Masterthesis

An elegant LaTeX template for your thesis and presentation.

Final results

Sane typesetting defaults, drop caps and a touch of color make the reading more enjoyable, both on screens and paper:

Ideal for every major:

The simplicity of the accompanying presentation will keep the audience focused:

Find example PDFs inside the example folder.

Requirements

To use this template, you will need:

a LaTeX distribution such as MiKTeX (for Windows), MacTeX (for MacOS), or TeXLive (for Linux)
a LaTeX or code editor, like TeXStudio or VSCodium
a reference manager like Jabref
make to start compilation workflows (Windows installation steps)

Once you installed them, clone this repo or extract its .zip archive.

PDF generation

There are two ways to generate PDFs:

using your editor's "build" features (make sure it is using LuaLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX)
running make from the terminal

Here is a list of the most useful make commands that you can run from your terminal:

 # generate covers
make cover

 # generate thesis
make thesis

 # generate presentation
make presentation

 # deletes temporary files
make clean

Content editing

To understand how to write a thesis document using the template, read USAGE-THESIS.md. If you also need to prepare an accompanying slideshow, read USAGE-PRESENTATION.md

File structure

Thesis

These files can be used to generate thesis.pdf

├── chapters/                       # folder for structured document content
│   └── 1.tex                       #     content of first chapter
├── pages/                          # folder for single pages, lists, references and variables
│   ├── abstract.tex                #     brief introduction to the research
│   ├── acknowledgements.tex        #     people that have professionally helped and supported you
│   ├── acronyms.tex                #     list of acronyms
│   ├── bibliography.tex            #     layout of bibliography
│   ├── colophon.tex                #     notes about typesetting
│   ├── committee.tex               #     empty page for signatures
│   ├── copyright.tex               #     simple copyright notice
│   ├── cover-digital.pdf           #     colorful first and last page of the final document
│   ├── dedication.tex              #     dedication to someone special
│   ├── lists.tex                   #     layout of content, list of figures, list of tables, etc.
│   ├── placeholder.tex             #     standard placeholder text
│   └── title.tex                   #     layout of title page
├── pictures/                       # folder for pictures and covers
├── masterthesis.cls                # layout of the thesis document
├── references.bib                  # biblatex database of bibliographical references
├── thesis.tex                      # main structure of the thesis document
└── variables.tex                   # contains variables such as university, author, title, logo files, etc.

Presentation

These files are used to generate presentation.pdf

├── chapters/                       # folder for structured document content
│   └── slides.tex                  #     content of slides
├── beamerthememasterthesis.sty     # layout of presentation
├── presentation.tex                # main structure of the presentation
├── references.bib                  # biblatex database of bibliographical references
└── variables.tex                   # contains variables such as university, author, title, logo

Other files

Other files and their purpose:

├── examples/                       # folder containing example PDF outputs
├── extra/                          # folder for files that generate other PDFs
│   ├── cover-digital.tex           #     layout of cover for digital reading in thesis.pdf
│   ├── part.tex                    #     quickly compile a part of the content
│   ├── cover-printed.tex           #     layout of front cover for relief printing in a copy shop
│   └── cover-printed-spine.tex     #     layout of cover spine for relief printing in a copy shop
├── .gitignore                      # prevents git from saving temporary files
├── .hidden                         # prevents many linux file managers from showing temporary files
├── LICENSE                         # license file
├── Makefile                        # allows to build the thesis via `make` commands
├── README.md                       # explain objective
├── USAGE-PRESENTATION.md           # explain usage of presentation
└── USAGE-THESIS.md                 # explain usage of thesis

Showcase

List of friends that used this template for their theses:

Giacomo Coletto (2023), The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic and Operational Decision Making, business administration
Federico Roncaglia (2023), A Calorimetric Loss Measurement for Switching Power Devices, electronic engineering
Riccardo Cazzin (2023), Soluzione numerica di equazioni integrali di Fredholm su domini poligonali, mathematics
Maggye Rizzante (2024), Evoluzione delle tecniche di vendita: un’analisi del modello di business di Goppion Caffè S.p.A. e il confronto tra tentata vendita e copia commissione, business administration

AlphaJack/masterthesis