Good LaTeX preambles for math thesis

Question

Can someone provide me an example of a nice preamble to write a math thesis? I am currently using

 \documentclass[12pt]{article} 
\topmargin -15mm

\textheight 24truecm   
\textwidth 16truecm    
\oddsidemargin 5mm
\evensidemargin 5mm   
\setlength\parskip{10pt}
\pagestyle{empty}          

\usepackage{boxedminipage}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amsmath} 
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsthm}
\usepackage{t1enc}
\usepackage{subfig}

\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}[section]
\newtheorem{lemma}[theorem]{Lemma}
\newtheorem{proposition}[theorem]{Proposition}
\newtheorem{corollary}[theorem]{Corollary}
\newtheorem{definition}[theorem]{Definition}
\newtheorem{example}[theorem]{Example}

Answer 1

In general, I suggest to start with a preamble that is as small as possible and to add packages and/or custom commands as the need for them arises.

With regard to your code sample:

• Don't fiddle with \topmargin, \textheight and similar commands. If you want to change the margins of your document, use the geometry or typearea packages.

• If you really must denote new paragraphs by additional spacing instead of indentation, replace \setlength\parskip{10pt} with the parskip package. See this answer for details.

• The t1enc package is obsolete -- use \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} instead. See l2tabu for other obsolete packages/commands.

Answer 2

Just to add to the comments of the other posters. Just add packages as you need. A thesis preamble is bound to expand fast. Divide it into sections such as General, Typography, Mathematics, Commands etc. As the preamble grows some of these you will pass to a package say moremath.sty.

Keep the style simple, no fancy fonts. Under typography you can include microtype and stmarysd. Under mathematics you have included the basis and I will second Mico's suggestion of mathtools. Under commands put all your specials. For example under theorems you should include all your formatting decisions as well. As a bonus, here is some styling for theorems.

%% Theorems formatting 
\newtheoremstyle{itheorem}{}{}{\itshape}{}{\bfseries}{.}{ }{#1\if!#3!\else\ \fi\thmnote{#3}}
\newtheoremstyle{icorollary}{}{}{}{}{\itshape}{.---}{0pt}{#1}
\newtheoremstyle{numcorollary}{}{}{}{}{\itshape}{.}{ }{#1\if!#3!\else\ \fi\thmnote{#3}}
\newtheoremstyle{idefinition}{}{}{}{}{\bfseries}{.---}{0pt}{}
\newtheoremstyle{ilemma}{}{}{\itshape}{}{\bfseries}{.---}{0pt}{#1\if!#3!\else\ \fi\thmnote{#3}}
\newtheoremstyle{iother}{}{}{\itshape}{}{\bfseries}{.---}{0pt}{\thmnote{#3}}
\theoremstyle{ilemma}
\newtheorem*{lemma}{Lemma}
\theoremstyle{itheorem}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}
\theoremstyle{iother}
\newtheorem{other}{}
\theoremstyle{icorollary}
\newtheorem{corollary}{Corollary}
\theoremstyle{numcorollary}
\newtheorem{ncorollary}{Corollary}
\theoremstyle{idefinition}
\newtheorem*{definition}{Definition}
\newtheorem*{definitions}{Definitions}
\newtheorem*{defnorder}{Definition of Order}

%% Proof environment
\renewcommand{\proofname}{\upshape\bfseries Proof}

Keep the style simple and clean with minimal bold and don't use the standard LaTeX class.

Answer 3

• In addition to the math-related packages you're already loading, you may want to take a look at the mathtools package. It's a superset of the amsmath package. If you load mathtools, there's no need to load amsmath by hand.

• You seem to be comfortable with Computer Modern/Latin Modern fonts. If this assumption is correct, you may want to load the lmodern package.

• Moreover, instead of loading the deprecated t1enc package, you should issue the instruction \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}.

• You should take a look at the geometry package and its margin-setting commands, to let you simplify the setup of the page layout. (As of now, the collection of commands looks like it was thrown together haphazardly.)

• What I'd really want to question about your preamble is the use of \pagestyle{empty}. Does your school require this? If not, please do your readers a favor and delete this command, so that LaTeX can print page numbers.