3.1.1   default length unit

The default length unit (added to length specifications without unit) is the "DTP point" (1/72 inch, "bp" in LaTeX notification).

3.1.2   size of a pixel (length unit px)

The length unit px is a "relative length" whose value depends on the resolution of the output device (usually specified in dots per inch (DPI). However, when producing a PDF, the resolution of the output device (printer, screen (for PDF-viewer) is generally not known.

With pdftex, the "resolution" is a configuration setting.

Default:

72 DPI, i.e. 1 px = 1/72 in.

4.5.1   admonitions

Admonitions are specially marked "topics" that can appear anywhere an ordinary body element can.

Command:

\DUadmonition

Default:

Typeset in a frame (90 % of text width).

Examples:

• A lighter layout without the frame:

  \newcommand{\DUadmonition}[2][class-arg]{%
    % try \DUadmonition#1{#2}:
    \ifcsname DUadmonition#1\endcsname%
      \csname DUadmonition#1\endcsname{#2}%
    \else
      \begin{quote}
        #2
      \end{quote}
    \fi
  }
  

The first part of this definition acts as a "dispatcher". This way it is possible to define a special handling of specific admonitions or based on the optional "class" argument.

Example:

layout .. note:: as a margin note:

\newcommand{\DUadmonitionnote}[1]{\marginpar{#1}}

Make sure you have enought space to hold the note. See also the marginnote and pdfcomment packages.

The admonition title is typeset with the \DUtitle command which also takes a class argument. See topic title

4.5.2   custom interpreted text roles

The rst role directive allows defining custom text roles that mark parts of inline text (spans) with a class argument.

• Role names and class arguments are are converted to conform to the regular expression [a-z][-a-z0-9]* (see class directive).

• Class arguments may contain numbers and hyphens, which need special treatment in LaTeX command names. (The special command \@namedef can help with the definition of corresponding commands.)

• Custom roles can have multiple class arguments

  In contrast to HTML/CSS, the order of the class arguments might matter.

Commands:

\DUrole: dispatcher command

\DUroleCLASSARGUMENT: optional styling command

Default:

The definition of \DUrole{CLASSARGUMENT}{} calls the macro named \DUroleCLASSARGUMENT{}[2] if it is defined (but silently ignores this class argument if a corresponding macro is not defined).

Examples:

• Typeset text in small caps:

  .. role:: smallcaps
  
  :smallcaps:`Fourier` transformation
  

  This is transformed to the LaTeX code:

  \DUrole{smallcaps}{Fourier} transformation
  

  The definition

  \newcommand{\DUrolesmallcaps}{\textsc}
  

  as raw LaTeX or in the custom style sheet will give the expected result (if the chosen font supports small caps).

• Subscript text in normal size and italic shape:

  .. role:: sub(subscript)
  

  As "sub" inherits from the standard "subscript" role, the LaTeX macro only needs to set the size and shape:

  \newcommand{\DUrolesub}{\normalsize\itshape}
  

• A role with several classes and a converted class name:

  .. role:: custom4
     :class: argI argII arg_3
  

  is translated to the nested commands:

  \DUrole{argi}{\DUrole{argii}{\DUrole{arg-3}{<content>}}}
  

  With the definitions:

  \newcommand{\DUroleargi}[1]{\textsc}
  \newcommand{\DUroleargii}[1]{{\large #1}}
  \makeatletter
  \@namedef{DUrolearg-3}{\textbf}
  \makeatother
  

  in a style sheet[3] or as raw LaTeX in the document source, text styled with :custom4:`large bold small-caps` will be typeset accordingly.

4.5.3   definition lists

ReStructuredText definition lists correspond to HTML <dl> list objects.

Environment:

description: LaTeX standard environment

Command:

\descriptionlabel: styling macro for the description term

Default:

bold label text, hanging indent

Example:

A non-bold label can be achieved with:

\renewcommand\descriptionlabel[1]{\hspace\labelsep \normalfont #1}

4.5.4   document class

There are hundreds of LaTeX document classes installed by modern LaTeX distributions, provided by publishers, or available at CTAN. The TeX Catalogue lists most of them.

• article, report, book: standard document classes
• scrartcl, scrrprt, scrbook: KOMA-script classes
• memoir: highly configurable class for larger documents

The LaTeX document class cannot be changed in a style sheet but must be specified via configuration options.

Option:

--documentclass=DOCUMENTCLASS
	Specify documentclass. Default is "article".

4.5.5   document info

Content of the bibliographic fields at the top of a document. By default, docinfo items are typeset as a table.

Options:

--use-latex-docinfo
	Attach author and date to the document title instead of the document info table.
--use-latex-abstract
	Use LaTeX abstract environment for the documents abstract. Per default the abstract is a topic.

Length:

\DUdocinfowidth: the width for the docinfo table.

Default:

90 % of text width: 0.9\textwidth

Example:

set to 70 % of text width:

\newlength{\DUdocinfowidth}
\setlength{\DUdocinfowidth}{0.7\textwidth}

4.5.6   document title

A lone top-level section title is (usually) transformed to the document title (see section structure).

The format of the document title is defined by the document class. The "article" document class uses an in-page title and the "report" and "book" classes write a separate title page. See the TeX FAQ on how to customize the style of document titles.

The default title page shows only title and subtitle, date and author are shown in the document info table.

Options:

--use-latex-docinfo
	Attach author and date to the document title instead of the document info table.
--use-titlepage-env
	Put docinfo and abstract into the title page.

4.5.7   field lists

Field lists may be used as generic two-column table constructs in documents.

Environment:

DUfieldlist

Default:

Indented description list.

Example:

Use a description list customized with enumitem:

\usepackage{enumitem}
\newenvironment{DUfieldlist}%
  {\description[font=,style=sameline,leftmargin=8em]}
  {\enddescription}
}

The KOMA-script classes provide a similar environment under the name labeling.

4.5.8   figure and table captions

The caption package provides many ways to customise the captions in floating environments like figure and table.

The chngcntr package helps to configure the numbering of figure and table caption numberings.

Some document classes (e.g. KOMA-script) provide additional configuration. Also see the related LaTeX FAQ entry

Example

\usepackage{caption}
\captionsetup{justification=raggedleft,singlelinecheck=false}

4.5.9   figure placement

Figure placement can be customized with the \floatplacement command from the float package. The placement setting is valid from the point of definition until the next \floatplacement command or the end of the document. See the float package documentation for details.

Default:

\floatplacement{figure}{H} (here definitely). This corresponds most closely to the source and HTML placement (principle of least surprise).

Examples:

• Set the default back to the pre-0.6 value in a custom style sheet:

  \usepackage{float}
  \floatplacement{figure}{htbp} % here, top, bottom, extra-page
  

• To move all following figures to the top or bottom of the page write in the document source:

  .. raw:: latex
  
      \floatplacement{figure}{tb}
  

4.5.10   font

The selected text font influences the look, the feel, and the readability of the document (see e.g. http://www.csarven.ca/web-typography).

Unfortunately, LaTeX cannot use the fonts of the operating system directly [4] but needs specially installed fonts with additional supporting files. The LaTeX Font Catalogue provides information and examples for a wide range of fonts available for use with LaTeX.

Default:

Computer Modern (CM)

Alternative fonts can be selected by

1. specifying the corresponding LaTeX package as arguments to the --stylesheet option or in a custom style sheet.
   • Packages can be combined.
   • Passing options to a package is only possible in the style sheet.
2. changing the font-default macros \rmdefault, sfdefault and/or ttdefault.

Examples:

• Use LaTeX Modern, a Type 1 variant of CM.

  LaTeX code:

  \usepackage{lmodern}
  

  Command line argument:

  --stylesheet=lmodern
  

• The ubiquitous "Times/Helvetica/Courier" combination is achieved by the latex code:

  \usepackage{mathptmx}            % Times for serif and math
  \usepackage[scaled=.90]{helvet}  % downscaled Helvetica for sans serif
  \usepackage{courier}             % Courier for teletype (mono-space)
  

  or by the combination of the command line options:

  --documentoptions="scaled=.90"
  --stylesheet="mathptmx,helvet,courier"
  

  Hint

  When generating PDF-files from LaTeX, the files can become smaller if this font combination is used as the fonts do not need to be embedded in the document.

• Use the teletype font from the txfonts package:

  \renewcommand{\ttdefault}{txtt}
  

The following table lists the font packages for standard Postscript fonts (see Using common Postscript fonts with LaTeX for details):

Extended versions of the standard Postscript fonts including accented chars, Greek and Cyrillic are available with the TeX Gyre bundle which is part of, e.g., TeX Live.

4.5.11   font encoding

Option:

Default

"T1"

Examples:

Support for characters in the Unicode blocks Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, and Greek together with a T1-encoded "Type 1" (vector) font, for example Latin Modern:

--font-encoding=LGR,T1

4.5.12   font size

Add font size in points to the document options, e.g. --documentoptions=12, use extsize or some other package for values other than [10,11,12].

4.5.13   footnotes

With the --use-latex-footnotes option, footnotes are set with Docutils-specific variants of the standard \footnotemark and \footnotetext commands. Thus you can configure the appearance and placement by alternative definitions of \DUfootnotemark and \DUfootnotetext in a custom style sheet.

Example:

place the footnote text where it appears in the source document (instead of at the page bottom). This can be used to get the effect of endnotes (needs the hanging package):

\usepackage{hanging}
\newcommand{\DUfootnotetext}[4]{%
  \par\noindent\raisebox{1em}{\hypertarget{#1}{}}%
  \hyperlink{#2}{#3}%
  \hangpara{\parindent}{1}#4%
}

4.5.14   hyphenation

The amount of hyphenation is influenced by \hyphenpenalty, setting it to 10000 almost prevents hyphenation. As this produces lines with more space between words one should increase Latex's \tolerance for this.

Example:

\hyphenpenalty=5000
\tolerance=1000

4.5.15   hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are realized using the hyperref package. To reduce incompatibilities, this package is loaded last, after the style sheets. However, you can load hyperref with custom options (or before a package that requires its presence) in a custom style sheet, e.g.

\usepackage[colorlinks=true,linkcolor=green,urlcolor=blue]{hyperref}

and it will not be loaded again.

See also non-breaking hyperlinks.

\usepackage{nohyperref}
%\usepackage{url} % uncomment if you need the \url command

4.5.16   line blocks

In line blocks, newlines and leading whitespace are respected.

Environment:

DUlineblock: special list environment for line blocks

Length:

\DUlineblockindent: indentation of indented lineblock parts.

Default:

2.5 times the font hight: 2.5em

Example:

set to the paragraph indentation:

\newlength{\DUlineblockindent}
\setlength{\DUlineblockindent}{\parindent}

4.5.17   line spacing

Commands:

\linespread: for small adjustments

\singlespacing, \onehalfspacing, and \doublespacing: from package setspace

Examples:

• Get document wide double spacing:

  \usepackage{setspace}
  \doublespacing
  

• Increase line spacing by five percent for better readability:

  \linespread{1.05}
  

4.5.18   literal blocks

No markup processing is done within a literal block. It is left as-is, and is typically rendered in a monospaced typeface

Options:

Example:

--literal-env=lstlisting

The lstlisting environment is highly configurable (as documented in listings.pdf), for instance

\renewcommand{\ttdefault}{txtt}
\lstset{language=Python,
        morekeywords=[1]{yield}
}
\lstloadlanguages{Python}
\lstset{
  basicstyle=\ttfamily,
  keywordstyle=\bfseries,
  commentstyle=\rmfamily\itshape,
  stringstyle=\slshape,
}
\lstset{showstringspaces=false}
\lstset{columns=fullflexible,
     basewidth={0.5em,0.4em}}

4.5.19   list of figures/tables

Docutils does not support lists of figures or tables.

However, with LaTeX, they can be generated using raw LaTeX in the document source.

Commands:

\listoffigures: a list of figures

\listoftables: a list of tables

Example:

.. raw:: latex

   \listoffigures

4.5.20   option list

Option lists are two-column lists of command-line options and descriptions, documenting a program's options.

Environment:

DUoptionlist: environment for option lists,

Command:

\DUoptionlistlabel: set appearance of the options

Example:

set command options with a bold monospace font:

\newcommand{\DUoptionlistlabel}{\texttt{\textbf{#1}} \hfill}

4.5.21   page breaks

• Page breaks before top-level sections are the default with a documentclass that provides "chapters", e.g. "book", "memoir" or "scrbook".

• Redefining the section or section* command in a style sheet is possible too.

• Raw latex can be used:

  .. raw:: latex
  
    \newpage % hard pagebreak at exactly this position
  

  or

• The transition element can be re-defined to produce a page break, e.g.

  in a style sheet:

  \newcommand*{\DUtransition}{\pagebreak[4]}
  

  or in the document:

  .. raw:: latex
  
    \renewcommand*{\DUtransition}{\pagebreak[4]}
  

4.5.22   page layout

By default, paper size and margin settings are determined by the document class.

The following packages help to configure the page layout:

1. The typearea package (part of the KOMA-script bundle) calculates a good page layout (based on rules and recommendations of typography experts).

   See the KOMA-Script Guide for details on what is a good layout and how this is achieved.

2. The geometry package is recommended if you have to follow guidelines with fixed values for the margins. For details see the geometry manual.

Examples:

• Let typearea determine the type area with DIV=calc in the document options:

  --documentoptions='a4paper,DIV=calc'
  

  The DIV option can also be specified, like DIV=10. It defines how "crowded" a page will be: larger values mean larger text area (at the expense of readability).

• Set margins in a stylesheet with the geometry package:

  \usepackage{geometry}
  \geometry{hmargin={3cm,0.8in},height=8in}
  \geometry{height=10in}.
  

4.5.23   page numbering

Example:

Number pages by chapter

This can be accomplished with the chappg package:

\usepackage{chappg}

See the chappg documentation for details.

4.5.24   paper size

Paper geometry can be changed using --documentoptions or with the package geometry and \geometry{OPTIONLIST} LaTeX commands in a style sheet.

Default:

a4paper

Some possibilities:

• a4paper, b3paper, letterpaper, executivepaper, legalpaper
• landscape, portrait, twoside.

Examples:

• Choose A5 pager in landscape orientation with command line argument:

  --documentoptions=a5paper,landscape
  

• The same with LaTeX commands in the style sheet:

  \usepackage{geometry}
  \geometry{a5paper,landscape}
  

  For details see the geometry manual.

4.5.25   paragraph indent

Default (in most document classes):

Indent the first line in a paragraph unless it is the first line of a chapter, section, subsection, or subsubsection.

Example:

To set paragraph indentation to zero but add a vertical space between load the parskip package with the command line argument:

--stylesheet=parskip

or in your style sheet with:

\usepackage{parskip}

4.5.26   rubric

A rubric is like an informal heading that doesn't correspond to the document's structure.

Command:

\DUrubric

Default:

subsubsection style, italic, centred

Example:

set flushleft and red:

\newcommand*{\DUrubric}[2][class-arg]{%
   \subsubsection*{{\color{red}#1}\hfill}}

4.5.27   section numbering

Sections are numbered if there is a sectnum directive in the document.

If the sectnum_xform option is True, section numbers are generated by LaTeX. In this case the "prefix" and "suffix" arguments of the sectnum directive are ignored. The section number style is determined by the document class and can be configured in a LaTeX style sheet, e.g.:

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{5}

4.5.28   sidebar element

Sidebars are like miniature, parallel documents that occur inside other documents, providing related or reference material. They can be likened to super-footnotes; their content is outside of the flow of the document's main text.

Command:

DUsidebar

Default:

Box with grey background.

Examples:

• Less space before the title:

  \providecommand{\DUsidebar}[2]{%
      \begin{center}
        \colorbox[gray]{0.90}{\parbox{0.9\textwidth}{%
          \smallskip\textbf{#1}\smallskip
          #2}}
      \end{center}
  }
  

• Use margin notes:

  \newcommand{\DUsidebar}[2]{\marginpar{\flushleft \textbf{#1} #2}}
  

  • Make sure the margin is wide enough to hold the note.
  • This fails with some constructs inside the side bar and where marginpar cannot be used, e.g., inside floats, footnotes, or in frames made with the framed package (see marginnote).

4.5.29   topic element

A topic is like a block quote with a title, or a self-contained section with no subsections.

Topics and rubrics can be used at places where a section title is not allowed (e.g. inside a directive).

Command:

DUtopic

Default:

"quote" environment

Examples:

• If you generally prefer a "normal" section over a block quote, define:

  \newcommand{\DUtopic}[2][class-arg]{%
    \ifcsname DUtopic#1\endcsname%
      \csname DUtopic#1\endcsname{#2}%
    \else
      #2
    \fi
  }
  

• If you want a "normal" section for topics with class argument "noquote", define:

  \newcommand{\DUtopicnoquote}[1]{#1}
  

4.5.30   topic title

The title of admonition, sidebar, and topic elements is defined in the \DUtitle command, that also takes a "class" argument.

Examples:

• You can get a centered and somewhat larger title for topcis with

  \newcommand*{\DUtitletopic}[1]{\subsection*{\centering #1}
  

• Use a right-pointing hand as title for the "attention" directive:

  \usepackage{pifont}
  \newcommand{\DUtitleattention}[1]{\ding{43}}
  

  The title argument is "swallowed" by the command. To have both, hand and title use:

  \usepackage{pifont}
  \newcommand{\DUtitleattention}[1]{\ding{43} #1}
  

4.5.31   table of contents

A contents directive is replaced by a table of contents (ToC).

With the use-latex-toc configuration option True (default since release 0.6):

• The ToC is generated by LaTeX (via the \tableofcontents command).

  The layout depends on the choosen document class and can be configured in a custom style sheet (see e.g. the KOMA-Script Guide for the KOMA-script classes).

• The depth of the ToC and PDF-bookmarks can be configured

  • with the "depth" argument of the contents directive, or
  • in a style sheet with e.g. \setcounter{tocdepth}{5}.

• Local ToCs are done with the minitoc package. See its documentation for the numerous configuration options.

4.5.32   title reference role

Title reference is the default default role for interpreted text.

Command:

\DUroletitlereference

Default:

use slanted font (\textsl)

Example:

set title references with a bold monospace font:

\newcommand{\DUroletitlereference}[1]{\texttt{\textbf{#1}}}

4.5.33   text encoding

Default:

The generated LaTeX documents are in the input encoding.

Example:

Use latin1 text encoding for the LaTeX source:

--output-encoding=latin1

• Unicode box drawing characters:

  • generate LaTeX code with --output-encoding=utf-8:strict.

  • In the latex file, edit the preamble to load "ucs" with "postscript" option and also load the pstricks package:

    - \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    + \usepackage[postscript]{ucs}
    + \usepackage{pstricks}
    + \usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
    

  • Convert to PDF with latex, dvips, and ps2pdf.

4.5.34   transition element

Transitions are commonly seen in novels and short fiction, as a gap spanning one or more lines, marking text divisions or signaling changes in subject, time, point of view, or emphasis.

Command:

\DUtransition

Default:

A horizontal line, 1/3 of text width

Examples:

• Use three stars:

  \newcommand*{\DUtransition}[1][class-arg]{\centering{}*\quad*\quad*}
  

  Alternatively use the more elaborated version in transition-stars.sty.

• If paragraphs are separated by indentation, you can simply use a vertical space:

  \newcommand*{\DUtransition}[1][class-arg]{\vspace{2ex}}
  

6.1.1   non-breaking hyperlinks

If you convert with latex (as opposed to pdflatex), hyperlinks will not wrap and sometimes stick into the margin.

Wrong:

::

usepackage[breaklinks=true]{hyperref}

"breaklinks" is an internal option that indicates whether the chosen driver can handle broken links.

Right:

Use one of the following:

1. compile with pdflatex,
2. compile with latex followed by dvipdfm and call hyperref with the option driver=dvipdf, or
3. use the package breakurl.
4. (for printout) disable hyperlinks using the package "nohyperref"

See also the Link text doesn’t break at end line FAQ entry.

If you need long URLs in the running text, you can define a "url" rule that calls the \url command provided by hyperref (with typesetting done by url):

.. role:: url(literal)

.. raw:: latex

  \newcommand*{\DUroleurl}{\url}

6.1.2   Error illegal unit px

If you convert the LaTeX source with a legacy program, you might get this error.

The unit "px" was introduced by the pdfTeX converter on 2005-02-04. pdfTeX is used also for conversion into DVI format in all modern LaTeX distributions (since ca. 2006).

If updating LaTeX is not an option, just remove the "px" from the length specification. HTML/CSS will default to "px" while the latexe2 writer will add the fallback unit "bp".

6.1.3   image inclusion

If PDF-image inclusion in PDF files fails, specifying --graphicx-option=pdftex or --graphicx-option=auto might help.

6.2.1   Footnotes and citations

Initially both were implemented using figure floats, because hyperlinking back and forth seemed to be impossible. Later the figure directive was added that puts images into figure floats.

This results in footnotes, citations, and figures possibly being mixed at page foot.

Workaround:

Select footnote and citation handling with the use-latex-footnotes and use-latex-citations options.

• Use LaTeX footnotes and citations for printing or more complex layout.

If use-latex-citations is used, a bibliography is inserted right at the end of the document. This should be customizable.

If use-latex-citations is used adjacent citation references (separated only by a single space or a newline) are combined to a single citation group, i.e. [cite1]_ [cite2]_ results in \cite{cite1,cite2}. The appearance in the output can be configured in a style sheet.

6.2.2   Tables

• Table: multicol cells are always left aligned.
• The contents of a rowspan cell do not influence table height. (multirow "feature", use a phantom or strut?)
• Multirow cells might mix up the following table rows.
• Table cells with both multirow and multicolumn are currently not possible.
• literal-blocks in table cells:
  • If verbatim or flushleft is used one gets vertical space above and below.
  • This is bad for the topmost paragraph in a cell, therefore the writer uses raggedright.
  • Ragged right fails on followup paragraphs as the vertical space would be missing.
• --table-style=booktabs, ..class:: booktab: booktabs version 1.00 does not work with longtable. This is solved in newer versions (current is 2005/04/14 v1.61803).

6.2.3   Figures

• Figures are always as wide as the containing text. The "figwidth" argument is currently not supported. As a consequence, the "align" argument has no effect.
• Wrapping text around figures is currently not supported. (Requires the wrapfig package.)

6.2.4   Miscellaneous

• Pdfbookmark level 4 (and greater) does not work (might be settable but complicated).

• Footnotes are not all on the same page (as in docs/user/rst/demo.txt) and do not link back and forth.

  Until this is fixed, keep footnote mark and footnote text close together!

• Hyperlinks are not hyphenated; this leads to bad spacing. See docs/user/rst/demo.txt 2.14 directives.

• Pagestyle headings does not work, when sections are starred. Use LaTeX for the section numbering with the options --no-section-numbers (command line) or sectnum_xform: False (config file).