On 2014–01–15 Joshua Krämer wrote:

> I have found out that I had interpreted the problem wrongly.  It is
> not a problem of balancing, it is a problem of the layout macros.

It's not a problem with the macros, it's a consequence of you
using them the wrong way.

> I use a different page layout for the titlepage and switch to the
> main layout later.  This switch is in the front matter part, which
> results in the new layout being respected for one page only.
> Somehow for subsequent pages, the layout is wrong.

Here's a suggestion of how to set it up correctly. This also fixes
the table.

\definemakeup
  [Titlelayout]
  [top=]

\definelayout
  [Titlelayout]
  [width=10cm,
   height=10cm,
   header=0cm,
   footer=0cm]

\setuplayout
  [width=10cm,
   height=25cm,
   header=0cm,
   footer=0cm]

\showframe
\starttext

\startfrontmatter
  \startmakeup [Titlelayout]
    Title
  \stopmakeup
\stopfrontmatter

\dorecurse{5}{\input{knuth}}

\startplacetable [location=270]
  \setupTABLE [option=stretch, textwidth=\textheight]
  \bTABLE \bTR \bTD 1 \eTD \bTD 2 \eTD \eTR \eTABLE
\stopplacetable

\dorecurse{5}{\input{knuth}}

\stoptext


Marco