An academic-first Typst package for cover letters and research, teaching, or personal statements. It shares its design system and profile shape with modernpro-cv, so a CV, a letter, and a statement read as one application while each source file remains self-contained.

The default design is intentionally complete. Most users only need to provide their profile, the recipient, and the letter text.

All people, institutions, positions, projects, and claims in the examples are fictional. Reserved domains and an all-zero ORCID are used deliberately.

Preview

Academic cover letter

Research statement

Choose a document

Both documents keep an editable profile dictionary at the top of their own file. Copy the same values when you want matching headers, without adding a shared-file dependency.

Quick start

Create and compile a project with the Typst CLI:

typst init @preview/modernpro-coverletter:1.0.0
cd modernpro-coverletter
typst compile coverletter.typ
typst compile statement.typ

The generated project contains:

modernpro-coverletter/
├── coverletter.typ   <- recipient, letter body, and closing
└── statement.typ     <- title, headings, and statement body

Use typst watch coverletter.typ or typst watch statement.typ for automatic recompilation while editing.

First edit checklist

1. Replace the placeholder identity at the top of the document you are using.
2. In coverletter.typ, replace every recipient field and write the letter in short block paragraphs.
3. In statement.typ, rename the title and headings to match the requested document.
4. Remove example claims rather than adapting them as if they were factual.
5. Compile to PDF and inspect the header, first body line, closing, and page breaks.

Minimal academic cover letter

Keep your identity beside the letter content in the same source file:

#import "@preview/modernpro-coverletter:1.0.0": *

#let profile = (
  name: [Dr. Maya Chen],
  role: [Lecturer in Computational Social Science],
  address: [Edinburgh, United Kingdom],
  contacts: (
    (text: [maya\@northbridge.example], link: "mailto:maya@northbridge.example"),
    (text: [maya.example.org], link: "https://maya.example.org"),
    (text: [ORCID~0000-0000-0000-0000], link: "https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000"),
  ),
)

#show: coverletter.with(
  profile: profile,
  recipient: (
    name: [Professor Eleanor Hughes],
    role: [Chair, Faculty Search Committee],
    department: [School of Public Policy],
    organization: [Eastborough University],
    address: [London, United Kingdom],
    date: [9 July 2026],
    subject: [Application for Lecturer in Digital Governance],
    greeting: [Dear Professor Hughes and Members of the Committee,],
  ),
)

Write the opening paragraph here.

Write the research, teaching, or professional case in short block paragraphs.

Close by explaining the fit and thanking the committee.

The default closing is Sincerely, followed by the profile name. Override it only when needed:

closing: (
  salutation: [Best regards,],
  supplements: ([Enclosure: Curriculum vitae],),
)

The three settings

Everything beyond profile and recipient is optional:

#show: coverletter.with(
  profile: profile,
  recipient: (name: [Recipient Name],),
  preset: "compact",
  accent: rgb("#1e3a5f"),
)

A preset coordinates header rows, recipient and subject spacing, title spacing, heading-to-body gaps, line spacing, and paragraph spacing at once. Choose a preset rather than tuning gaps individually.

Recipient fields

The recipient group uses ordinary letter terminology:

Every recipient field is optional. If date is omitted, the template inserts today’s date; other empty fields leave no placeholder gaps. For an application, provide at least the recipient or committee, organization, subject, and greeting whenever they are known.

Statement template

statement uses the same profile, header, and visual identity. First- and second-level Typst headings are styled automatically, so a research statement stays easy to edit:

#import "@preview/modernpro-coverletter:1.0.0": *

#let profile = (
  name: [Dr. Maya Chen],
  role: [Lecturer in Computational Social Science],
  address: [Edinburgh, United Kingdom],
  contacts: (
    (text: [maya\@northbridge.example], link: "mailto:maya@northbridge.example"),
    (text: [maya.example.org], link: "https://maya.example.org"),
  ),
)

#show: statement.with(
  profile: profile,
  title: [Research Statement],
)

= Research agenda
Introduce the question that connects your work.

= Current programme
Describe your strongest projects, methods, and contributions.

= Future work
Set out the next phase of the programme.

Use level-one headings (= Heading) for the major argument. Prefer three to five descriptive sections over many short fragments. Statements add a compact continuation header from page 2 by default.

Keep every document self-contained

The profile dictionary has the same shape as modernpro-cv, but each generated document keeps its own copy. An application folder therefore has no shared personal-data dependency:

application/
├── cv.typ
├── coverletter.typ
└── research-statement.typ

Copy the small #let profile = (...) block when starting another document. This deliberate duplication makes every file portable and independently compilable; update the copied values only when the application needs a different role or contact order.

Shared academic design

The CV, cover letter, and statement use the same tokens.

Because the left and right margins match the CV exactly, the header rule lands at the same position in every document of the application.

Block paragraphs are easier to scan than justified text carrying both an indent and a blank gap. The default starter also avoids decorative icons, keeping text extraction and accessibility clean.

Advanced configuration

Most documents never need this section. When you do need a specific override, optional settings are grouped by purpose:

The semantic theme keys match modernpro-cv:

#let theme = (
  font: "PT Serif",
  text: rgb("#1f2933"),
  heading: rgb("#1f2933"),
  muted: rgb("#667085"),
  accent: rgb("#1e3a5f"),
  rule: rgb("#dde3ea"),
)

Common layout keys are:

The full identity header is always part of the first page’s document flow. Its position does not move when continuation behaviour changes. If repeat-header is enabled, later pages receive only a compact name, document label, and page count; contact details are not repeated or placed outside the accessible first page structure. Statements enable this behaviour by default.

Contacts

A contact may be linked, unlinked, or plain content, and may carry an optional icon exactly as in modernpro-cv:

contacts: (
  (text: [you\@example.edu], link: "mailto:you@example.edu"),
  (text: [your-site.example], link: "https://your-site.example"),
  [ORCID 0000-0000-0000-0000],
)

Escape @ as \@ inside Typst content. Two or three concise academic contacts usually fit best. FontAwesome remains usable as an opt-in content choice, but it is not required by the package or starter.

Common recipes

Add enclosures

closing: (
  supplements: (
    [Enclosure: Curriculum vitae],
    [Enclosure: Research statement],
  ),
)

Use a centered header

layout: (
  header-style: "centered",
  contact-layout: "inline",
)

Disable a statement continuation header

#show: statement.with(
  profile: profile,
  title: [Research Statement],
  layout: (repeat-header: false),
)

Use an explicit date

recipient: (
  date: [9 July 2026],
)

Legacy compatibility

Nothing was removed. The flat parameters font-type, name, address, contacts, the colour parameters (primary-colour, headings-colour, subheadings-colour, date-colour, link-colour), the type sizes, and the spacing parameters all still resolve. layout: (density: ...) remains an accepted spelling of preset.

The recipient aliases start-title and cl-title still map to greeting and subject. institution remains an alias for organization, and position remains an alias for role. The legacy salutation argument controls the closing sign-off.

New documents should use profile, recipient, and the three settings shown in the quick start.

Upgrading from 0.0.x

Your existing documents keep compiling, and they will change more than a visual redesign alone would explain. In 0.0.x the body style was applied inside a helper function that produced no content, so Typst scoped the rules to that helper and discarded them: letters rendered at Typst’s 11pt default rather than the configured body-size, and line-spacing, paragraph-spacing, justify, first-line-indent, and link-colour had no effect at all. Those settings now work. If you had compensated for the old behaviour with manual overrides, remove them.

Troubleshooting

• The email causes a syntax error: escape @ as \@ inside Typst content.
• The first page looks crowded: shorten the contact block and recipient address before selecting the compact preset.
• A statement heading is too close to a page break: keep it as a Typst heading; the template marks styled headings as sticky.
• The letter unexpectedly becomes two pages: remove repetition first, then try preset: "compact".
• A font is unavailable: set theme: (font: "Libertinus Serif").

Local development

Compile the repository examples against the working template:

typst compile example-coverletter.typ
typst compile example-statement.typ

All people, institutions, positions, projects, and claims in the examples are fictional.

License

This template is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.