Difference between revisions of "LaTeX/C3/Writing-Style-Files-in-LaTeX/English"

• Write a custom style file
• Import a custom style file in a LaTeX document and
• Define a standard style file

• Ubuntu Linux 18.04 OS and
• TeXworks Editor v0.6.

The steps demonstrated will work in all operating systems.

• To practise this tutorial, you should be familiar with LaTeX commands.
• You should also know how to define newcommand and newenvironment in LaTeX.
• If not, then go through the prerequisite LaTeX spoken tutorials on this website.

• The files used in this tutorial are available in the Code Files link on this tutorial page.
• Please download and use them while practising.
• Make sure that all the supporting files are kept in the same folder while practising.

• Style files are also known as Packages.
• These are supplementary files that increase the functionality of LaTeX.

• You might have used various packages in your LaTeX document earlier.
• For example, we import geometry package for defining margin.

• To reuse the same code many times in the same document, we use newcommand and newenvironment.
• To reuse the same code many times in many documents, we use style files.

• The tex file containing the content will remain clean, if the styles are in separate sty files.
• Hence, it is advised to write and use style files.

We will see some LaTeX code written in the file.

\newcommand{\iitb}{\textbf{Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay}}

Whenever \iitb is used in a LaTeX document, it will typeset the full name of IITB in bold font.

Next let us see how to use this style file.

Please note that we do not compile .sty files.

\usepackage{myPackage}

In our example, we have loaded our style filemyPackage.

Observe the full name of IITB in the PDF.

Here, we had included the command \iitbbg to display the background image.

Click on the green arrow button

Let us compile it again.

The reason is, in the real-world you would want to share your style file with others.

Ideally, it must adhere to the style file guidelines given by the LaTeX community.

• Identification, includes package name and version
• Preliminary declarations, includes details of the required package and
• User code.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Creating_Packages

Let’s try to understand the code.

NeedsTeXFormat{}

In our example, it is LaTeX2e.

\ProvidesPackage{myStdPackage}[2019/03/

11 v0.01 LaTeX package for my own purpose]

Highlight the filename in the titlebar

The package name should be identical to the filename.

Here I am using myStdPackage as a parameter and file name.

We willalso provide other details like release date and description of the package.

\newcommand{\iitb}{\textbf{Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay}}

\newcommand{\iitbbg}{\backgroundsetup{scale = 1, angle = 0, opacity = 0.1,

contents = {\includegraphics[width = \paperwidth,

height = \paperheight, keepaspectratio] {iitblogo.pdf}}}}

Recall, we have used this code in myPackage.sty file.

\endinput

It indicates that the style file ends here.

This means our new standard stylepackage is working correctly.

• Upload the created style file on the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network
• Provide proper documentation and read the guidelines before uploading.

Let us summarise.

• Write a custom style file
• Import the custom style file in a LaTeX document
• Define a standard style file

• Identify and make a list of different scenarios where creating a style file would be helpful.

Please watch it.

For more details, please write to us.

More information on this Mission is available at this link.

And this is Praveen from IIT Bombay signing off.

Thanks for joining.