Template

template — LaTeX document scaffolds

Pick the right scaffold; write it once, deterministic. After scaffolding, the user types content; /academic-latex:author extends.

Decision flow

1. What kind of document? (article / thesis / report / beamer / CV / letter)
2. Multilingual? Non-Latin script? → swap to LuaLaTeX path.
3. Specific journal class required? → that overrides — see "journal classes" below.

article (default, pdflatex-friendly)

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsthm, mathtools}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{caption, subcaption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[hidelinks, breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage[capitalize, noabbrev]{cleveref}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}
\title{Document title}
\author{Author One\thanks{[email protected]} \and Author Two}
\date{}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
One-paragraph summary.
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
Body.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

article (LuaLaTeX/Unicode path, preferred for non-English)

Drop fontenc/inputenc/lmodern; add fontspec:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Latin Modern Roman}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsthm, mathtools}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{caption, subcaption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[hidelinks, breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage[capitalize, noabbrev]{cleveref}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=authoryear-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}
% \usepackage{polyglossia}                 % uncomment for multilingual
% \setdefaultlanguage{english}
\title{...}
\author{...}
\date{}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}...\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Compile with latexmk -pdflua main.tex.

thesis / report (long-form)

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper, twoside, openright]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsthm, mathtools}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{caption, subcaption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[hidelinks, breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage[capitalize, noabbrev]{cleveref}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\title{Thesis Title}
\author{Author Name}
\date{Month Year}
\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\listoffigures
\listoftables
\mainmatter
\chapter{Introduction}
\input{chapters/intro.tex}
\chapter{Background}
\input{chapters/background.tex}
\chapter{Methods}
\input{chapters/methods.tex}
\chapter{Results}
\input{chapters/results.tex}
\chapter{Discussion}
\input{chapters/discussion.tex}
\chapter{Conclusion}
\input{chapters/conclusion.tex}
\backmatter
\printbibliography
\appendix
\chapter{Supplementary material}
\input{chapters/appendix.tex}
\end{document}

Note: many universities have official thesis classes (e.g., imperial-thesis, stanford-thesis). Prefer those over a generic report if the institution requires.

beamer (presentation)

\documentclass[aspectratio=169, 11pt]{beamer}
\usetheme{metropolis}                       % clean, modern; install via tlmgr if missing
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, mathtools}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=numeric-comp]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}
\title{Title}
\subtitle{Subtitle}
\author{Author One}
\institute{Affiliation}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{frame}{Outline}
\tableofcontents
\end{frame}
\section{Section A}
\begin{frame}{Main idea}
\begin{itemize}
  \item Point one.
  \item Point two.
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{Conclusion}
Summary.
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{References}
\printbibliography
\end{frame}
\end{document}

If metropolis isn't installed, fall back to \usetheme{Madrid} (default beamer themes).

lab report

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, mathtools}
\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{graphicx, booktabs, caption, subcaption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[capitalize]{cleveref}
\title{Experiment N: Title}
\author{Name (ID)}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section*{Abstract}
\section{Aim}
\section{Apparatus}
\section{Method}
\section{Results}
\section{Discussion}
\section{Conclusion}
\section*{References}
\end{document}

CV (simple, two columns)

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\setlist[itemize]{noitemsep, topsep=2pt, leftmargin=*}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
{\LARGE \textbf{Full Name}} \\[2pt]
City, Country \quad | \quad \href{mailto:[email protected]}{[email protected]} \quad | \quad \href{https://example.org}{example.org}
\end{center}
\section*{Education}
\begin{itemize}
  \item \textbf{University} — Degree, Year. Notes.
\end{itemize}
\section*{Experience}
\section*{Publications}
\section*{Skills}
\end{document}

letter

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper]{letter}
\signature{Author Name}
\address{Street \\ City, Postcode \\ Country}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{Recipient \\ Address Line \\ Address Line}
\opening{Dear ...,}
Body text.
\closing{Yours sincerely,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}

multilingual (LuaLaTeX baseline)

For new multilingual work, see /academic-latex:multilingual for the polyglossia pattern; the article-LuaLaTeX template above is the foundation.

Journal classes (do not override)

When the target is a specific journal, find and use its class. Do NOT impose this suite's defaults over a journal class — the class is the authority.

Publisher	Class file
ACM	acmart.cls (with format options: acmsmall, acmlarge, sigconf, etc.)
IEEE	IEEEtran.cls
Elsevier	elsarticle.cls
Springer	svjour3.cls, sn-jnl.cls (newer Springer Nature)
AMS	amsart.cls, amsbook.cls
arXiv	usually article + the suite's preamble (no special class)

For these, the user should drop the journal's template into the project and start writing — not generate a scaffold from this skill.

Project layout

For thesis/long-form, recommend:

project/
  main.tex
  refs.bib
  chapters/
    intro.tex
    background.tex
    ...
  figures/
    overview.pdf
  styles/                                    # if any custom styles
  Makefile or .latexmkrc

For a single article:

project/
  main.tex
  refs.bib
  figures/

When uncertain

If the user mentions a specific journal/conference, delegate to /academic-latex:docs-lookup to fetch the publisher's author-instructions PDF before scaffolding. Don't guess the right class.

Last verified

2026-05-09 — class names from CTAN; beamer themes from beamer manual.