typst l_ett_er

A customizable Typst letter template with some presets for DIN 5008 A/B and Swiss C5 Letter. Please note that the template is still under development and subject to breaking changes.

See the examples

Templates

• lttr_init is responsible to compute all values from the parameters and default values for different formats. It also sets the page and text attributes.

• lttr_preamble renders:

  • lttr_sender
  • lttr_receiver
  • lttr_indicator_lines
  • lttr_content_offset
  • lttr_horizontal_table
  • lttr_date_place
  • lttr_title
  • lttr_opening

• lttr_closing renders the closing line and the signature.

Parameters

All Parameters are optional and will override the global defaults and the defaults of the chosen format. Some of them allow to either specify the content directly or use a dict if other settings need to be changed also. For example: receiver: "x" is the same as receiver: (content: "x").

Basics

• debug ([Bool])
  Whether or not to show (colorful) debug lines.

• format ([String])
  Format of the letter ("DIN-5008-A", "DIN-5008-B", "C5-WINDOW-RIGHT", "C5-WINDOW-LEFT").

• _page ([Dict])
  Set page settings (docs).

• _text ([Dict])
  Set text settings (docs).

• settings ([Dict]) Basic settings.

  • content_spacing ([Length])
    Minimum spacing between sender/receiver and letter content (or the horizontal table if present) and also the spacing after the horizontal table.
  • justify_content ([Bool])
    Wheter or not to justify the content.

  Example:

  settings: (
    content_spacing: 8.46mm,
    justify_content: true,
  ),

• indicator_lines ([Dict])
  Info to render lines for the hole puncher and folding (see below).

  • fold_marks ([Array])
    Lenghts ([Length]) from top of page of the fold marks
  • show_puncher_mark ([Bool])
    Whether or not to show the puncher mark.

  Example:

  indicator_lines: (
    fold_marks: (87mm, 87mm+105mm),
    show_puncher_mark: true,
  )

Sender and Receiver

• receiver ([Array, Content, Dict])
  Info to render the receiver fields.

  • content ([Array, Content])
    Content of the receiver field.
  • dimensions ([Dict])
    Dimensions of the address field (width: [Length], height: [Length])
  • fmt ([Function])
    Rendering function which takes the receiver ([Dict]) to format and show it.
  • position ([Dict])
    Position of the address field (top: [Length], left: [Length])
  • spacing ([Length])
    Spacing before the content.
  • align ([Align]) Alignment of the receiver field.

  Example:

  receiver: (
    position: (top: 5cm)
    content: (
      "Peter Doe",
      "Somestreet 16",
      "1234 New York",
    ),
  ),

• return_to ([Array, Content, Dict, String])
  The returning address.

  • content ([Array, Content])
    Content of the return_to field.
  • dimensions ([Dict])
    Dimensions of the return_to field (width: [Length], height: [Length])
  • fmt ([Function])
    Rendering function which takes the return_to ([Dict]) to format and show it.
  • position ([Dict])
    Position of the return_to field (top: [Length], left: [Length])

  Example:

  return_to: "Some Address, I don't care...",

• remark_zone ([Array, Content, Dict, String])
  The remark zone.

  • align ([Align])
    Alignment of the remark_zone.
  • content ([Array, Content, String])
    Content of the remark_zone field.
  • dimensions ([Dict])
    Dimensions of the remark_zone field (width: [Length], height: [Length])
  • fmt ([Function])
    Rendering function which takes the remark_zone ([Dict]) to format and show it.
  • position ([Dict])
    Position of the remark_zone field (top: [Length], left: [Length])

  remark_zone: (
    "This is a",
    "multiline remark",
  )

• sender ([Array, Content, Dict])
  Info to render the sender fields.

  • content ([Array, Content]) Content or array of lines for the sender field.
  • fmt [Function]
    Rendering function which takes the sender ([Dict]) to format and show it.
  • position ([Dict])
    Position of the sender field.
  • width ([Length])
    Width of the sender field.

  Example:

  sender: (
    content: (
      "John Doe",
      "Somestreet 15",
      "1234 New York",
    )
    position: (left: 110mm, top: 20mm),
    width: 80mm,
  ),

• horizontal_table ([Dict, Array])
  A table to add before the date, time and title.

  • content ([Array])
    Array of of entries for the table where each entry is itself an array of exactly two items for title and body ([Content, String])
  • fmt ([Function])
    Formatting function which takes the title and body of a cell to format and show it.
  • spacing ([Lenght]) Spacing before the horizontal table.

  Example:

  horizontal_table: (
    ("Ihr Zeichen", "Bananalover149"),
    ("Ihre Nachricht vom", "12.12.2022"),
    ("Unser Zeichen", "Bananenfabrik"),
    ("Datum", "12.08.2023"),
  )

Letter Beginning

• opening ([Content, Dict, String])
  Info to render the title template (see below).

  • content ([Content, String])
    Content of the opening (e.g. "Dear Sir....").
  • spacing ([Length])
    Spacing before the letter opening.

  Example:

  opening: (
    content: "Dear Sir or Madam,",
    spacing: 2mm,
  )

• date_place ([Content, Dict, String])
  Info to render the date_place template (see below).

  • align ([Align])
    Alignment of the place and date
  • date ([Content, String])
    Date of the letter.
  • place ([Content, String])
    Place of the letter.

  Example:

  date_place: (
    align: left,
    date: "20.04.2023",
    place: "Weitfortistan",
  ),

• title ([Content, Dict, String])
  Info to render the title template. The title is also set as document property.

  • content ([Content, String])
    Content of the title.
  • spacing ([Length])
    Spacing before the title.

  Example:

  title: (
    content: "Writing Letters in Typst is Easy",
    spacing: 2mm,
  )

Letter Ending

• closing ([Content, Dict, String])
  Info to render the closing

  • content ([Content, String])
    Content of the closing (e.g. "kind regards").
  • spacing ([Length])
    Spacing before the closing.

  Example:

  closing: "kind regards"

• signature ([Dict, none])
  Info to render the signature.

  • content ([Content])
    Content of the signature
  • spacing ([Length])
    Spacing before the signature.

  Example:

  signature: (
    content: "Peter Pan (with the big Signature)",
    spacing: 16mm,
  )

Other functions

• lttr_state prints the entire state used to render the components. This can be useful for debugging purposes.

Resources

• DIN 5008 Form A
• DIN 5008 Form B
• Swiss Addressing

Similar Projects

• dvdvgt/typst-letter: A typst template for a DIN 5008 inspired letter with the goal to fit nicely into C6/5 envelops.
• qjcq/awesome-typst: Awesome Typst Links

Development Setup

Currently, I just create a symlink such that I can import it with #import "@local/lttr:0.1.0": * as follows.

mkdir -p ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/typst/packages/local/lttr/
ln -s /path/to/this/repo ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/typst/packages/local/lttr/0.1.0

Installation

While there exists a first version of typst packages, they do not yet accept custom templates (afaik). For the meantime, you can download and extract the release tarball to ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/typst/packages/local/lttr/<version> and import it as described in Development Setup.

Roadmap

There are a couple of limitations in typst which I hope will be addressed.

• There is currently no way to query properties set with set. This would be nice to query the document title and author names issue. Forthermore, it is not possible to call set after the first lttr function has been called (even if no content was rendered added).
• datetime with locales settings

Other things:

• Add more layouts including (us letter, ?)
• Vertical table for sender field as for example here
• Maybe add lines with labels to display measurements/sizes in debug mode
• Add this to the typst preview packages. Currently, they apparently do not accept packages.