Last edited: 2015/07/10
People have asked me how I create the manuals of my packages, one has even asked me if I would write a document class similar to classicthesis. I am not going to do this but can provide my basic preamble settings. It is not very complicated, actually.
Let’s take a look at it first — here for a PDFLaTeX document:
[cce lang=”latex”]\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
% fonts:
\usepackage{libertine}
\usepackage[scaled=.83]{beramono}
\usepackage[libertine]{newtxmath}
\useosf % lining figures in text after (!) math package has been loaded
% microtypography:
\usepackage{microtype}
% headings:
\renewcommand*\sectionformat{%
\textcolor{base}{\thesection\autodot}\enskip
}
\renewcommand*\subsectionformat{%
\textcolor{base}{\thesubsection\autodot}\enskip
}
\renewcommand*\subsubsectionformat{%
\textcolor{base}{\thesubsubsection\autodot}\enskip
}
\renewcommand*\partformat{%
\textcolor{base}{\partname~\thepart\autodot}%
}
% footnotes:
\usepackage[supstfm=libertinesups]{superiors}
\usepackage{fnpct}
\deffootnote{2em}{1em}{\llap{\thefootnotemark. }}
% header/footer:
\pagestyle{headings}
% floating environment captions:
\setkomafont{caption}{\normalfont\small\sffamily}
\setkomafont{captionlabel}{\normalfont\small\sffamily\scshape}
\setcapindent{1.5em}
% colors:
\usepackage{xcolor}
% color definitions:
\xdefinecolor{cnltxbrown}{rgb}{0.60,0.25,0.15}
\xdefinecolor{cnltxblue}{rgb}{0.02,0.04,0.48}
\xdefinecolor{cnltxred}{rgb}{0.65,0.04,0.07}
\xdefinecolor{cnltxgreen}{rgb}{0.06,0.44,0.08}
\xdefinecolor{cnltxgray}{gray}{0.5}
\colorlet{cnltxyellow}{yellow!40!brown}
% color settings:
\colorlet{base}{cnltxred}
\colorlet{link}{black!90}
% hyperlinks and related stuff:
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup
{
colorlinks = true,
allcolors = link ,
plainpages = false,
bookmarksopen = true,
bookmarksopenlevel = 1,
bookmarksnumbered = true,
pdfauthor = {Clemens Niederberger},
pdftitle = {The Document Title},
pdfsubject = {the Document Subject},
pdfstartview = FitH
}
% sample document:
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\blindmathtrue
\blinddocument
\blindmathpaper
\end{document}[/cce]
As you can see there is no magic in there. I’ll give a few comments on some of the packages used. I always use a KOMA-Script class. The first few packages are when I compile with PDFLaTeX:
[cce lang=”latex”]\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}[/cce]
With XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX I’d use
[cce lang=”latex”]\usepackage{fontspec}[/cce]
instead.
In most of my documents I use these fonts:
[cce lang=”latex”]% fonts:
\usepackage{libertine}
\usepackage[scaled=.83]{beramono}
\usepackage[libertine]{newtxmath}
\useosf % oldstyle figures in text, after (!) math package has been loaded[/cce]
This loads the Linux Libertine O font as serif and Linux Biolinum O as sans serif. I quite dislike the Libertine teletype font, though, which is why I use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono instead.
About the footnotes part I have written a blog post already:
[cce lang=”latex”]% footnotes:
\usepackage[supstfm=libertinesups]{superiors}
\usepackage{fnpct}
\deffootnote{2em}{1em}{\llap{\thefootnotemark. }}[/cce]
There isn’t much more to say, really. A simple preamble that does not justify the creation of a new document class.
Here is how the example from above looks:
After having said that: when I create manuals for my packages I indeed do use a custom class. I used to use my cnpkgdoc class but it needed a complete overhaul for a long time. This means I now consider it obsolete. I have written a more versatile bundle that provides much more flexibility:and that I will upload to CTAN eventually: cnltx. I haven’t actually any published any manual using the class, yet. The next update of any of my packages will be the first. cnltx.
After having said that: when I create manuals for my packages I indeed do use a custom class. I used to use my cnpkgdoc class but it needed a complete overhaul for a long time. This means I now consider it obsolete. I have written a more versatile bundle that provides much more flexibility:
