PubCSS

PubCSS is a library of CSS stylesheets and HTML templates for formatting academic publications for print and the web.

Currently, the following formats are supported:

Check out sample output here.

Quick Start

Create an HTML file, or modify the relevant template, to add your content
Link your HTML to the relevant pub.css stylesheet
Build to PDF using Prince with the command prince input.html output.pdf

The only dependency is Prince, which is free for non-commercial use.

Reference

Sections

Sections and subsections are automatically numbered by following this pattern.

<h1>Section Header</h1>
<section>
  <h2>Subsection Header</h2>
  <p>Lorem ipsum</p>
</section>

Tables and Figures

Figures and tables are also numbered if you include a caption.

<table>
  <tr><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr>
  <caption>Example Table</caption>
<table>

<figure>
  <img src="graph.png">
  <figcaption>Example Figure</figcaption>
</figure>

References and Citations

References are also numbered. Be sure to assign them unique IDs.

<cite id="nicole">Nicole. 2015. Title of paper. <em>Journal</em>, 4(3), 1-10.</cite>

Citations to the references make use of these IDs.

<a href="#nicole"></a>

Multiple citations can be made in one set of brackets.

<span class="cites"><a href="#beeker"></a><a href="#jackie"></a><a href="#kiwi"></a></span>

Sections, tables, and figures can also be referenced by adding a class.

<a href="#intro" class="section"></a>
<a href="#example-table" class="table"></a>
<a href="#example-figure" class="figure"></a>

Equations

Equations are also numbered. MathML is well-supported by Prince. For the web, you’ll need MathJax to render MathML properly in Chrome and Internet Explorer.

<div class="equation">
  <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
    <mi>E</mi>
    <mo>=</mo>
    <mi>m</mi>
    <msup>
      <mi>c</mi>
      <mn>2</mn>
    </msup>
  </math>
</div>

Footnotes

Footnotes are made within the body text, and are automatically moved to the bottom of the current page.

<p>This is text.<span class="footnote">And this is a footnote.</span></p>

Smart Quotes

Smart quotes can be used in lieu of straight quotes by enclosing the text like so. You can nest quotes within quotes.

<q>To be or not be.</q>

Utility Classes

Utility classes are also available to modify layout and counter behavior.

col-2: divide the element into 2 columns
col-3: divide the element into 3 columns
col-4: divide the element into 4 columns
col-span: span all of the columns of parent
col-break-before: force column break before element
col-break-after: force column break after element
page-break-before: force page break before element
page-break-after: force page break after element
counter-skip: do not count this header
counter-reset: reset counter to 0

Customization

One of the major advantages of PubCSS is that you can use CSS to customize the style. All of the usual rules apply.

To create a new theme, you’ll want to dig into the LESS source. The most common changes can be made through variables.less, such as toggling page numbers and setting counter styles. The rest can be included in custom.less.

lenards/pubcss