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@michaelt
Created June 9, 2011 21:23
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Simple Pandoc default.latex with comments
%!TEX TS-program = xelatex
\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
% The declaration of the document class:
% The second line here, i.e.
% \documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
% is a standard LaTeX document class declaration:
% we say what kind of document we are making in curly brackets,
% and specify any options in square brackets.
% (The previous line is a pseudo-comment, declaring that we will
% use the special XeTeX machinery for its more extensive font list
% and its use of unicode;
% in general, LaTeX 'comments' like this one
% begin with % and end with a linebreak.)
% Note that there we have nothing in the nature of a template;
% it's just a standard bit of LaTeX pandoc will copy unaltered into the
% LaTeX file it is writing. But suppose you wrote something
% more akin to the corresponding line in Pandoc's default
% latex.template file, say:
% \documentclass$if(fontsize)$[$fontsize$]$endif${scrartcl}
% then you would have invented a 'variable', fontsize,
% and could write things like
% `markdown2pdf my.txt --xetex --variable=fontsize:12pt -o my.pdf` or
% `pandoc -r markdown -w html my.txt -s --xetex --variable=fontsize:24pt -o my.tex`.
% If we specified --variable-fontsize:12, then template substitution
% would yield a LaTeX document beginning
% \documentclass[12pt]{scrarcl}
% which is just what we said anyway.
% But we could also specify a different fontsize.
% I don't use this `--variable=....`functionality myself;
% I have a couple of basic templates I call with
% `--template=whatever.template` which I can also
% easily inspect to adjust things like font size as I please.
% While we are discussing the declaration of the document class...
% here's an alternative command for two column landscape,
% not bad for some purposes. (If you strike the word 'landscape'
% you will have two narrow newspaperlike
% columns; scientists like that, because irrationality must
% show itself somewhere):
%\documentclass[12pt,twocolumn,landscape]{scrartcl}
% Columns are too close together in LaTeX so we add this
% `columnsep` command:
%\setlength{\columnsep}{.5in}
% I use the special 'komascript' article class "scrartcl"
% reasons I can't entirely remember; I'm not sure it's that great.
% One reason is the unimportant one that, like many classes,
% it allows very big fonts which are convenient for booklet printing
% in the idiotic American way by shrinking letterpaper pages.
% the standard minimal LaTeX 'article' class declaration would be something like:
% \documentclass[12pt]{article}
% or for big type:
% \documentclass[24pt]{extarticle}
% but these restrict you to old-fashioned LaTeX materials.
% Note that Kieran Healy uses the swank 'Memoir' class,
% \documentclass[11pt,article,oneside]{memoir}
% which might be worth a look.
% Enough about the document class.
% -- We are in swanky unicode, XeTeX land, and must now import these packages:
\usepackage{fontspec,xltxtra,xunicode}
% fontspec means we can specify pretty much any font.
% Because we are using XeTeX material,
% this template needs to be called with the `--xetex` flag.
% Symbols:
% Pandoc imports the extensive `amsmath` collection of symbols
% for typesetting ordinary math.
\usepackage{amsmath}
% if you use exotic symbols you need to import specific packages, eg. for
% electrical engineering diagrams, musical notation, exotic currency symbols,
% the unspeakable rites of freemasonry etc.
% `babel`:
% The `babel` package, among other things, lets you determine what
% language you are using in a given stretch of text, so that typesetting
% will go well. Here we specify that mostly, we are speaking English:
\usepackage[english]{babel}
% Margins, etc:
% the `geometry` package makes for convenient adjusting of margins, which is what
% you asked about. Of course it can do much more, even make coffee for you:
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{verbose,letterpaper,tmargin=3cm,bmargin=3cm,lmargin=3cm,rmargin=3cm}
% so if you just keep a copy of this template in the directory you are working in, you
% can adjust the margins by going into this file and messing with the margins.
% the syntax is very unforgiving, but permits 3cm and 2.5in and some other things.
% Font:
% Here I set my main font, which is an Apple Corporation Exclusive, golly.
% \setmainfont{Hoefler Text}
% \setromanfont[Mapping=tex-text,Contextuals={NoWordInitial,NoWordFinal,NoLineInitial,NoLineFinal},Ligatures={NoCommon}]{Hoefler Text}
% Hoefler Text is okay, but note the long discussion of 'contextuals' which is necessary to cools off
% some of its show-offy properties. (You can make your essay look like the
% Declaration of Independence by specifying e.g. Ligatures={Rare} )
% If you have a copy you might try it; as it is
% I will comment it out and supply something more certain to be around:
\setmainfont{Times Roman}
% Properly one should specify a sanserif font and a monospace font
% see e.g. the example of Kieran Healy:
% \setromanfont[Mapping=tex-text,Numbers=OldStyle]{Minion Pro}
% \setsansfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Minion Pro}
% \setmonofont[Mapping=tex-text,Scale=0.8]{Pragmata}
% But I hate sanserif fonts, and anyway there are defaults.
% Heading styles:
% These commands keep the koma system from making stupid sans serif section headings
\setkomafont{title}{\rmfamily\mdseries\upshape\normalsize}
\setkomafont{sectioning}{\rmfamily\mdseries\upshape\normalsize}
\setkomafont{descriptionlabel}{\rmfamily\mdseries\upshape\normalsize}
% I'm puzzled why I have this foonote speciality,
% I wonder if it's part of my problem I've been having, but wont look
% into it now.
\usepackage[flushmargin]{footmisc}
% \usepackage[hang,flushmargin]{footmisc}
% So much for my personal template.
% Everything that follows is copied from the pandoc default template:
% I will interpolate a few comments, the comments that are in
% the default template will be marked % --
% Paragraph format:
% Pandoc prefers unindented paragraphs in the European style:
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
% ... with paragraph breaks marked by a slight lengthening of
% the space between paragraphs:
\setlength{\parskip}{6pt plus 2pt minus 1pt}
% Page format:
\pagestyle{plain}
% The default `plain` pagestyle just numbers the pages,
% whereas
% \pagestyle{empty}
% would give you no numbering.
% After one-million man-years of macro-composition,
% there are also fancy pagestyles with much wilder options
% for headers and footers, of course.
% Footnotes
% if you have code in your footnotes, the million macro march
% kind of bumps into itself.
% Pandoc, having just rendered your text into LaTeX,
% knows whether the 'variable' `verbatim-in-note` is True, and
% If it is, it asks for a LaTeX package that solves the dilemma:
$if(verbatim-in-note)$
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
$endif$
% Lists formatting:
% note sure what 'fancy enums' are; something to do with lists,
% as the further comment suggests:
$if(fancy-enums)$
% -- Redefine labelwidth for lists; otherwise, the enumerate package will cause
% -- markers to extend beyond the left margin.
\makeatletter\AtBeginDocument{%
\renewcommand{\@listi}
{\setlength{\labelwidth}{4em}}
}\makeatother
\usepackage{enumerate}
$endif$
% Table formatting:
% What if you make a table? -- Pandoc knows, of course, and
% then declares that its variable `table` is True and
% imports a table package suitable to its pleasantly simple tables.
% Needless to say infinitely complicated tables are possible in
% LaTeX with suitable packages. We are spared the temptation:
$if(tables)$
\usepackage{array}
% Continuing on the topic of tables ... (we havent reached `endif`).
% The commented out line below is in the default pandoc latex.template.
% Some unpleasantness with table formatting must be corrected.
% -- This is needed because raggedright in table elements redefines \\:
\newcommand{\PreserveBackslash}[1]{\let\temp=\\#1\let\\=\temp}
\let\PBS=\PreserveBackslash
$endif$
% Subscripts:
% Pandoc remembers whether you used subscripts, assigning True to
% its `subscript` variable
% It then needs to adopt a default with an incantation like this:
$if(subscript)$
\newcommand{\textsubscr}[1]{\ensuremath{_{\scriptsize\textrm{#1}}}}
$endif$
% Web-style links:
% markdown inclines us to use links, since our texts can be made into html.
% Why not have clickable blue links even in
% learned, scientific, religious, juridical, poetical and other suchlike texts?
% Never mind that they have been proven to destroy the nervous system!
% First, what about the fact that links like http://example.com are
% technically code and thus must not be broken across lines?
% [breaklinks=true] to the rescue!
% Nowadays LaTeX can handle all of this with another half million macros:
\usepackage[breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\hypersetup{colorlinks,%
citecolor=blue,%
filecolor=blue,%
linkcolor=blue,%
urlcolor=blue}
$if(url)$
\usepackage{url}
$endif$
% Images.
% In ye olde LaTeX one could only import a limited range of image
% types, e.g. the forgotten .eps files. Or else one simply drew the image with suitable
% commands and drawing packages. Today we want to import .jpg files we make with
% our smart phones or whatever:
$if(graphics)$
\usepackage{graphicx}
% -- We will generate all images so they have a width \maxwidth. This means
% -- that they will get their normal width if they fit onto the page, but
% -- are scaled down if they would overflow the margins.
\makeatletter
\def\maxwidth{\ifdim\Gin@nat@width>\linewidth\linewidth
\else\Gin@nat@width\fi}
\makeatother
\let\Oldincludegraphics\includegraphics
\renewcommand{\includegraphics}[1]{\Oldincludegraphics[width=\maxwidth]{#1}}
$endif$
% Section numbering.
% Here again is a variable you can specify on the commandline
% `markdown2pdf my.txt --number-sections --xetex --template=/wherever/this/is -o my.pdf`
$if(numbersections)$
$else$
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
$endif$
% Footnotes:
% Wait, didn't we already discuss the crisis of code in footnotes?
% Evidently the order of unfolding of macros required that
% we import a package to deal with them earlier
% and issue a command it defines now. (Or maybe that's not the reason;
% very often the order does matter as the insane system of macro expansion
% must take place by stages.)
$if(verbatim-in-note)$
\VerbatimFootnotes % -- allows verbatim text in footnotes
$endif$
% Other stuff you specify on the command line:
% You can include stuff for the header from a file specified on the command line;
% I've never done this, but that stuff will go here:
$for(header-includes)$
$header-includes$
$endfor$
% Title, authors, date.
% If you specified title authors and date at the start of
% your pandoc-markdown file, pandoc knows the 'values' of the
% variables: title authors date and fills them in.
$if(title)$
\title{$title$}
$endif$
\author{$for(author)$$author$$sep$\\$endfor$}
$if(date)$
\date{$date$}
$endif$
% At last:
% The document itself!:
% After filling in all these blanks above, or erasing them
% where they are not needed, Pandoc has finished writing the
% famous LaTeX *preamble* for your document.
% Now comes the all-important command \begin{document}
% which as you can see, will be paired with an \end{document} at the end.
% Pandoc knows whether you have a title, and has already
% specified what it is; if so, it demands that the title be rendered.
% Pandoc knows whether you want a table of contents, you
% specify this on the command line.
% Then, after fiddling with alignments, there comes the real
% business: pandoc slaps its rendering of your text in the place of
% the variable `body`
% It then concludes the document it has been writing.
\begin{document}
$if(title)$
\maketitle
$endif$
$if(toc)$
\tableofcontents
$endif$
$if(alignment)$
\begin{$alignment$}
$endif$
$body$
%$if(alignment)$
\end{$alignment$}
$endif$
\end{document}
@jeffmcneill
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Any idea why I'm getting ! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document} when I try to run pandoc -s --template="craig.latex" markdown_template.md -o markdown_template2.pdf ? I've saved this text (the latex template) into craig.latex.

Note: can do --template craig.latex just as well. Just make sure this is saved in the ~/.pandoc/templates directory.

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