lionslancer/latex-jp

This repo contains useful information for getting started with typesetting Japanese documents in LaTeX.

Japanese typesetting with LaTeX

This repository contains useful information for getting started with typesetting Japanese documents in LaTeX.

Table of Contents

Basic Topics

• Japanese TeX Engines
  • Summarizes the three main engines available for typesetting Japanese.
• Japanese LaTeX Classes
  • Summarizes the main classes used for typesetting Japanese.
• Japanese LaTeX Packages
  • Lists commonly used packages and which engines they are compatible with.
• Using Japanese counter styles in enumerated lists
  • Explains how to use Japanese counter styles like いろは in enumerated lists.

Advanced Topics

• js classes and the jis font metric
  • Explains the differences between the j classes and js classes, as well as the jis font metric. Read the main guide first.
• Whitespace and linebreaks
  • In-depth explanation of how whitespace and line breaks are handled in Japanese documents, and how 禁則処理 (line breaking rules) are implemented.

tl;dr: Use jlreq with LuaTeX

Key points

Here is a summary of the most important points:

• The jlreq class does pretty much everything you need:
  • based on JLREQ (the W3C specification for Japanese text layout).
  • takes document types (article, book, report) as options.
• Use the luatexja-preset package with the deluxe option to enable multiple font weights.
• Use the pxrubrica package to typeset furigana and kenten.

Example

The following example¹ will output the beginning of "I am a cat" by Natsume Soseki, typeset vertically:

\documentclass[a4paper, book, tate, twocolumn]{jlreq}
\usepackage{bxjalipsum}
\begin{document}
\title{吾輩は猫である}% I Am A Cat
\author{夏目漱石}% Natsume Soseki
\maketitle
\jalipsum{wagahai}% 吾輩は猫である。名前... (33 paragraphs)
\end{document}

The output can be seen here.

Resources

Sources for the information in this repository, and other useful links. If using TeX Live, some of these documents can be read using texdoc.

Guides in English

• Guide to Japanese typesetting with LaTeX
  • texdoc japanese
• Overleaf Japanese guide
• How to write Japanese with LaTeX? on TeX StackExchange

Guides in Japanese

• 日本語 LaTeX の新常識 2021
• TeX Live ドキュメント案内
  • Long list of documents related to Japanese LaTeX
• Japanese TeX Wiki

Journal articles on Japanese typesetting

• Haruhiko Okumura, "pTeX and Japanese Typesetting", The Asian Journal of TeX, Volume 2, No. 1, 2008.
• Hironori Kitagawa, "Development of the LuaTEX-ja package", The Asian Journal of TeX, Volume 5, No. 2, 2011.

Package documentation

• The LuaTEX-ja package
  • texdoc luatexja

Standards

• Requirements for Japanese Text Layout

Footnotes

1. Slightly modified version of an example from Guide to Japanese typesetting with LaTeX. ↩