Typst

Typst Skill

Typst is a modern markup-based typesetting system designed for scientific documents. It serves as an alternative to LaTeX with faster compilation (milliseconds, not seconds) and simpler syntax.

When to Use This Skill

Use Typst when:

• Creating academic papers, theses, or scientific documents
• Writing documents with mathematical equations
• Need faster compilation than LaTeX
• Want a simpler markup syntax than LaTeX
• Creating documents with complex tables and layouts
• Building reusable document templates

Three Syntactical Modes

Typst operates in three modes:

| Mode | Purpose | Switching | |------|---------|-----------| | Markup | Document structure (default) | Default mode | | Math | Mathematical formulas | $...$ for inline, $ ... $ with spaces for display | | Code | Scripting features | Prefix with # |

Escaping Special Characters

CRITICAL: When writing literal text in markup mode, you MUST escape special characters with a backslash (\). An unescaped # is the most common source of compilation errors — it tells Typst to enter code mode, so any literal # in text (e.g. "C#", "issue #42") must be written as \#.

Markup Mode Special Characters

| Character | Meaning | Escape | Example | |-----------|---------|--------|---------| | \ | Escape character / line break | \\ | path\\to\\file | | # | Code expression | \# | Tweet at us \#ad, C\#, \$1.50 per \#item | | * | Bold text | \* | 5 \* 3 = 15 | | _ | Italic text | \_ | file\_name\_here | | ` ` | Raw text / code | \ ` | | | $ | Math mode | \$ | costs \$1.50 | |

See @fig:chart for details.

// Bibliography #bibliography("refs.bib") Citation: @einstein1905

// Tables #table( columns: 3, [Header 1], [Header 2], [Header 3], [Row 1 A], [Row 1 B], [Row 1 C], [Row 2 A], [Row 2 B], [Row 2 C], )

## Set Rules (Global Styling)

Apply styles throughout your document:

```typst
// Font and text settings
#set text(font: "Libertinus Serif", size: 11pt)
#set par(justify: true, leading: 0.65em)

// Page setup
#set page(
  paper: "us-letter",
  margin: (x: 2.5cm, y: 3cm),
  numbering: "1",
)

// Heading numbering
#set heading(numbering: "1.1")

// Document metadata
#set document(
  title: "My Document",
  author: "Author Name",
)

Show Rules (Element Transformation)

Customize how elements are displayed:

// Style all level-1 headings
#show heading.where(level: 1): it => [
  #set text(blue)
  #block(smallcaps(it.body))
]

// Style specific text
#show "Typst": name => box[
  #text(blue)[#name]
]

// Combine show with set
#show heading: set text(navy)

Variables and Functions

// Define variables
#let title = "My Document"
#let version = 2

// Define functions
#let highlight(body, color: yellow) = {
  box(fill: color, inset: 3pt, body)
}

// Use them
#highlight[Important text]
#highlight(color: red)[Warning!]

Document Templates

Create reusable templates:

// template.typ
#let article(
  title: none,
  authors: (),
  abstract: none,
  body
) = {
  set document(title: title)
  set page(margin: 2cm)
  set text(font: "Libertinus Serif", size: 11pt)

  // Title
  align(center)[
    #text(17pt, weight: "bold")[#title]
    #v(1em)
    #authors.join(", ")
  ]

  // Abstract
  if abstract != none [
    #heading(outlined: false)[Abstract]
    #abstract
  ]

  body
}

// main.typ
#import "template.typ": article
#show: article.with(
  title: "My Paper",
  authors: ("Alice", "Bob"),
  abstract: [This paper explores...],
)

= Introduction
Content here...

Tables

// Basic table with styling
#table(
  columns: (auto, 1fr, auto),
  align: (right, left, center),
  fill: (_, y) => if y == 0 { gray.lighten(50%) },
  stroke: 0.5pt,

  table.header[ID][Name][Score],
  [1], [Alice], [95],
  [2], [Bob], [87],
  [3], [Carol], [92],
)

// Cell spanning
#table(
  columns: 3,
  table.cell(colspan: 2)[Merged],  [Single],
  [A], [B], [C],
)

Page Layout

// Two-column layout
#set page(columns: 2)

// Headers and footers
#set page(
  header: [Document Title #h(1fr) Draft],
  footer: context [
    #h(1fr)
    Page #counter(page).display()
  ],
)

// Page breaks
#pagebreak()

// Column breaks
#colbreak()

Popular Packages

Import packages from Typst Universe with #import "@preview/package:version".

Presentations

#import "@preview/touying:0.6.1": *   // Full-featured slides with themes
#import "@preview/polylux:0.4.0": *   // Lightweight beamer-style slides

Drawing and Visualization

#import "@preview/cetz:0.4.2"         // TikZ-inspired drawing
#import "@preview/lilaq:0.5.0" as lq  // Scientific plots and charts

Code and Algorithms

#import "@preview/codly:1.3.0": *     // Enhanced code blocks
#import "@preview/lovelace:0.3.0": *  // Pseudocode formatting

Document Utilities

#import "@preview/drafting:0.2.2": *  // Margin notes and comments

See individual package guides for detailed usage:

• [Presentations Guide](references/PRESENTATIONS.md) - Creating slides with Typst
• [Touying](references/TOUYING.md) - Presentations with themes
• [Polylux](references/POLYLUX.md) - Lightweight slides
• [CeTZ](references/CETZ.md) - Drawing library
• [Lilaq](references/LILAQ.md) - Scientific plots
• [Codly](references/CODLY.md) - Code blocks
• [Lovelace](references/LOVELACE.md) - Pseudocode
• [Drafting](references/DRAFTING.md) - Margin notes

CLI Usage

# Compile to PDF
typst compile document.typ

# Watch for changes
typst watch document.typ

# Specify output
typst compile document.typ output.pdf

# Add font paths
typst compile --font-path ./fonts document.typ

Quick Reference: LaTeX to Typst

| LaTeX | Typst | |-------|-------| | \section{Title} | = Title | | \textbf{bold} | *bold* | | \textit{italic} | _italic_ | | \begin{itemize} | - item | | \begin{enumerate} | + item | | $x^2$ | $x^2$ | | \frac{a}{b} | $a/b$ | | \usepackage{...} | #import "@preview/..." | | \documentclass | Template with show rule |

Additional Resources

• [Syntax Reference](references/SYNTAX.md)
• [Scripting Guide](references/SCRIPTING.md)
• [Styling Guide](references/STYLING.md)
• [Tables Guide](references/TABLES.md)
• Official Documentation

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: pavelzw
• Source: pavelzw/skill-forge
• License: BSD-3-Clause
• Homepage: https://prefix.dev/channels/skill-forge

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.