# Showcase of beautiful typography done in TeX & friends

If you were asked to show examples of beautifully typeset documents in TeX & friends, what would you suggest? Preferably documents available online (I'm aware I could go to a bookstore and find many such documents called 'books'). Extra bonus for documents whose LaTeX source is available.

This is not an idle question. Seeing great examples of any craft is both educational and inspiring, let alone explaining why we prefer TeX to Word or other text editors.

For instance, I like how Philipp Lehman's Font Installation Guide looks. I don't know enough LaTeX to realize how much customization was done, but the ToC looks polished.

• Interestingly, the font installation guide probably doesn’t even have that many customizations, at least by the looks of it. Rather, the polished looks come from a very few choice adjustments. Aug 8 '10 at 8:53
• I really like the microtype manual PDF. Since it's nicely using PDF features like layers and such to create an appealing document. Aug 15 '10 at 14:46
• It seems to me that the font installation guide was set-up in a more elaborated way in previous versions. Am I missing something or confused with another document? Oct 1 '10 at 2:18
• I just want to come and vote this up! Jul 9 '13 at 20:37
– hola
May 31 '17 at 6:34

Just finished writing my PhD thesis, which is written using the memoir class and all figures are drawn using TikZ. The PDF is available on http://kth.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1185339/FULLTEXT03.pdf, and the source code is freely available on https://github.com/gablin/ghb-thesis.

While studying engineering mechanics I’ve come across a beautiful integral combination chart (german “Koppeltafel”) that is used to calculate the integral of two given functions multiplied. Sadly it was a bad quality scan. So I rebuilt the whole thing with lots of attention to detail in the math and the drawings and using accurate graphs. The LaTeX / TikZ code is approx. 1000 lines long and at some points I even use custom symbols embedded as pdf files (e.g. the \ell is customized).

I had to make a large poster for a conference and I used the style file baposter (link) to do it. Here's a preview:

The options look like:

\begin{poster}%
% Poster Options
{
% Show grid to help with alignment
grid=no,
% Column spacing
colspacing=1em,
% Color style
bgColorOne=lighteryellow,
bgColorTwo=lightestyellow,
borderColor=reddishyellow,
boxColorOne=lightyellow,
boxColorTwo=lighteryellow,
% Format of textbox
%textborder=roundedleft,
textborder =rounded,
%  textborder=rectangle,
eyecatcher=no,
background=plain,
linewidth=2pt
}


You place the boxes using relative coordinates such as below contribution (where contribution is the name of a box). Here's a example:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


Check this out. Reply if you want the TeX file or instructions.

• Well if you have the source code couldn't you just post it? I, for sure, am interested :-) Dec 26 '14 at 22:27
• I second that thought. Mar 19 '15 at 19:35
• Its nice, please share the code Feb 3 '19 at 9:13
• Beautiful, please share the source code. May 3 '20 at 13:45

This is only somewhat related, but Springer lets you search their journals for strings of latex. This can help you understand how to format certain commands (and decide whether it is done well or not): http://www.latexsearch.com/

Some of you may be interested in Cours d’analyse although it is far from being as fancy as some of documents already mentioned. It is a bit too dense and comments are welcome. The final code is probably very nasty. Anyway.

• +1 for CC licensed. I also love the use of orange hues in the document. Really great. Sep 23 '10 at 7:58
• I do appreciate, even if I agree about the density of the text... et que cela ne me rappelle pas que des bons souvenirs de prépa ! Anyway, I'd like to know more about the way you achieve the rendering of Exercices or Lemmes blocks! Jul 7 '16 at 12:18
• This is inspired by The Legrand Orange Book. Jan 6 at 7:56

I just picked these three from our archives.

• Matthew Mac Namara, La Textualisation de Madame Bovary, Rodopi, New York, 2004, 9042009845

• [Carlo Collodi], Éachtra Phinocchio, tr. Pádraig Ó Buachalla, ed Seán Ó Suilleabháin ⁊ Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Random House / Coiste Litriochta Mhuscrai, 2nd ed, 2003, 0954455401

• Seán Connolly, Bede: On The Temple, Liverpool University Press, 1995, B001DP4V3S

• Any chance Pinocchio's adventures could be typeset using the 'eiad' characters ( irish alphabet to the uninitiated)... Jan 23 '15 at 19:16
• I don't see why not, but Yannis' decorative initial would probably be better replaced with a different one. The problem with that edition was that we were constrained to keep the same illustrations on the same pages in the same place as all the other language editions, which meant a lot of fiddling with point sizes of text to make it fall in the right places. I'd have to do the same with the eiad font. I'll have a look. edit I would of course have to check with the editor about copyright before I could actually distribute it. Jan 28 '15 at 23:06

A good comparison of MS Word vs. LaTex was done by Matthias Mühlich who wrote twice the same text (without any formula or table or anything one expects LaTex to shine) in both formats and converted them to pdf.

Just print out 1 and 2, and decide for yourself.

• I love this explicit juxtaposition of the results. It speaks for itself! Sep 14 '11 at 20:54
• Indeed, with a good use of interline spacing, I think that World could do in this case a good job too. Jun 15 '14 at 10:11
• @projetmbc Could do, yes. But isn't part of the point what the default looks like? I'm guessing that the LaTeX version is not far from default - presumably babel or something must be loaded with German hyphenation, and it is using type1 fonts rather than the defaults, but I doubt there is much by way of tweaking line spacing going on. And it is not just the line spacing - it is also the line breaks and lack of hyphenation in the Word version. But I would for sure be interested to see what this looks like with Word's current defaults. (At least the font would differ.)
– cfr
Jan 3 '15 at 3:18

Here's an example from a series of posters I designed, displaying quotes about science. The posters all have the same basic design and are to be printed on A3 paper.

• Interesting quote! is there a link to the source/list of quotes? Sep 29 '17 at 14:52

A page from class notes I used to teach differential equations. Figure created with pgfplots. Colors are easily matched with color definitions. Done with a humble experience/knowledge in LaTeX. Pure LaTeX greatness!

• Nice! Is the source available? Mar 30 '15 at 11:51
• For 'pgfplots'? Mar 30 '15 at 13:26
• Would you be willing to share the code for your class notes? I am very interested in the plots. Bu the book code would also be very useful. THANKS!!! May 8 '20 at 15:44

A poster about "Automata and Computability" for my students. It's in Dutch thus most people wont understand that much about it. It is an A0 poster, something most WYSIWIG magic will never achieve to edit conveniently.

pdf and tex are available. Feel free to fork/issue/pull request.

In order to make typesetting more conveniently, I wrote a package called preziposters, although it is still under development.

A physical copy is hanging in my office.

Using the same package, this poster - about Graph theory and Combinatorial Optimization - was made (still in beta):

(pdf)

• The pdf file contains 0 bytes. Nov 19 '14 at 1:09
• Fixed, a cron script normally compiles the poster each day (to synchronize updates), but apparently, something went wrong this time. Nov 19 '14 at 2:02
• Thanks. BTW, I looked at other posters (which are very nice) in your git repository and ‘Fundamentals of Computer Science’ is rather empty. Is it not finished (yet)? Nov 19 '14 at 11:54
• The pdf is still 0 bytes. May 21 '15 at 12:37
• @Willem Van Onsem: "This account has been disabled"
– lblb
Mar 22 '17 at 17:00

I draw 15 type of pentagonal tiling.

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,scale=1.1]
\foreach \x in {0,3,6,9,12,15}
\draw[line width=1pt,pink] (0,\x) -- (9,\x);
\foreach \x in {0,3,6,9}
\draw[line width=1pt,pink] (\x,0) -- (\x,15);
\draw[line width=1pt,pink] (0,0) -- (9,0) -- (9,15) -- (0,15) -- cycle;

\foreach \x in {0,3,6}
\foreach \y in {3,6,...,15}
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (\x,\y-.3) rectangle (\x+.3,\y);

\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (.15,2.85)  node {\tiny $1$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (3.15,2.85)  node {\tiny $2$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (6.15,2.85)  node {\tiny $3$};

\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (.15,5.85)  node {\tiny $4$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (3.15,5.85)  node {\tiny $5$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (6.15,5.85)  node {\tiny $6$};

\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (.15,8.85)  node {\tiny $7$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (3.15,8.85)  node {\tiny $8$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (6.15,8.85)  node {\tiny $9$};

\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (.15,11.85)  node {\tiny $10$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (3.15,11.85)  node {\tiny $11$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (6.15,11.85)  node {\tiny $12$};

\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (.15,14.85)  node {\tiny $13$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (3.15,14.85)  node {\tiny $14$};
\draw[pink,line width=1pt] (6.15,14.85)  node {\tiny $15$};

\draw (1.5,1.5) node {
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 1
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (15:27mm)$) coordinate (B) node[right] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!26mm!-67:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[above] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!11mm!-113:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [left] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!17mm!-125:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,above right] {$c$};
\draw [green](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw (D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,left] {$e$};
\draw[red](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-.9) node{$\widehat{B}+\widehat{C}=180^\circ$};
\draw (1,-1.5) node{$\widehat{A}+\widehat{D}+\widehat{E}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};

\draw (4.5,1.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 2
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (25:15mm)$) coordinate (B) node[right] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!14mm!-120:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[above] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!30mm!-95:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [left] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!14mm!-60:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,right] {$c$};
\draw [green](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [blue](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,left] {$e$};
\draw[red](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (.4,-.9) node{$c=e$};
\draw (.4,-1.5) node{$\widehat{B}+\widehat{D}=180^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (7.5,1.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 3
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (-18:24mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!8mm!-105:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!26mm!-120:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!18mm!-120:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw ($(C)!8mm!-120:(B)$) coordinate (BC);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [green](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above right] {$d$};
\draw (D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[pink](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[blue] (C) -- (BC);
\draw (D) -- (BC);

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (BC) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-1.5) node{$a=b,\;d=c+e$};
\draw (1,-2.2) node{$\widehat{A}=\widehat{C}=\widehat{D}=120^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};

\draw (1.5,4.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 4
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[left] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (-90:11mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!11mm!-90:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[below] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!22mm!-140:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [right] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!22mm!-90:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [above] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,left] {$b$};
\draw [pink] (B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below] {$c$};
\draw [blue] (C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,below right] {$d$};
\draw [blue] (D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above right] {$e$};
\draw   (E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-1.9) node{$b=c,\;d=e$};
\draw (1,-2.5) node{$\widehat{B}=\widehat{D}=90^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (4.5,4.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 5
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:29mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!7mm!-120:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!15mm!-135:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [right] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!15mm!-120:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [above] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw (B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [blue](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,right] {$d$};
\draw [blue](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[pink](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1.2,-.9) node{$a=b,\;d=e$};
\draw (1.2,-1.5) node{$\widehat{A}=60^\circ,\;\widehat{D}=120^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (7.5,4.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 6
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.6]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:22mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!22mm!-40:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[above] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!9mm!-125:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!9mm!-140:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,above right] {$c$};
\draw [blue](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,left] {$e$};
\draw[pink](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (.8,-.9) node{$a=d=e,\;b=c$};
\draw (.8,-1.5) node{$\widehat{B}+\widehat{D}=180^\circ,\;2\widehat{B}=\widehat{E}$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}

};

\draw (1.5,7.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 7
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:17mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!17mm!-140:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!17mm!-135:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!17mm!-90:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [above] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,right] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[blue](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-.9) node{$b=c=d=e$};
\draw (1,-1.6) node{$\widehat{B}+2\widehat{E}=2\widehat{C}+\widehat{D}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (4.5,7.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 8
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.4]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:22mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!22mm!-110:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!22mm!-140:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!22mm!-70:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,right] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above left] {$e$};
\draw[blue](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-.9) node{$b=c=d=e$};
\draw (1,-1.6) node{$2\widehat{B}+\widehat{C}=\widehat{D}+2\widehat{E}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (7.5,7.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 9
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.4]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:25mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!25mm!-75:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!25mm!-150:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!25mm!-60:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above right] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,left] {$e$};
\draw[blue](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-1) node{$b=c=d=e$};
\draw (1,-1.7) node{$2\widehat{A}+\widehat{C}=\widehat{D}+2\widehat{E}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};

\draw (1.5,10.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 10
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.5]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:29.9mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!6mm!-110:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!18mm!-125:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [right] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!23mm!-145:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [above] {$E$};

\draw ($(A) + (0:23mm)$) coordinate (AA);
\draw ($(A) + (90:6mm)$) coordinate (EE);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,right] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[white](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {\color{pink} $a$};

\draw[pink] (A) -- (AA);
\draw[blue] (B) -- (AA);
\draw (C) -- (D);
\draw[pink] (D) -- (E);
\draw[pink] (E) -- (EE);
\draw[blue] (A) -- (EE);

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (AA) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (EE) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1.3,-.9) node{$a=b=c+e$};
\draw (1.3,-1.55) node{$\widehat{A}=90^\circ,\;\widehat{B}+\widehat{E}=180^\circ$};
\draw (1.3,-2.2) node{
$\widehat{B}+2\widehat{C}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}

};
\draw (4.5,10.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 11
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.7]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:23.4mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!9mm!-150:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!18mm!-60:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!18mm!-120:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [above] {$E$};

\draw ($(C)!9mm!-60:(B)$) coordinate (CC);
\draw ($(CC)!4.5mm!0:(D)$ ) coordinate (CCC);
\draw ($(D)!4.5mm!0:(E)$) coordinate (DD);
\draw ($(DD)!4.5mm!0:(E)$) coordinate (DDD);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[blue](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[blue] (D) -- (DD);
\draw[blue] (DDD) -- (DD);
\draw[blue] (CC) -- (CCC);
\draw[blue] (CCC) -- (D);

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (CC) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (CCC) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (DD) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (DDD) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1.5,-.8) node {$2a+c=d=e$ };
\draw (1.5,-1.45) node {$\widehat{A}=90^\circ,\;2\widehat{B}+\widehat{C}=360^\circ$};
\draw (1.5,-2.1) node {$\widehat{C}+\widehat{E}=180^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (7.5,10.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 12
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.6]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:15mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!17mm!-155:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!26mm!-50:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!9mm!-115:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw ($(C)!17mm! 0:(D)$) coordinate (CC);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw  (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above left] {$e$};
\draw[green](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[pink] (C) -- (CC);
\draw[blue] (CC) -- (D);
\draw[blue] (D) -- (E);

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (CC) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1.4,-.9) node{$2a=d=c+e$};
\draw (1.4,-1.55) node{$\widehat{A}=90^\circ,\;2\widehat{B}+\widehat{C}=360^\circ$};
\draw (1.4,-2.2) node{$\widehat{C}+\widehat{E}=180^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};

\draw (1.5,13.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 13
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.6]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:25mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!4.5mm!-90:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[above] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!24mm!-120:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!12mm!-120:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw ($(C)!12mm!0:(D)$) coordinate (CC);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw  (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [blue](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[pink](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (CC) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1,-.9) node{$d=2a=2e$};
\draw (1,-1.55) node{$\widehat{B}=\widehat{E}=90^\circ$};
\draw (1,-2.2) node{$2\widehat{A}+\widehat{D}=360^\circ$};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (4.5,13.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 14
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.6]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:24.3mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!9mm!-145.34:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!18mm!-69.32:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!18mm!-124.66:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw ($(E)!9mm!0:(D)$) coordinate (EE);
\draw ($(D)!9mm!0:(C)$) coordinate (DD);

\draw (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,below right] {$c$};
\draw [pink](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,above] {$e$};
\draw[blue](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (EE) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (DD) circle (.6pt);

\draw (1.4,-.9) node{$2a=2c=d=e,\,\widehat{A}=90^\circ$};
\draw (1.4,-1.55) node{$\widehat{B}\simeq 145.34^\circ,\, \widehat{C}\simeq 69.32^\circ$};
\draw (1.4,-2.2) node{$\widehat{D}\simeq 124.66^\circ,\, \widehat{E}\simeq 110.68^\circ$
%%(2\widehat{B}+\widehat{C}=360^\circ,\; \widehat{C}+\widehat{E}=180^\circ)
};
\end{tiny}

\end{tikzpicture}
};
\draw (7.5,13.5) node {%
%%%%%%Pentagon Type 15
\begin{tikzpicture}[line join=round,line width=1.2pt,scale=.6]
\begin{tiny}
\draw (0,0) coordinate (A) node[below] {$A$};
\draw ($(A) + (0:21mm)$) coordinate (B) node[below] {$B$};
\draw ($(B)!10.5mm!-60:(A)$) coordinate (C) node[right] {$C$};
\draw ($(C)!21mm!-135:(B)$) coordinate (D) node [above] {$D$};
\draw ($(D)!10.5mm!-105:(C)$) coordinate (E) node [left] {$E$};

\draw ($(A)!10.5mm!0:(B)$) coordinate (AA);

\draw[fill=yellow!20,yellow!20] (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- (D) -- (E) -- cycle;

\draw [pink] (A) -- (B) node[pos=.5,below] {$b$};
\draw [pink](B) -- (C) node[pos=.5,right] {$c$};
\draw [blue](C) -- (D) node[pos=.5,above] {$d$};
\draw [pink](D) -- (E) node[pos=.5,left] {$e$};
\draw[pink](E) -- (A) node[pos=.5,below left] {$a$};

\draw[fill] (A) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (B) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (C) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (D) circle (.6pt);
\draw[fill] (E) circle (.6pt);

\draw[fill] (AA) circle (.6pt);

\draw (.7,-.9) node{$a=c=e,\;b=2a$};
\draw (.7,-1.55) node{$\widehat{E}=90^\circ, \widehat{A}=150^\circ, \widehat{B}=60^\circ$};
\draw (.7,-2.2) node{$\widehat{C}=135^\circ,\;\widehat{D}=105^\circ$};
\end{tiny}
\end{tikzpicture}
};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


I think this list shoul definitely include The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e. It is the book with which I started to learn LaTeX. It has no bells and whistles, but a very clean and pleasant layout, which is the philosophy of LaTeX. If I wanted to show off fonts and fancy pictures I would probably rather go for a document created in Adobe InDesign.

I like to get ideas from http://data.imf.au.dk/system/latex/bog/version3/beta/ltxb-2011-09-13-20-10.pdf

Although it's in Danish and sometimes maybe a bit too colorful or crowded, I really like what he has done.

• That is indeed so much color. Hm. Nov 30 '18 at 8:23
• Is the template available anywhere? Jan 6 at 8:06

A few years ago I struggled with the problem of annotating Byron's comic masterpiece "Don Juan". I finally managed to torture the Memoir class sufficiently to produce the attached. Beautiful? The only reason I claim your attention is because I've never seen an adequate annotation of extended verse (in terra-rima stanzas or in any other format). My objective was, once, to emulate the fabulous Isaac Asimov annotation (Doubleday, 1972. Illus. Milton Glaser). But, in a way, I'm content that wonderful work remains non-pareil.

The annotated Canto III (pdf, 2.1mb) is here

I'm working on an etymological approach of the Wycliffe's translation of the Bible to English language.

The project's been written mostly in lua and compiled with LuaLaTeX engine, and can be checked here: The Wycliffe Holy Bible Project.

The handbook for the memoir class showcases quite a few different layouts, some of which I would call quite beautiful.

I am a member of the National University of Singapore Astronomical Society, and we hold competitions for secondary and pre-university students. I typeset the exam papers for this year's iteration. The preamble is admittedly extremely messy, with plenty of possibly unnecessary code, but the product looks good. The exam class was used to great effect.

Nearly every single diagram was hand-coded in separate .tikz files, compiled and imported in; I am especially pleased with the diagrams for the bielliptical transfer and orbital parameters:

• Last year, during University Physics Competition, I was trying to draw some Hoffman transfer orbit diagrams. But due to lack of time and proficiency, I ended up using Geogebra to draw them. Do you mind showing the tikz codes of the diagrams?
– raf
May 22 at 13:25
• @raf, please find a pastebin of the code here. It is meant to be used with this preamble: please comment out the Minion Pro and MnSymbol packages for compatibility. It is not the best code, and I would like to change much of it (like optimising the radii of the orbits), but this is how I set up the images when I typeset them two years ago. May 22 at 13:49
• Thanks for sharing, @SRSR333
– raf
May 23 at 8:04

Not sure if this counts as "great typesetting" but I am quite satisfied of how my lecture notes turned out. I am using the tufte-book document class and used titlesec and titletoc to modify the appearance of the sections. I do heavy usage of tcolorbox for theorems, examples and definitions. Most of the drawings are made in Inkscape and then imported, the commutative diagrams are made with tikzcd and finally some Asymptote is present. Here are some pages of them:

They definitely are not top-tier but I still am quite satisfied with the result.

• So nice design. Would you like to share the template? My e-mail is mauramz at gmail.com Thank you. Nov 17 '19 at 3:36
• I am not too sure how to share a template or how to even create one. I put together the relevant commands for the sections and the theorems and put them here. Alongside these I also use some other commands to manage my figures but they are not really relevant with the design you see here. As for the document class I use \documentclass[symmetric,nobib,notoc, a4paper]{tufte-book}. I hope this suffices!
– gjkf
Nov 17 '19 at 10:59
• @gjkf Kindly share this template with me: jongaro at ictp.it Aug 17 '20 at 20:35
• pastebin.com/7bzqaXPf This is the common preamble I used, the document class is right above. The preamble it's all but well done, hope it helps though!
– gjkf
Aug 17 '20 at 20:39

This is a preprint of an article I am working on, which makes use of the wonderful (but sadly defunct) tufte-latex and its tufte-handout class, together with the pgfpages package. It's rather simplistic, but given the few modifications made, the result is quite nice and clean. Just wanted to post this an example of what can be achieved without being a LaTeX templating guru, but still looks distinguishably different from the standard templates, thanks to the great work of others.

The article is available on github if anyone wants to dive into the code.

• I am not fond of Tufte's use of margin figures. The reader may find it difficult to know in what order to read the material. I prefer to put the illustrations into the flow of the text as much as possible. Your example doesn't suffer from this problem, but most people who follow Tufte have that problem. Jan 31 '19 at 20:29
• @BenjaminMcKay: how does that differ from standard LaTeX's floats, though? If the figure is labeled Figure n, and you refer to it as such in the text, I fail to see the problem. The output looks absolutely beautiful, but I wonder if the lines are on grid. Jan 31 '19 at 22:37
• I edited the post and added a link to the github page where the code for the article can be found. Feb 1 '19 at 1:58
• @morbusg: I agree; LaTeX's floats give a similar problem, but Tufte's style encourages large numbers of margin figures. Large numbers of floats would have the same problem, but people usually don't have very many floats. Feb 1 '19 at 11:45

Philip A. Ebert and Marcus Rossberg's translation of Frege's Grundgesetze der Arithmetik features some of the most complex notation devised. The TeX source is not available, but one can view much of the work on the "preview" link at the OUP page for the book.

Edited by Ben McKay: Here is a little sample (which won't give us copyright problems, as it is fair use):

– user156344
Dec 4 '18 at 16:43
• I have included a link for the interested reader, copying an image from there might have copyright implication, so I have not done so. Dec 4 '18 at 16:58
• I think one or two pages would probably be fine? Those proof trees seem fancy. Jan 15 '19 at 9:25

Is this the shameless plug place? Ok then! Here's my PhD thesis which, 4+ years later, I am still happy with the way it turned out. Style is available here. It's an amalgamation of different things I got off the interwebs and tweaked when procrastinating.

• would you please give us a template or part of the code you used in your Thesis. I looks really nice. Feb 12 '15 at 18:45
• Overall is a nice design, but I think you have been too brave using illuminated capitals at start of chapters in a computer science thesis! I beat that this was a bit controversial with your advisor ;) Feb 13 '15 at 11:44
• @zunbeltz Not really. Even the examiners were pretty pleased with it aesthetically (as well as content wise!). Feb 13 '15 at 14:14
• @Yehia Good for you! Maybe I will try to use them in my tech reports ;) Feb 13 '15 at 20:15

Easy. The TeX showcase from the TeX Users' Group.

We recently created a LaTeX package for the Physics branch of my student union (at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden) that allows anyone to typeset a document in compliance with our graphical profile. The code is quite messy, but except for the implementation listing at the end (which will change when we move to dtx deployment in the next release) I'm quite happy with the output it produces.

Both the package code, the examples and the output pdf are available on Github.

...and for a great example of TeX typesetting in an open access scholarly journal, check out the Australasian Journal of Logic.

• Very nice, but I can't find the LaTeX package anywhere in the site. Feb 7 '11 at 1:00
• I don't like the design of the journal: The font is harder to read and misses good sans-serif variant, moreover e.g. the usage of italics in section headers makes the font significantly inconsistent. Generally, I think that unwise changes of the font faces does not make the design any better. (This is just my opinion, I don't say that someone made a wrong template, I just point out some issues I see there.)
– yo'
Jul 4 '12 at 9:49

I found the pocket books from the brazilian publisher "Hedra" to be very beautiful. For example, Conrad's Heart of Darkness translation. However, there's no source.

• Is there any reason to believe this was produced with TeX?
– cfr
Jan 3 '15 at 3:02
• The editors say so in the book's colophon, which unfortunately is not available in google books anymore (by the time I posted it, the whole book was available). There's another pocket book from the same collection (a collection of short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa) available at download.uol.com.br/diversao/…. The chief editor was very active in the old brazilian tex mailing list (TeX-BR) also. Jan 3 '15 at 21:00
• Interesting. Thanks for replying. I just couldn't tell from what the link showed me which was basically the front cover!
– cfr
Jan 3 '15 at 22:10

An example of combining 4 graphs from different datasheets results in this:

If there is any interest in it, I will post de tex file.

How about sesamath's book class ?https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/sesamanuel

Available with texdoc sesamath on distributions such as TeX Live

At the first reduction of the Gaussian elimination using the Gauss transform, the resulting matrix will have 0 below the first entry in the first column, the first row will not change and the trailing matrix will be updated accordingly. A clear way to see this is to visualize the process in a block-portioned matrix. I wrote a code that demonstrates this providing beautiful visualization. The code is really big but if you wish to have the code just "@me" in the comments of any of my questions/answers and I will provide you with the link to the code. Enjoy!!!

I'd like to add Leon Harkleroad's The Math Behind The Music, an impressive example of fine page layout.

• Could you please add an image? Jul 18 '13 at 10:26