Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Thomas Herbert]

Afternoon,

I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates  
with which to export professional looking PDFs?

It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried  
reading what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point  
that I am spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only  
to find I can't translate it into anything that looks the quality of  
using MS Word and Adobe Flashpaper.

Just wondering if anyone has some template examples of letter/logo  
headed well styled PDFs they use on a professional basis?

Many thanks

'Mash

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Camille persson]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 998 bytes --]

Hi Thomas,

I'm not sure about what you call "professional looking" ?
Myself, I write conference paper with org, I just set the proper class I
want to use

for example:
#+LaTeX_CLASS: IEEEtranConf

Then it depends on the latex style you have...
Maybe you can try the HTML export and get sthg easier to customize

Cheers,
Camille

2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>

> Afternoon,
>
> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates with
> which to export professional looking PDFs?


> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to find I can't
> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS Word and Adobe
> Flashpaper.
>
> Just wondering if anyone has some template examples of letter/logo headed
> well styled PDFs they use on a professional basis?
>
> Many thanks
>
> 'Mash
>
>
>
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1496 bytes --]

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[John Hendy]

> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>>
>> Afternoon,
>>
>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates with
>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>
>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to find I can't
>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS Word and Adobe
>> Flashpaper.

Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
your genre of "professional"?

>>
>> Just wondering if anyone has some template examples of letter/logo headed
>> well styled PDFs they use on a professional basis?
>>

 I wrote a paper analyzing a mutli-level marketing scheme someone
tried to pitch me and would have posted a link, but then saw that you
want "letter/logo headed" stuff... Mine just has a title, author,
formulas, etc. No logos. I think Camille is right in asking what you
take to be "professional." Quality font (I use palatino) and default
LaTeX export settings (except that I widen the margins with the
geometry package) look pretty darn good to me.


John

>> Many thanks
>>
>> 'Mash
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Eric S Fraga]

>> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>>>
>
>>> Afternoon,
>>>
>>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates with
>>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>>
>>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
>>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to find I can't
>>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS Word and Adobe
>>> Flashpaper.

Not intending to start a flame war but my experience is that latex, even
with everything at default settings, beats a typical MS Word document
hands down!  At least in academic circles, many publishers use latex for
the final typesetting stage even if the original article was submitted
in MS Word.

The negative aspect, for some, about latex is that everything is
customisable (as you have alluded to) given that it is but a set of
macros built on top of the TeX typesetting system (thank you Donald
Knuth!).  Because the underlying system is both robust and
comprehensive, anything is possible!  The power of TeX comes partly from
the basis being both page and paragraph formatting, as opposed to line
by line formatting which tools like MS Word use.

Therefore, I am curious as to what you wish to achieve:

John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:
> Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
> set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
> the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
> your genre of "professional"?

This would indeed be very useful.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.55.g87c42.dirty)

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Scot Becker]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 253 bytes --]

And the question is not just 'what do YOU think is professional, but (as
always with LaTeX) just want kind/genre of document are you interested in
producing?  A question like yours has to be answered separately for each
distinct type of document.

Scot

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 301 bytes --]

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

['Mash]

Quoting Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>:
>
>>> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>>>>
>>
>>>> Afternoon,
>>>>
>>>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates with
>>>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>>>
>>>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
>>>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>>>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to  
>>>> find I can't
>>>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS  
>>>> Word and Adobe
>>>> Flashpaper.
>
> Not intending to start a flame war but my experience is that latex, even
> with everything at default settings, beats a typical MS Word document
> hands down!  At least in academic circles, many publishers use latex for
> the final typesetting stage even if the original article was submitted
> in MS Word.
>
> The negative aspect, for some, about latex is that everything is
> customisable (as you have alluded to) given that it is but a set of
> macros built on top of the TeX typesetting system (thank you Donald
> Knuth!).  Because the underlying system is both robust and
> comprehensive, anything is possible!  The power of TeX comes partly from
> the basis being both page and paragraph formatting, as opposed to line
> by line formatting which tools like MS Word use.
>
> Therefore, I am curious as to what you wish to achieve:
>
> John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:
>> Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
>> set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
>> the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
>> your genre of "professional"?
>
> This would indeed be very useful.

Sorry yes my question was fairly vague. Also I actually had trouble  
trying to find an example of what I mean. But let me clarify.

I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is  
LaTeX styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on  
my part. I have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can  
translate into a few org-mode header declarations but still can't work  
out what is or is not compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how  
to implement styling correctly.

I think what it is that I have been using CSS for so long that I am  
getting frustrated in not being able to produce the level of results I  
want in LaTeX. Also I feel like a complete numpty not being able to  
clearly understand how to build and define external LaTeX classes I  
can call to output my simple .org file to a "polished" .pdf. I.e.  
margins, line-heights, different block element font styling, common  
graphical page headers or footers.

There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are  
full documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has  
already setup classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and  
how and where to download them from) which they use day to day to  
produce reports, articles, contracts or client proposals from simple  
.org files?

Is that any clearer?

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[John Hendy]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 6:04 AM, 'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> wrote:
>
> Quoting Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>:
>>
>>>> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Afternoon,
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates
>>>>> with
>>>>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>>>>
>>>>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried
>>>>> reading
>>>>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>>>>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to find I
>>>>> can't
>>>>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS Word and
>>>>> Adobe
>>>>> Flashpaper.
>>
>> Not intending to start a flame war but my experience is that latex, even
>> with everything at default settings, beats a typical MS Word document
>> hands down!  At least in academic circles, many publishers use latex for
>> the final typesetting stage even if the original article was submitted
>> in MS Word.
>>
>> The negative aspect, for some, about latex is that everything is
>> customisable (as you have alluded to) given that it is but a set of
>> macros built on top of the TeX typesetting system (thank you Donald
>> Knuth!).  Because the underlying system is both robust and
>> comprehensive, anything is possible!  The power of TeX comes partly from
>> the basis being both page and paragraph formatting, as opposed to line
>> by line formatting which tools like MS Word use.
>>
>> Therefore, I am curious as to what you wish to achieve:
>>
>> John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>> Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
>>> set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
>>> the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
>>> your genre of "professional"?
>>
>> This would indeed be very useful.
>
> Sorry yes my question was fairly vague. Also I actually had trouble trying
> to find an example of what I mean. But let me clarify.
>
> I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is LaTeX
> styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on my part. I
> have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can translate into a few
> org-mode header declarations but still can't work out what is or is not
> compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how to implement styling
> correctly.
>

Still not positive on what you mean. Maybe find a document created by
*any* document-producing system that has what you want and then link
to it. I wouldn't limit it to LaTeX. From there, others can tell you
if (or more likely, how) it's possible to do the same with LaTeX.

> I think what it is that I have been using CSS for so long that I am getting
> frustrated in not being able to produce the level of results I want in
> LaTeX.

So do you have a css-based example of the level you're looking for?

> Also I feel like a complete numpty not being able to clearly
> understand how to build and define external LaTeX classes I can call to
> output my simple .org file to a "polished" .pdf. I.e. margins, line-heights,
> different block element font styling, common graphical page headers or
> footers.
>

I use the same header on all my work notes and pretty much everything
else and think it produces fine results. Nothing particularly fancy,
but just nice and clean and satisfying to me:
,-----
| I play with these as needed (changing to 'toc:t' if I want a toc, for example
| #+OPTIONS:   toc:nil *:t TeX:t LaTeX:t H:5 tags:nil todo:nil <:nil
|
| wider margins; about the only thing that really irks me about the
default output
| #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[hmargin=2.5cm,vmargin=2.5cm]{geometry}
|
| better font, in my opinion. I use minion/myriad a decent amount as well
| #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{mathpazo} \usepackage{paralist}
|
| I like blue better than red... so I changed link colors
| #+LATEX_HEADER: \hypersetup{colorlinks=true,linkcolor=blue,urlcolor=blue}
|
| I'm often exporting just work notes so I don't need some title at the top
| #+BIND: org-export-latex-title-command ""
`-----

> There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are full
> documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has already setup
> classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and how and where to
> download them from) which they use day to day to produce reports, articles,
> contracts or client proposals from simple .org files?
>

Well, not really "pretty" or whatever, but this is the example I was
going to provide before:

https://sites.google.com/site/jwhendytank/home/FHTM_Analysis_Aug-2010.pdf

A friend pitched me something called a multi-level marketing scheme.
He was incredibly excited about it and was planning to recruit about
everyone he knew. The more I looked into it, the more I saw how
divisive the topic was. People either loved it or hated it and argued
for their stance based on intuition and affiliation. So... I went
about writing a mathematical analysis of how it works over the course
of about 6mos. I think I showed pretty clearly that it's solely about
being at the top of a pyramid (if you can ever get there) and making
loads of money from the thousands of peons below you.

No offense if anyone on the mailing list has ties to something like
this. I state my conclusion only because I've actually looked into the
math of this entity and it shows that you can only make money if there
are exponentially more below you doing the actual work... and I see
that as unethical.

Anyway, there's one example -- written entirely in org-mode, exported
with approximately the settings you see above. That's that.


John

> Is that any clearer?
>
>
>

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Eric S Fraga]

'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> writes:

> Quoting Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>:
>>
>>>> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>>> Afternoon,
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX templates with
>>>>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>>>>
>>>>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
>>>>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>>>>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to
>>>>> find I can't
>>>>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS
>>>>> Word and Adobe
>>>>> Flashpaper.
>>
>> Not intending to start a flame war but my experience is that latex, even
>> with everything at default settings, beats a typical MS Word document
>> hands down!  At least in academic circles, many publishers use latex for
>> the final typesetting stage even if the original article was submitted
>> in MS Word.
>>
>> The negative aspect, for some, about latex is that everything is
>> customisable (as you have alluded to) given that it is but a set of
>> macros built on top of the TeX typesetting system (thank you Donald
>> Knuth!).  Because the underlying system is both robust and
>> comprehensive, anything is possible!  The power of TeX comes partly from
>> the basis being both page and paragraph formatting, as opposed to line
>> by line formatting which tools like MS Word use.
>>
>> Therefore, I am curious as to what you wish to achieve:
>>
>> John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:
>>> Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
>>> set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
>>> the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
>>> your genre of "professional"?
>>
>> This would indeed be very useful.
>
> Sorry yes my question was fairly vague. Also I actually had trouble
> trying to find an example of what I mean. But let me clarify.
>
> I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is
> LaTeX styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on
> my part. I have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can
> translate into a few org-mode header declarations but still can't work
> out what is or is not compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how
> to implement styling correctly.
>
> I think what it is that I have been using CSS for so long that I am
> getting frustrated in not being able to produce the level of results I
> want in LaTeX. Also I feel like a complete numpty not being able to
> clearly understand how to build and define external LaTeX classes I
> can call to output my simple .org file to a "polished" .pdf. I.e.
> margins, line-heights, different block element font styling, common
> graphical page headers or footers.
>
> There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are
> full documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has
> already setup classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and
> how and where to download them from) which they use day to day to
> produce reports, articles, contracts or client proposals from simple
> .org files?
>
> Is that any clearer?

A little but not really.  The trick with latex is not to define any new
classes (unless you really want something dramatically different than
already exists) but to customise existing classes through their options
and the use of supplementary packages.  Each document has a single class
(article, book, report, letter, ...) but can then load any number of
packages to add features.

The problem is we don't know what you are trying to write!  A book is
very different from a letter which is different from an article etc.  As
an example, if I were writing an article, I would base it on the
koma-script package [1] which allows customisation of headings etc.  To
customise the various things you mention above, I would then use the
=geometry=, =fancyhdr= and =graphicx= packages, to mention just a few.
All of these are well documented on CTAN [2] where you can search for
individual packages.  I would also directly modify some variables
(e.g. \parindent, \parskip) that are fundamental to the layout if need
be.

If you really want to learn how to customise latex, one of the best
resources is the Visual FAQ [3].

I hope this helps but do give more detail if you want explicit help.
However, if what you need is latex help, I suggest one of the tex
newsgroups [4] or some of the mailing lists (cf. gmane [5]) or
equivalent; if you want to know how to interface to latex from org, then
this list is indeed the place!

eric


Footnotes: 
[1]  http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script/scrguien.pdf

[2]  http://ctan.org/

[3]  http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/visualFAQ/visualFAQ.pdf

[4]  e.g. comp.text.tex

[5]  http://gmane.org/

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.55.g87c42.dirty)

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

['Mash]

Quoting Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>:

> 'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> writes:
>
>> Quoting Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>:
>>>
>>>>> 2011/3/14 Thomas Herbert <mashdot@toshine.net>
>>
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Afternoon,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I wonder if anyone had any good examples of org-mode LaTeX  
>>>>>> templates with
>>>>>> which to export professional looking PDFs?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It is my big issue with org-mode at the moment, and I have tried reading
>>>>>> what I can on LaTeX styling but it is getting to the point that I am
>>>>>> spending way to much time trying to learn enough LaTeX only to
>>>>>> find I can't
>>>>>> translate it into anything that looks the quality of using MS
>>>>>> Word and Adobe
>>>>>> Flashpaper.
>>>
>>> Not intending to start a flame war but my experience is that latex, even
>>> with everything at default settings, beats a typical MS Word document
>>> hands down!  At least in academic circles, many publishers use latex for
>>> the final typesetting stage even if the original article was submitted
>>> in MS Word.
>>>
>>> The negative aspect, for some, about latex is that everything is
>>> customisable (as you have alluded to) given that it is but a set of
>>> macros built on top of the TeX typesetting system (thank you Donald
>>> Knuth!).  Because the underlying system is both robust and
>>> comprehensive, anything is possible!  The power of TeX comes partly from
>>> the basis being both page and paragraph formatting, as opposed to line
>>> by line formatting which tools like MS Word use.
>>>
>>> Therefore, I am curious as to what you wish to achieve:
>>>
>>> John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:
>>>> Instead... could you provide something you think is professional to
>>>> set the bar and those on the list can either match it or point you in
>>>> the direction of something they've seen or already created to fit into
>>>> your genre of "professional"?
>>>
>>> This would indeed be very useful.
>>
>> Sorry yes my question was fairly vague. Also I actually had trouble
>> trying to find an example of what I mean. But let me clarify.
>>
>> I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is
>> LaTeX styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on
>> my part. I have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can
>> translate into a few org-mode header declarations but still can't work
>> out what is or is not compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how
>> to implement styling correctly.
>>
>> I think what it is that I have been using CSS for so long that I am
>> getting frustrated in not being able to produce the level of results I
>> want in LaTeX. Also I feel like a complete numpty not being able to
>> clearly understand how to build and define external LaTeX classes I
>> can call to output my simple .org file to a "polished" .pdf. I.e.
>> margins, line-heights, different block element font styling, common
>> graphical page headers or footers.
>>
>> There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are
>> full documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has
>> already setup classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and
>> how and where to download them from) which they use day to day to
>> produce reports, articles, contracts or client proposals from simple
>> .org files?
>>
>> Is that any clearer?
>
> A little but not really.  The trick with latex is not to define any new
> classes (unless you really want something dramatically different than
> already exists) but to customise existing classes through their options
> and the use of supplementary packages.  Each document has a single class
> (article, book, report, letter, ...) but can then load any number of
> packages to add features.
>
> The problem is we don't know what you are trying to write!  A book is
> very different from a letter which is different from an article etc.  As
> an example, if I were writing an article, I would base it on the
> koma-script package [1] which allows customisation of headings etc.  To
> customise the various things you mention above, I would then use the
> =geometry=, =fancyhdr= and =graphicx= packages, to mention just a few.
> All of these are well documented on CTAN [2] where you can search for
> individual packages.  I would also directly modify some variables
> (e.g. \parindent, \parskip) that are fundamental to the layout if need
> be.
>
> If you really want to learn how to customise latex, one of the best
> resources is the Visual FAQ [3].
>
> I hope this helps but do give more detail if you want explicit help.
> However, if what you need is latex help, I suggest one of the tex
> newsgroups [4] or some of the mailing lists (cf. gmane [5]) or
> equivalent; if you want to know how to interface to latex from org, then
> this list is indeed the place!
>
> eric
>
>
> Footnotes:
> [1]  http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/koma-script/scrguien.pdf
>
> [2]  http://ctan.org/
>
> [3]  http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/visualFAQ/visualFAQ.pdf
>
> [4]  e.g. comp.text.tex
>
> [5]  http://gmane.org/
>
> --
> : Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
> : using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.55.g87c42.dirty)
>

Thanks, very much appreciated. I will spend some time having a look  
through the links below. Sorry for being unclear, sometimes you need  
to ask questions to find out what questions you needed to ask in the  
first place.

Much appreciated all,

'Mash

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Nick Dokos]

'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> wrote:

> 
> I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is
> LaTeX styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on
> my part. I have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can
> translate into a few org-mode header declarations but still can't work
> out what is or is not compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how
> to implement styling correctly.
> 
> I think what it is that I have been using CSS for so long that I am
> getting frustrated in not being able to produce the level of results I
> want in LaTeX. Also I feel like a complete numpty not being able to
> clearly understand how to build and define external LaTeX classes I
> can call to output my simple .org file to a "polished" .pdf. I.e.
> margins, line-heights, different block element font styling, common
> graphical page headers or footers.
> 
> There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are
> full documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has
> already setup classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and
> how and where to download them from) which they use day to day to
> produce reports, articles, contracts or client proposals from simple
> .org files?
> 
> Is that any clearer?
> 
> 

Not really.

Both Eric Fraga and John Hendy have given valid answers to how one goes
about it: you settle down to *one* kind of document that you want to
produce (take the simplest one and leave the rest for later), then
either learn enough LaTeX to be able to produce it or cajole/beg/hire
somebody to do it for you, and *then* figure out how to use org to produce
the LaTeX needed to produce that kind of document.

The trouble is that neither org nor LaTeX are black boxes whose insides
you can afford to ignore. With the approach outlined above, at the end
of the process, you *will* have a (blackbox-like) almost automatic way of
going from org to "professional" output, but it is fragile in the sense
that if you want to change something, you will need to implement the
change in LaTeX first, and once you are satisfied with the output, you
will need to go back and tweak the org mechanisms to produce that.
Then you can shut your eyes again and pretend that it's a black box.

So learn some LaTeX: once you get past the initial hump (the mechanics
of producing output), then it's not only fairly easy, it also starts
making sense. Having a desired output (keep it simple!) is going to make
that an enjoyable journey too. And once you touch down on LaTeX island,
and become comfortable, you'll either never leave or you'll want to
visit again and again!

And as John pointed out, people here are fairly easy to cajole into helping
you :-)

Nick

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Eric S Fraga]

'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> writes:

[...]

> Thanks, very much appreciated. I will spend some time having a look
> through the links below. Sorry for being unclear, sometimes you need
> to ask questions to find out what questions you needed to ask in the
> first place.

Indeed!  Best of luck.  I've sent you an example paper in another email.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.5 (release_7.5.55.g87c42.dirty)

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Russell Adams]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:54:18AM -0400, Nick Dokos wrote:
> 'Mash <mashdot@toshine.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > I suppose by "professional" I really meant "polished", and so it is
> > LaTeX styling I have having trouble with, it may also be laziness on
> > my part. I have tried searching for LaTeX styling which I can
> > translate into a few org-mode header declarations but still can't work
> > out what is or is not compatible with org-mode (LaTeX classes) or how
> > to implement styling correctly.
> >

I understand completely! So here's a few tricks I use.

First, my org-class for latex is "none". This lets me manage my
documentclass and other features in the org export header.

(setq org-export-latex-classes (cons '("none"
									   "[NO-DEFAULT-PACKAGES][NO-PACKAGES]"
									   ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
									   ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}")
									   ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")
									   ("\\paragraph{%s}" . "\\paragraph*{%s}")
									   ("\\subparagraph{%s}" . "\\subparagraph*{%s}"))
									 org-export-latex-classes))

Then, my documents start like this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
#+OPTIONS:   H:3 num:nil toc:t \n:t @:t ::t |:t ^:nil -:t f:t *:t TeX:t LaTeX:nil skip:nil d:nil tags:not-in-toc
#+BIND: org-export-latex-title-command ""
#+LaTeX_CLASS: none
#+LATEX_HEADER: \documentclass[10pt,letterpaper]{article}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[letterpaper,includeheadfoot,top=0.5in,bottom=0.5in,left=0.75in,right=0.75in]{geometry}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{lastpage}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{fancyhdr}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \pagestyle{fancy}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{hyperref}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \hypersetup{colorlinks,linkcolor=blue}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{1pt}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.5pt}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{graphicx}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{multicol}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \geometry{headheight=47pt}
#+LATEX_HEADER:
#+LATEX_HEADER: \def\ORGTITLE      {Latex Example}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \def\ORGAUTHOR     {Russell Adams}
#+LATEX_HEADER:
#+LATEX_HEADER: % Header
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyhead[L]{\LARGE \ORGTITLE  }
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyhead[R]{\bf    \ORGAUTHOR }
#+LATEX_HEADER:
#+LATEX_HEADER: % Footer
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyfoot[L]{\small \ORGTITLE\\ \today}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyfoot[C]{\small Revision: \Revision \\ Page \thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyfoot[R]{\small \ORGAUTHOR }

----------------------------------------------------------------------


That way I can control all of the output in the Org file. I intend to
make a custom class eventually for letterhead, but haven't yet.

Other ones to experiment with are:

\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}   - Don't indent each paragraph (pet peeve)
\setlength{\parskip}{10pt}    - Add a small indent between paragraps

Better fonts:

\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}

I also don't export from inside emacs. I use a makefile and call a
separate emacs instance in batch mode.

> > There are a huge amount of LaTeX examples on the web, but they are
> > full documents with inline elements, I wanted to know if anyone has
> > already setup classes that work, with notes on LaTeX dependencies (and
> > how and where to download them from) which they use day to day to
> > produce reports, articles, contracts or client proposals from simple
> > .org files?

I know there are many pre-made classes available for Latex,
unfortunately I haven't found any good "galleries" of sample
output. That makes it difficult to know where to start.

Let me know if you find one!

> Both Eric Fraga and John Hendy have given valid answers to how one goes
> about it: you settle down to *one* kind of document that you want to
> produce (take the simplest one and leave the rest for later), then
> either learn enough LaTeX to be able to produce it or cajole/beg/hire
> somebody to do it for you, and *then* figure out how to use org to produce
> the LaTeX needed to produce that kind of document.
>
> The trouble is that neither org nor LaTeX are black boxes whose insides
> you can afford to ignore. With the approach outlined above, at the end
> of the process, you *will* have a (blackbox-like) almost automatic way of
> going from org to "professional" output, but it is fragile in the sense
> that if you want to change something, you will need to implement the
> change in LaTeX first, and once you are satisfied with the output, you
> will need to go back and tweak the org mechanisms to produce that.
> Then you can shut your eyes again and pretend that it's a black box.
>
> So learn some LaTeX: once you get past the initial hump (the mechanics
> of producing output), then it's not only fairly easy, it also starts
> making sense. Having a desired output (keep it simple!) is going to make
> that an enjoyable journey too. And once you touch down on LaTeX island,
> and become comfortable, you'll either never leave or you'll want to
> visit again and again!

I agree, learn some Latex too. Org's another layer, but much more
convenient.

Good luck!

------------------------------------------------------------------
Russell Adams                            RLAdams@AdamsInfoServ.com

PGP Key ID:     0x1160DCB3           http://www.adamsinfoserv.com/

Fingerprint:    1723 D8CA 4280 1EC9 557F  66E8 1154 E018 1160 DCB3

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Rasmus]

> I can't translate it into anything that looks the quality of
> using MS Word and Adobe Flashpaper.
Well, that sounds wrong. There are a number of blogs which publish
templates. Look into them. For starters, look into the blog-roll at
texample.

> Just wondering if anyone has some template examples of letter/logo
> headed well styled PDFs they use on a professional basis?

Yeah, I just defined my own org class, resembling my preferences
(primarly KOMA-Script with Kp-fonts). You should do the same. It quite
powerful. Whatever you are looking for, it is do-able in (La)TeX and
thus in org (with some minor quirks like not being able to escape space,
as I have discussed elsewhere). 

Re: Professional PDF LaTeX templates?

[Thomas S. Dye]

Aloha Rasmus,

On Mar 17, 2011, at 10:34 AM, Rasmus wrote:

>
>> I can't translate it into anything that looks the quality of
>> using MS Word and Adobe Flashpaper.
> Well, that sounds wrong. There are a number of blogs which publish
> templates. Look into them. For starters, look into the blog-roll at
> texample.
>
>> Just wondering if anyone has some template examples of letter/logo
>> headed well styled PDFs they use on a professional basis?
>
> Yeah, I just defined my own org class, resembling my preferences
> (primarly KOMA-Script with Kp-fonts). You should do the same. It quite
> powerful. Whatever you are looking for, it is do-able in (La)TeX and
> thus in org (with some minor quirks like not being able to escape  
> space,
> as I have discussed elsewhere).
>
>
I've updated the LaTeX export tutorial with Lawrence Mitchell's  
solution for escaping spaces using org-entities-user.  I just noticed  
that Worg hasn't updated.  I'll send a note to the list about this.

Tom