Typst Format
This feature is new in the upcoming Quarto 1.4 release. To use the feature now, you’ll need to download and install the Quarto pre-release.
Quarto v1.4 includes support for the typst output format. Typst is a new open-source markup-based typesetting system that is designed to be as powerful as LaTeX while being much easier to learn and use. Typst creates beautiful PDF output with blazing fast render times.
Getting Started
To try out the typst format:
Download and install the latest pre-release of Quarto 1.4
Download and install the latest version of the Typst CLI (v0.2 or later is required).
Create a document that uses
format: typst. For example:--- title: "My document" format: typst --- Hello, typst!
Rendering or previewing this document will invoke the Typst CLI to create a PDF from your markdown source file.
Typst Format
When authoring a Typst document you’ll be using a Quarto format that is in turn based on a Typst template, which defines its structure, layout, and available options. The default Typst format and template that ships with Quarto (format: typst) includes options for specifying title, author, and abstract information along with basic layout and appearance (numbering, margins, fonts, columns, etc.).
The following options are available for customizing Typst output:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
title |
Main document title |
author |
One or more document authors. |
date |
Date of publication |
abstract |
Article abstract |
toc |
Include a table of contents. |
number-sections |
Apply numbering to sections and sub-sections |
section-numbering |
Schema to use for numbering sections, e.g. 1.1.a. |
margin |
Margins: x, y, top, bottom, left, right. Specified with units (e.g. y: 1.25in or x: 2cm). |
papersize |
Paper size: a4, us-letter, etc. See the docs on paper sizes for all available sizes. |
fontsize |
Font size (e.g., 12pt) |
section-numbering |
Schema to use for numbering sections, e.g. 1.1.a. |
columns |
Number of columns for body text. |
include-in-header |
.typ file to include in header |
include-before-body |
.typ file to include before body |
include-after-body |
.typ file to include after the body |
keep-typ |
Keep the intermediate .typ file after render. |
bibliography |
.bib file to use for citations processing |
bibliographystyle |
Style to use with Typst’s bibliography processing - See the doc about bibliography to see supported style. |
citeproc |
If true, Pandoc’s citeproc will be used for citation processing instead of Typst’s own system (which is the default). |
csl |
.csl file to use when Pandoc’s citeproc is used. |
For example:
---
title: "My Document"
format:
typst:
toc: true
section-numbering: true
columns: 2
bibliography: refs.bib
bibliographystyle: chicago-author-date
---See the section below on Custom Formats for details on creating your own specialized formats for use with Typst.
Raw Blocks
If you want to use raw typst markup, use a raw typst block. For example:
```{=typst}
#set par(justify: true)
== Background
In the case of glaciers, fluid dynamics principles can be used to understand how the movement and behavior of the ice is influenced by factors such as temperature, pressure, and the presence of other fluids (such as water).
```To learn more about typst markup, see the tutorial here: https://typst.app/docs/tutorial/.
Bibliography
Typst comes with its own citation processing system for Bibliography and using format: typst defaults to it. If you prefer to use Pandoc’s citation processing with a .csl file (e.g to use same .csl for a HTML and PDF document), set citeproc: true explicitly in YAML header.
---
title: Typst doc using citeproc
format: typst
citeproc: true
bibliography: refs.bib
csl: https://www.zotero.org/styles/apa-with-abstract
---Typst File (.typ)
The rendering process produces a native Typst file (.typ) which is then compiled to PDF using the Typst CLI. This intermediate file is then automatically removed. If you want to preserve the .typ file, use the keep-typ option. For example:
---
title: "My Document"
format:
typst:
keep-typ: true
---You can compile a .typ file to PDF directly using the typst compile command in a terminal. For example:
Terminal
$ typst compile article.typKnown Limitations
- Cross references are supported for figures, sections, and equations (but not subfigures, tables ,or theorems as these aren’t yet supported in
typst) - Callouts are not yet supported (they become block quotes with a bold heading)
- Figure panels/layout are not currently supported.
- Advanced page layout (panel layout, margin layout, etc.) does not work
- Various other small things might not yet be implemented, please let us know if you see things that could use improvement!
Custom Formats
You can create highly customized output with Typst by defining a new format based on a custom Typst template. The Typst team has created several useful templates, a few which which have been adapted for use with Quarto as custom formats. These formats include:
| Format | Usage |
|---|---|
| IEEE | quarto use template quarto-ext/typst-templates/ieee |
| AMS | quarto use template quarto-ext/typst-templates/ams |
| Letter | quarto use template quarto-ext/typst-templates/letter |
| Fiction | quarto use template quarto-ext/typst-templates/fiction |
| Dept News | quarto use template quarto-ext/typst-templates/dept-news |
The source code for these formats is available at https://github.com/quarto-ext/typst-templates.
To create a new custom Typst format (or package an existing Typst template for use with Quarto) use the quarto create command to get started:
Terminal
$ quarto create extension formatThen, choose typst as the base format and provide a name for the extension (e.g. letter). A sample Typst format extension will be created based on the code used in the default template that ships with Quarto. It will include the following files which you can edit to implement your custom format:
To implement the custom format, edit the following files:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
_extension.yml |
Basic extension metadata (name, author, description, etc.) and format definition. |
README.md |
Documentation on how to install and use the format. |
template.qmd |
A starter document that demonstrates the basics of the format. |
typst-template.typ |
The core Typst template function (documentation on creating Typst templates can be found here: https://typst.app/docs/tutorial/making-a-template/). |
typst-show.typ |
File that calls the template’s function (mapping Pandoc metadata to function arguments). |
Additional resources you might find useful when creating custom formats include:
The official Typst tutorial on Making a Template
List of third party templates from the Awesome Quarto repo.
Template Partials
This section covers advanced customization of Typst format output and can be safely ignored unless you have found the method of defining custom Typst formats described above too limited.
Above we describe a method of creating a Typst format based on specifying two template partials (typst-template.typ and typst-show.typ). These partials customize components of the default Typst Pandoc template, but leave some of the core scaffolding including definitions required by Pandoc for its Typst output as well as handling of bibliographies and footnotes (this means that your own custom Typst formats do not need to explicitly handle them).
If you would like to fully override the Pandoc template used for rendering Typst, use the template option in your custom format (rather than template-partials) and provide an alternate implementation of the default template. For example, your _extensions.yml might look like this:
_extensions.yml
---
title: Typst Custom Format
author: Jane Smith
version: "0.2.0"
quarto-required: ">=1.4.11"
contributes:
formats:
typst:
template: template.typ
template-partials:
- typst-template.typ
- typst-show.typ
---Use the source code of the default template as a starting point for your template.typ. Note that you can call all of the template partials provided by Quarto (e.g. biblio.typ() or notes.typ() from within your custom template implementation.
The AMS format provides an example of redefining the main template (in that case, it is to prevent automatic bibliography processing by Quarto in deference to the built-in handling of the Typst AMS template).