SSRN Scribe is a dependency-light Typst template for working papers, preprints, and general academic manuscripts. Its defaults follow the conventional SSRN working-paper pattern: a separate title page, centered author metadata, an abstract and keywords block, Times-style typography, numbered serif headings, grayscale output, and one-inch margins.

All authors, institutions, studies, data, and results in the repository examples are fictional.

Preview

Separate title page

Manuscript body

Compact inline-title variant

Choose a title mode

The title mode changes only the front matter. Body typography and heading numbering remain consistent.

Quick start

Create a project from Typst Universe:

typst init @preview/ssrn-scribe:0.10.0
cd ssrn-scribe
typst compile main.typ

The generated project contains:

ssrn-scribe/
├── main.typ   # minimal paper starter
└── extra.typ  # optional theorem, table, and diagram helpers

The core paper template has no helper-package dependency. extra.typ is only loaded when you import it explicitly.

During editing, rebuild automatically with:

typst watch main.typ

First edit checklist

1. Replace the placeholder title, author fields, abstract, and keywords in main.typ.
2. Choose separate or inline title mode with layout.maketitle.
3. Write the manuscript with ordinary Typst headings.
4. Add a bibliography only when citations are present.
5. Compile and inspect the title page, first body page, heading hierarchy, equations, tables, and references.

Minimal example

#import "@preview/ssrn-scribe:0.10.0": paper

#show: paper.with(
  meta: (
    title: [Your Paper Title],
    authors: (
      (name: "Your Name", affiliation: "Your Institution"),
    ),
    abstract: [State the question, method, main result, and contribution.],
    keywords: [Keyword one, Keyword two],
  ),
  layout: (
    maketitle: true,
    preset: "default",
  ),
)

= Introduction
Your paper starts here.

Typst passes the remaining document body to paper.with(...) automatically.

Recommended manuscript workflow

• Keep title-page information in meta.
• Keep typography changes in theme.
• Keep page structure and rhythm in layout.
• Write the manuscript body after the #show: paper.with(...) rule.
• Import extra.typ only when the paper needs theorem, table, or diagram helpers.

Start from the defaults and override only settings required by a venue or submission stage. This makes later migrations easier than copying individual font and spacing rules into the manuscript.

Configuration model

Settings are grouped by purpose so the starter stays memorable:

Author fields

Each author accepts name and optional department, affiliation, email, and note fields. A note becomes a title-page footnote.

Bibliography

Typst accepts BibLaTeX .bib files and Hayagriva .yaml files. Add the rendered bibliography to meta:

meta: (
  bibliography: bibliography(
    "references.bib",
    title: "References",
    style: "apa",
  ),
)

Use citation keys normally in the document:

Prior work motivates the scheduling rule @chen2025publicaudit.

When meta.bibliography is set, SSRN Scribe renders it after the manuscript body. The repository’s sample bibliography contains fictional records; replace it in your own paper.

Default working-paper design

The defaults deliberately avoid a branded or editorial look. They are intended to resemble the broadly used economics, law, business, and social-science working papers commonly distributed through SSRN.

body-line-leading is Typst paragraph leading, meaning the extra space between lines rather than a CSS-style total line height.

Semantic theme values can be overridden together:

#let theme = (
  font: ("Times New Roman", "Libertinus Serif"),
  heading-font: ("Times New Roman", "Libertinus Serif"),
  body-size: 11pt,
  text: rgb("#111111"),
  heading: rgb("#111111"),
  muted: rgb("#444444"),
  accent: rgb("#111111"),
  rule: rgb("#8a8a8a"),
)

The main type-size overrides are body-size, title-size, subtitle-size, and author-size.

Layout options

Common layout keys are:

For a wider review manuscript, select the relaxed preset without changing the visual identity:

layout: (
  preset: "relaxed",
)

preset is also accepted as a top-level argument, matching modernpro-cv and modernpro-coverletter. The older spellings density: "balanced" and density: "spacious" still resolve.

Each preset coordinates title-page spacing, author rows, front matter, body leading, paragraph rhythm, and the space above and below all three heading levels. Additional advanced keys can override individual tokens such as heading-1-after, cover-spacing, inline-title sizes, author gutters, and front-matter gaps. See example.typ for a complete grouped setup.

Optional advanced helpers

The generated extra.typ file provides theorem/proof blocks, equation helpers, tablex and tablem, and CeTZ diagram utilities. Enable it only in papers that need those features:

#import "extra.typ": *
#show: great-theorems-init

The full example.typ demonstrates theorem and table helpers. The smaller example-brief.typ uses only the core template.

mitex remains commented out in extra.typ because compatibility depends on the Typst and package versions you select.

Common recipes

Use an inline title

layout: (
  maketitle: false,
)

Set two author columns

layout: (
  author-columns: 2,
  author-alignment: center,
)

Add JEL codes and acknowledgments

meta: (
  JEL: [C61, C63],
  acknowledgments: [Add acknowledgments here.],
)

Prepare a roomier review copy

layout: (
  preset: "relaxed",
)

Legacy flat API

Older documents can continue to pass flat arguments such as title, authors, font, fontsize, and maketitle directly to paper. New documents should use meta, theme, and layout.

If grouped and flat values are mixed, grouped values win. This lets existing documents migrate one group at a time without changing their content.

Troubleshooting

• Page 1 contains only front matter: this is the expected maketitle: true working-paper layout; select false for an inline title.
• Times New Roman is unavailable: the default falls back to Libertinus Serif, or set another installed serif family in theme.
• An optional helper import fails: remove the extra.typ import when those helpers are unused, or update the package versions inside that file.
• The manuscript feels too tight: select preset: "relaxed" before changing individual leading or heading gaps.
• References do not appear: pass the constructed bibliography through meta.bibliography, not as an unused standalone expression.

Local development

From this repository, compile both examples with:

typst compile example-brief.typ
typst compile example.typ

All people, institutions, studies, and results in the examples are fictional.

License

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