The k-Thesis-Latex bundle (kTheTex)

The kTheTex bundle is a collection of classes and packages to write reports, theses etc. in LaTeX. The intention is to provide comprehensive and out-of-the-box templates that are easy to use without any need to include modifications, dozens of packages etc. Most of the templates out there take convenience and technical aspects over an elaborate design, these templates try to combine all of that. Typographic rules are applied, always trying to stick close to the suggestions given in literature. One of the major references for these templates is The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

Please feel free to suggest anything you would consider to be useful for a report and/or thesis template as well. Or even start contributing yourself!

Is there a stable release?

Yes, there is. Although this bundle is in constant development, the latest release can always be found on the release page of this package.

There are still some points to be crossed from the to-do list, before everything goes to a stable v1.0 release. If you are interested to try the current code, simply download it!

The bundle is based on the docstrip utility, combining both documentation and code in the same files. To get the class and package files, run LaTeX on the script kTheTex-bundle.ins by calling

$ latex kTheThex-bundle.ins

Then copy the output files to the base folder of your project. Currently, the output files consist of:

• ktxreprt.cls – a class to write reports
• ktxthss.cls – a class to write theses
• ktxbbltx.sty – a package for bibliography formatting (the functionality is included in the classes well, but this package can then also be used as a stand-alone for other templates)

The writing of a documentation is still in progress and right now only includes a commented version of the code. It can be generated by running LaTeX/pdfLaTeX on the file kTheTex-bundle.dtx via

$ pdflatex kTheTex-bundle.dtx

But how do those templates look like?

Although still in development, there are showcase files for the classes ktxreprt and ktxthss. The code includes the .tex file for both showcases, a compiled version is included in every release on the release page. To compile them yourself, call

$ pdflatex showcase-report.tex
$ biber showcase-report
$ pdflatex showcase-report.tex

The program biber is needed since the generation of the bibliography is done with the package Biblatex instead of the old BibTeX. Biblatex and biber are part of every major TeX distribution and are available as stable releases 2.0 and 1.0 since summer 2012, respectively. If you haven't switched to Biblatex in your projects, you should consider it! The main reason for this package to use Biblatex is the fact that its style files are written in LaTeX code and are therefore much easier to read, to understand and to adjust – compared to files based on BibTeX code which is cumbersome to work with.

To-Do List

A list of open issues can be found on the github pages. If you have anything that should be added to these templates, suggestions for improvement or bug fixes, you should check the list of open issues first. If you can't find anything related there, feel free to open a new issue yourself – or submit a pull request, of course. :>