Simple Thesis Template

This example demonstrates the usage of elembic for configurable and flexible templates.

We could have the following template.typ for a thesis. Note that we can retrieve thesis settings with get rules, and style individual components through show / set rules:

#import "@preview/elembic:1.1.1" as e

#let settings = e.element.declare(
  "thesis-settings",
  doc: "Settings for the best thesis template.",
  prefix: "@preview/thesis-template,v1",

  // Not meant to be displayed, only receives set rules
  display: it => panic("This element cannot be shown"),

  // The fields need defaults to be settable.
  fields: (
    e.field("title", str, doc: "The thesis title.", default: "My thesis"),
    e.field("author", str, doc: "The thesis author.", default: "Unspecified Author"),
    e.field("advisor", e.types.option(str), doc: "The advisor's name."),
    e.field("coadvisors", e.types.array(str), doc: "The co-advisors' names."),
  )
)

// Make title page an element so it is configurable
#let title-page = e.element.declare(
  "title-page",
  doc: "Title page for the thesis.",
  prefix: "@preview/thesis-template,v1",

  fields: (
    e.field("page-fill", e.types.option(e.types.paint), doc: "Optional page fill", default: none),
  ),

  // Default, overridable show-set rules
  template: it => {
    set align(center)
    set text(weight: "bold")
    it
  },

  display: it => e.get(get => {
    // Have a dedicated page with configurable fill
    show: page.with(fill: it.page-fill)

    // Retrieve thesis settings
    let opts = get(settings)
    block(text(32pt)[#opts.title])
    block(text(20pt)[#opts.author])

    if opts.advisor != none {
      [Advised by #opts.advisor \ ]
    }

    for coadvisor in opts.coadvisors {
      [Co-advised by #coadvisor \ ]
    }
  }),
)

#let template(doc) = e.get(get => {
  // Apply settings to document metadata
  set document(
    title: get(settings).title,
    author: get(settings).author,
  )

  // Apply some styles
  set heading(numbering: "1.")
  set par(first-line-indent: (all: true, amount: 2em))

  title-page()

  // Place the document, now with styles applied
  doc
})

We can then use this template in main.typ as follows:

#import "@preview/elembic:1.1.1" as e
#import "template.typ" as thesis

// Configure template
#show: e.set_(
  thesis.settings,
  title: "Cool template",
  author: "Kate",
  advisor: "Robert",
  coadvisors: ("John", "Ana"),
)

// Have a red background in the title page
#show: e.set_(thesis.title-page, page-fill: red.lighten(50%))

// Override the bold text set rule
#show e.selector(thesis.title-page, outer: true): set text(weight: "regular")

// Apply italic text formatting in the title page
#show: e.show_(thesis.title-page, emph)

// Apply the template
#show: thesis.template

= Introduction

#lorem(80)

This will produce the following pages of output: