanism visible \starttext % Start the title page, sans page number etc. \startstandardmakeup % Using column and line positions the left end of the box's % baseline \setlayer [textlayer] [column=3,line=10,location=grid] {\ruledvtop {\hsize\layoutcolumnwidth \definedfont[Regular sa 2]nitty-\par gritty}} % Using x and y offsets the top left of the box from the top % left corner \setlayer [textlayer] [x=1cm, y=1cm] {\blackrule[width=1cm, height=1cm]} \setlayer [textlayer] [x=1cm, line=10] {\ruledvtop {\hsize\layoutcolumnwidth \definedfont[Regular sa 2]This \par is}} \stopstandardmakeup \stoptext