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I use classicthesis for my thesis, which is quite uncommon for my institution (the LaTeX class provided by the institute has line lengths of 130 chars and very tiny borders on A4 paper).

My supervisor says I can use whatever I want, but I want to explain my choice somewhere in the thesis, especially for the co-readers. I don't want anyone to say "he is just increasing page count with this ridiculous amount of whitespace on each page".

I currently put it into the colophon, before the technical details.

It reads something like this and covers around 80% of one page:

COLOPHON

<Why typography is important to me>

<Why I made this choice>

<I hope you (the reader) likes it>

<Technical details (real colophon)>

Is this a reasonable choice?

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    I think it is (i am basicly doing it the same way), im curious about ur actual text though. Since im doing the same thing right now on my thesis. He did something similar: duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=81971&lang=en
    – Elmer
    Feb 16, 2011 at 21:14
  • Why don't you structure your thesis so that you can compile it in your institution's provided format and in classicthesis format?
    – las3rjock
    Feb 16, 2011 at 23:00
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    @las3rjock I actually did structure it that way. The main reason is to show my supervisor how many pages it would be in the institutes style. If they want it in their style though, the can have it too.
    – B3ret
    Feb 17, 2011 at 10:11
  • @Elmer I looked at the thesis you referred to. My text is actually much more personal than his, maybe I will change to a more conservative decription. I don't want to add my current text here, but you can send me a mail at [email protected] (valid 1 month).
    – B3ret
    Feb 17, 2011 at 10:26

1 Answer 1

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I would recommend a different structure. As a reader I'm not so much interested in why typography is important to you but more why the document is typeset the way it is. This can still entail arguments about readability but I would let arguments speak for themselves rather than presenting them explicitly as your opinion. Also, asking about the opinion of your readers seems a cheap rhetorical trick. Your readers will know whether they like it or not and obviously you want your readers to like it. Again, no need to express that hope explicitly.

This document is set in Computer Modern Roman with a text width of n pica in 12 point size and a line spacing of 14 points. If you are familiar with the thesis style of My Organization you will notice that the layout is quite different. The choice is quite deliberate since I believe that the chosen layout improves readability and provides enough room in the margins for your notes.

An introduction like the one above could be followed by the more technical details, as you suggested.

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