Typst 0.14

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Role of Typst vs Other Tools

  • Commenters stress that Typst is a typesetter and LaTeX competitor, not a converter like Pandoc.
  • Pandoc is framed as a powerful but different tool: it converts between markup formats and calls external typesetters.
  • Compared with LaTeX, Typst is praised for a cleaner language, single-pass compilation, easier styling, integrated scripting, and a self‑contained binary rather than gigabyte distributions.
  • Compared with Markdown/Asciidoc/Org, Typst is seen as better for complex documents (contracts, specs, books) while still feeling lightweight.

New 0.14 Features & PDF Handling

  • Native PDF-as-image support is widely celebrated as removing a major blocker to leaving LaTeX.
  • The new Rust PDF engine (hayro) impresses people with speed, portability, and standalone reuse; large PDFs render almost instantly.
  • Character‑level justification and early microtypography work are viewed as a big quality upgrade.
  • PDF/UA‑1 export and accessibility checks are praised; some note LaTeX now has tagging too but with more complexity and gaps in package support.

Ecosystem, Tooling, and Business Model

  • Core compiler/CLI is open source; the web editor is proprietary. Many use only the CLI plus TinyMist language server in VS Code and other IDEs.
  • The open‑core model and relatively generous pricing are generally viewed positively, with some caution that many OSS companies change later.
  • Typst’s built‑in package manager and growing ecosystem (slides packages like Touying/Slydst, drawing via cetz, indexing with in‑dexter, games, Tufte‑style templates) are highlighted.

Use Cases and Strengths

  • Users report successfully replacing LaTeX, PowerPoint/Marp, Markdown+Pandoc, and Asciidoc for: theses, books, lecture slides, posters, invoices, CVs, specs, and e‑reader article conversion.
  • Fast incremental compilation, clear diagnostics, Unicode support, and simpler layout/footers are recurring themes.
  • Single‑binary deployment makes it attractive for embedding in Rust/Go services to generate PDFs on the fly.

Limitations, Academic Adoption, and Missing Features

  • Major blockers: lack of official support from journals and arXiv, weaker collaborative web experience vs Overleaf, and incomplete parity with LaTeX’s Beamer and TikZ (though Touying/cetz narrow the gap).
  • Other issues mentioned: locale‑aware decimal formatting, citation-style glitches, video/animation in slides, indexing depth, and still‑incomplete accessibility (tables).
  • Backwards‑compatibility policy is seen as unclear; some expect breaking changes until 1.0.

LLMs and Learning Curve

  • Experiences with LLMs generating Typst are mixed: some find them very helpful for templates and snippets, others report constant syntax errors and hallucinations.
  • Regardless, documentation quality and language simplicity make Typst approachable compared with LaTeX.