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Typst 0.15.0

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Re: Typst 0.15.0

#11

Post by collabs »

opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

I'm sure everyone has their own use case but I use typst for resumes or other documents that I want to keep in git but I need to share with others using PDF.

I use typst in visual studio code using tiny mist extension. I can generate PDF without installing any new software other than vscode which I already have and the tiny mist extension. The live preview is also nice.

The one thing that bothers me is the dollar sign and the hash sign so to write something like saved $50 million using c#, I write something like saved USD 50 million using #csharp

And near the top I add a variable like this

  #let csharp = "C#"

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#12

Post by jfb »

opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

It produces beautiful PDF output from org-mode!

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#13

Post by atoav »

I have used many things to generate print documents and layouted PDFs:

- Adobe Illustrator - Adobe InDesign - Markdown with and without custom themes - Markdown compiled to .idml to integrate into InDesign - HTML and CSS - LATeX

Typst is so far one of the most enjoyable ways of programmatically generating layouted stuff I ever used.

The only thing missing is a good Desktop editor that allows dumb users to double-click a .typ file and see/edit the file instead of having to setup VSCode, plugins etc.

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#15

Post by kryptiskt »

opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

Typst does typesetting like TeX (or InDesign for a WYSIWYG alternative), neither org-mode nor markdown has a rich enough formatting language for general typesetting, like if you want to make a flyer for a concert, a brochure or a comic book.

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#16

Post by mr_mitm »

opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

You can pass a JSON structure to a Typst document and render it however you like. No need for a templating engine or anything like that.

Pandoc probably uses latex under the hood, and Typst is order of magnitudes faster. Also, much better error messages.

Typst is vastly superior for usage in automation or when developing document classes.

If that's not your use case, don't bother.

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#17

Post by applicative »

opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

I pass from markdown to typst pdf via pandoc a few times a day. From that point of view it is just an alternative to latex or roff, e.g.

pandoc -r markdown -w pdf --pdf-engine=typst input.md -o output.pdf

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#18

Post by applicative »

mr_mitm wrote: post #16
opto wrote: post #9

As a non-developer who really only uses computers to write and produce documents, why would I use typst over org-mode or $your_fave_markdown + pandoc?

You can pass a JSON structure to a Typst document and render it however you like. No need for a templating engine or anything like that. Pandoc probably uses latex under the hood, and Typst is order of magnitudes faster. Also, much better error messages. Typst is vastly superior for usage in automation or when developing document classes. If that's not your use case, don't bother.

To produce a pdf, pandoc uses typst, pdfroff, lualatex, whatever you please. There is no particular connection to latex. The idea exhibits complete ignorance.

Re: Typst 0.15.0

#20

Post by raybb »

I'm currently working on my fourth book produced using Typst, and it has been nothing but amazing. LLMs struggle with Typst a bit but other than that it has been an absolute joy to work with.

I have a pretty good workflow set up for publishing these books, which are mostly collections of student essays. I use Pandoc to convert the students' Word documents into Typst, then unify the formatting, styles, and headers (mostly via LLMs). From there, I generate both a nice digital PDF and a print-ready PDF using Typst, and then use Pandoc again to convert the Typst into what ultimately becomes an EPUB.

It all works quite beautifully. Most of the challenges I've run into are related to Typst features that don't map cleanly to Pandoc, so I end up adding a few funky conditionals so those features aren't hit when converting via Pandoc. sys.inputs makes that very easy https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/11588

The books in question: https://thelabofthought.co/shop

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