CDSC LaTeX Templates

Copyright (c) 2009-2026 Benjamin Mako Hill mako@atdot.cc / makohill@uw.edu

This repository contains LaTeX configuration files and templates used to format papers, memos, letters, and posters. All files are released under the GNU GPL version 3 or later.

The latest version can be found in git.

You can check out the latest version with:

git clone https://gitea.communitydata.science/collective/cdsc_tex.git

Bug reports, comments, questions, and patches can be directed to:

• Benjamin Mako Hill makohill@uw.edu [work]
• Benjamin Mako Hill mako@atdot.cc [personal]

To submit a patch, clone the repository, make your changes, and use git format-patch to generate patch files to send by email:

git format-patch origin/master
git send-email *.patch

Dependencies

On Debian or Ubuntu, install the following packages:

• latexmk
• texlive-luatex
• texlive-latex-recommended
• texlive-fonts-extra
• texlive-fonts-recommended
• texlive-bibtex-extra

apt install latexmk texlive-luatex texlive-latex-recommended \
  texlive-fonts-extra texlive-fonts-recommended \
  texlive-bibtex-extra

On other systems, installing a full TeX Live distribution should provide everything needed.

All four templates build with LuaLaTeX (via latexmk -lualatex). The text fonts are Libertinus Serif and TeX Gyre Heros, both provided by texlive-fonts-extra.

The tagging code requires TeX Live 2025 or later. On Overleaf, set the version under Menu > Settings > TeX Live version. Debian Trixie ships TeX Live 2024; sid (unstable) has TeX Live 2026, which also works and installs without pulling in much else.

Accessibility

The paper, memo, and letter templates produce tagged PDFs that declare PDF/UA-2 (ISO 14289-2). The poster template does not; see below.

Two keys in the \DocumentMetadata block at the top of each template do this, and both are needed: tagging=on loads the kernel code that puts headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and figures into the PDF's structure tree, and pdfstandard=ua-2 writes the conformance claim.

The paper and memo templates were originally built on the memoir class, which is incompatible with the LaTeX tagged-PDF code. They now use the standard article class with custom styling (cdsc-paper.sty and cdsc-memo.sty) to keep their previous look while supporting full tagging.

Writing an accessible document

Tagging gets you the structure; the content is still up to the author. The paper template carries a worked example of each of these:

• Use \section and \subsection for headings rather than setting type in bold by hand. Screen reader users navigate by the heading tree.

• Give every figure an alt= description on \includegraphics, saying what the reader is meant to take from it. A decorative image takes \includegraphics[artifact]{...} instead.

• Mark header rows on data tables with \tagpdfsetup{table/header-rows={1}} so their cells become TH rather than TD.

Customizing the styles

Some common packages defeat tagging, and the failure is silent: the document compiles without complaint and the tags are simply missing. Before adding a package, check it against the LaTeX Tagging Project's status list.

titlesec and titling are the two to know about, because they are the obvious tools for the job cdsc-paper.sty and cdsc-memo.sty do. titlesec replaces the \@startsection hook the tagging code uses to emit heading tags, so loading it produces a PDF with no headings in the structure tree.

Verifying

You can check a built PDF with veraPDF:

verapdf -f ua2 text.pdf

It prints PASS or FAIL, and --format text lists the failing clauses. All three tagged templates pass as shipped, so a FAIL points at the document rather than the template.

Note that a PASS is necessary but not sufficient. A document whose body text is all marked as artifact passes too, because the standard only requires that content which is not real be an artifact.

You can confirm there is something in the structure tree as well:

python3 -c "import pikepdf,sys; d=pikepdf.open(sys.argv[1]); \
  print(d.Root.get('/StructTreeRoot') and 'tagged' or 'UNTAGGED')" file.pdf

Posters

The poster template is not accessible and makes no accessibility claim. The beamer class rejects \DocumentMetadata outright, and the LaTeX Tagging Project lists beamer and beamerposter as no-support, meaning incompatible and not expected to change. When a poster needs an accessible version, build a companion document from the paper or memo template.

Branches

This repository has two main branches:

• master — Standard LaTeX templates (paper, memo, letter, poster)
• knitr — Knitr/R template for reproducible research documents

Scripts

new_tex_document

Creates a new document directory from a template. Takes a document type and destination directory as arguments:

new_tex_document <type> <directory>

Available types:

• paper — LaTeX paper template (master branch)
• memo — LaTeX memo template (master branch)
• knitr — Knitr/R paper template (knitr branch)
• letter — LaTeX letter template (master branch)

Example:

new_tex_document paper my-new-paper

This creates my-new-paper/ populated with the template files, with the main source file renamed to my-new-paper.tex (or .Rtex for knitr).

rename_tex_to_dirname

Renames the single .tex file in the current directory to match the directory name. Useful for cleaning up a template that was set up manually:

cd my-paper && rename_tex_to_dirname

Shell Aliases

The file cdsc_tex_aliases.sh provides aliases for the old individual script names, for convenience or backwards compatibility. Add the following to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

[[ -f ~/tex/cdsc_tex/cdsc_tex_aliases.sh ]] && \
  source ~/tex/cdsc_tex/cdsc_tex_aliases.sh

This defines the following aliases (only if new_tex_document is in PATH):

• new_tex_memo → new_tex_document memo
• new_knitr_document → new_tex_document knitr
• new_tex_letter → new_tex_document letter

Migration

The individual scripts new_knitr_document and new_tex_letter have been consolidated into new_tex_document. The old scripts remain in the repository but are superseded.

To migrate, replace calls to the old scripts with new_tex_document:

Old: new_knitr_document mydir
New: new_tex_document knitr mydir

Old: new_tex_letter mydir
New: new_tex_document letter mydir

Alternatively, source cdsc_tex_aliases.sh (see above) to keep using the old names without changing your workflow.