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A Typst template for doctoral theses. It builds two editions of the same A4 document: one to print and bind, one to read on screen. It was made for the thesis Robot Learning Beyond Earth: Enabling Adaptive Autonomy in Space.

The template is not affiliated with any university. Before you submit, confirm with your doctoral school that it meets their requirements.

Start a thesis

In the Typst web app: create a project from the earthrise-thesis template. It compiles as you type.

On the command line:

  1. Install Typst 0.15.0 or newer.

  2. Create the project:

    typst init @preview/earthrise-thesis:0.1.0 my-thesis

  3. Optionally, add the fonts to my-thesis/fonts/. Without them, Typst warns and falls back to its own fonts.

  4. Compile both editions:

    cd my-thesis
typst compile --font-path fonts thesis.typ
typst compile --font-path fonts --input edition=print thesis.typ thesis_print.pdf

Next: replace the example data in thesis.typ, such as the title, the names and the logo on the cover. The parameters below explain every argument.

What it provides

  • Two editions of the same document:
    • print: mirrored margins, wider on the outer edge, every chapter opens on a right-hand page, and the empty left-hand pages this leaves stay blank
    • digital: symmetric margins and no blank pages, for reading on screen
  • Title matter: cover and back cover, affidavit, preface with the supervisors and the defense committee, epigraph
  • Front matter: abstract and acknowledgements, lists of contents, figures, tables and listings, glossary, list of publications; running headers throughout
  • Writing aids: theorem environments, CSV tables, code listings, subfigures, TODO notes, advisor feedback, signature fields

--input edition=print selects the print edition: thesis.typ reads it from sys.inputs and sets physical-copy.

Fonts

The template is set in EB Garamond with Monaspace Argon for code, both under the SIL Open Font License.

  • Command line: put the font files in fonts/ and pass --font-path fonts
  • Web app: upload the font files to the project
  • Other fonts: pass body-font, heading-font and raw-font to thesis

Parameters

Apply thesis with a show rule, then write the chapters below it:

#import "@preview/earthrise-thesis:0.1.0": *

#show: thesis.with(
  title: "Design for the Unknown",
  author: "Jane Doe",
  degree: "DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY",
  degree-subject: "IN ENGINEERING",
  physical-copy: sys.inputs.at("edition", default: "digital") == "print",
)

= Introduction

Every argument is optional. A default in angle brackets, such as "<title>", is a placeholder printed as is; none leaves the element out.

Cover:

Parameter Default Content
title, subtitle "<title>", none Title and subtitle, also written to the PDF metadata
author, cover-author "<author>", none Author; cover-author replaces the name on the cover only
degree, degree-subject "<degree>", none Degree and subject, such as "DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY" and "IN PHYSICS"
department "<department>" Printed in place of degree-subject when that is none
doc-id, faculty "<document ID>", "<faculty>" Document number and faculty, at the top of the cover

Dates and people:

Parameter Default Content
date, date-format today, "[day padding:none] [month repr:long] [year]" Date of the document, and the format of every date
defense-date, defense-location date, "" Defense date and place, on the cover
supervisors, cosupervisors one placeholder, none Arrays of (title: ..., name: ...), listed on the preface page
committee one placeholder Defense committee, in the same form
preface none Text of the preface page, above the names

Front matter:

Parameter Default Content
affidavit none Declaration of authorship, in the words your university requires
epigraph none Quotation on a page of its own
abstract, acknowledgements none Text of each section
figure-index, table-index, listing-index true Whether to list the figures, tables and listings; a list without entries is left out

References:

Parameter Default Content
bibliography none A bibliography(...) call; printed after the last chapter
publications none Array of (key: ..., text: [...]), each with an optional group and status; cite one as @pub:<key>
glossary none Array of (key: ..., short: ..., long: ...), each with an optional group; cite one as @<key>; only cited entries are listed
glossary-group-order none Order of the glossary groups; alphabetical when none
appendix [] Appendix chapters, printed after the bibliography

Layout:

Parameter Default Content
physical-copy false true for the print edition
accent accent-color, a dark teal Color of the running headers and chapter markers
chapter-opener none Function that takes a chapter number and returns a graphic to show beside it; without it, or where it returns none, and on appendix chapters, an Earth rising over a horizon shows instead
body-font, heading-font, raw-font EB Garamond, EB Garamond, Monaspace Argon Fonts of the text, the headings and the code

Page backgrounds, each drawn behind its whole page, such as a logo placed with place:

Parameter Default Page
front-img none Cover
affidavit-img none Affidavit
back-img none Back cover; the digital edition has a back cover only with this image

The package also exports the theorem environments theorem, corollary, definition, lemma, example and proof, the helpers csv-table and code-block, the states in-appendix and in-outline, which tell whether content is in the appendix or in a list such as the list of figures, and the palette accent-color, secondary-color and muted-color with their tints accent-light, secondary-light and muted-light. It also re-exports everything from the packages it builds on, codly, ctheorems and physica, as well as subpar, format-table from zero, and gls and glspl for abbreviations. Its upper and smallcaps add letter spacing to the built-in functions of the same name.