Formatting Information

E.1.1 Gathering the data

But we can start with the three items we already know. They can all be handled the same way: a ) define a default that the writer can’t change accidentally; b ) create a command the writer can use explicitly; and c ) build the metadata into a title page

To do this, LATEX makes use of the fact that an ‘at’ sign (@) is not a letter: it's actually classified as ‘other’. But as with everything else in LATEX, that can be redefined, so we can use the @ in a command for internal use to store metadata, but if authors accidentally try to use it in the document, it won't let them. This also means we can give them default values that will be used if an author forgets to use the normal commands (remember we already saw in § 2.3 above how today’s date will be used if you don't specify a date at all). We can also add provision for a subtitle in the same way.

\makeatletter
\def\@title{Untitled document}
\def\@subtitle{\relax}
\def\@author{A N Other}
\def\@date{\today}
\makeatother

In fact LATEX already defines \@title, \@author, and \@date, so you could just add \@subtitle, but it's useful to re-do it to see how the default values work.

For \@subtitle we use the \relax command, which is just a placeholder, because there really isn't an error if a document has no subtitle.

E.1.2 Defining the user interface

Now we’re ready to make the commands the author will actually use in the document. Again, they all work the same way, by taking one argument each and storing it in the @-commands we just created. The \title, \author, and \date commands are of course already defined in LATEX, so we have to use \renewcommand for them, and just \newcommand for the \subtitle because it's new.

\renewcommand{\title}[1]{\gdef\@title{#1}}
\newcommand{\subtitle}[1]{\gdef\@subtitle{#1}}
\renewcommand{\author}[1]{\gdef\@author{#1}}
\renewcommand{\date}[1]{\gdef\@date{#1}}

Each command can now accept one argument, and its value (#1) will be stored in the @-commands we just created.

Put all these new definitions within the scope of the \makeatletter…\makeatother commands.

E.1.3 Implementing the design

Finally we can now redesign our title page. I don't have a design in mind, so I'm just going to range everything on the left. To do this, you rewrite the \maketitle command:

\renewcommand{\maketitle}{%
  \begin{titlepage}
    \sffamily
    \raggedright
    \null\vspace{2cm}
    \Huge\bfseries\@title\par
    \if\@subtitle\relax\else
      \vspace{1cm}
      \huge\bfseries\@subtitle\par
    \fi
    \vspace{4cm}
    \LARGE\fontseries{m}\selectfont\@author\par
    \vfill
    \normalsize\@date\par
    \clearpage
  \end{titlepage}
}

This also contains @ signs, so it too has to go within the scope of the \makeatletter…\makeatother commands. Within the titlepage environment we do this:

1. Set the sans-serif font, ragged right alignment, and 2cm space (the \null is required, otherwise LATEX will strip away white-space at the top of a page).

2. Use the Huge font size and bold face, and issue the \@title,which contains whatever the author has typed in \title, followed by a \par (remember font sizes and baselines only get implemented when a paragraph is terminated).

3. Now something new: \if…\else…\fi which is a ‘conditional’: something that lets LATEX decide if a condition is true or false, and take whatever action is given.

   Here, if the \@subtitle is [still] \relax (that is, \subtitle was never used), then do nothing; \else (otherwise) leave 1cm space and set the subtitle in the huge font size (in bold).

4. The \@author gets the same treatment, except there is no way to revert out of bold except by telling LATEX to use the m (medium) font;

5. Finally, fill to the end of the page and output the date, then clear the page ready for the next one.

E.1.4 Using it in practice

Now we can put this all into a test file and start a new document:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\makeatletter
\def\@title{Untitled document}
\def\@subtitle{\relax}
\def\@author{A N Other}
\def\@date{\today}
\renewcommand{\title}[1]{\gdef\@title{#1}}
\newcommand{\subtitle}[1]{\gdef\@subtitle{#1}}
\renewcommand{\author}[1]{\gdef\@author{#1}}
\renewcommand{\date}[1]{\gdef\@date{#1}}
\renewcommand{\maketitle}{%
  \begin{titlepage}
    \sffamily
    \raggedright
    \null\vspace{2cm}
    \Huge\bfseries\@title\par
    \if\@subtitle\relax\else
      \vspace{1cm}
      \huge\bfseries\@subtitle\par
    \fi
    \vspace{4cm}
    \LARGE\fontseries{m}\selectfont\@author\par
    \vfill
    \normalsize\@date\par
    \clearpage
  \end{titlepage}
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\title{The Habit}
\subtitle{or They’re Back Again}
\author{J R Hartley}
\date{1973}
\maketitle
\chapter{An unexpected parley}
\end{document}

Process this with XƎLATEX or LuaLATEX and you'll get a title page…and something else. This is the book class, and I added the title of the first chapter, so LATEX has correctly spotted that in books, printing is usually double-sided, and chapters always start on a right-hand page, so it has output an empty page 2 before starting the first chapter.

Figure E.1: The typeset title page

E.1.5 Packaging it up

Last of all, you would normally put all that redesign into a style file or package, even a class file if you were going to make a big production out of it. When you do this, you need to add a few lines identifying what the file is, and remove any \makeatletter and \makeatother commands, because @ signs are legal in commands inside styles and packages.

Let’s call it novel.sty. Cut out all the code you wrote, delete \makeatletter and \makeatother, and add these three lines at the top:

1. the first command (\NeedsTeXFormat) specifies LATEX2ε from 2020 (meaning 2020-or-later). To match it to your own installation (which is all you have tested it on so far), you can use the date you see in the console log when you run LATEX, where it says LaTeX2e <2020-02-02> patch level 2 (or whatever date it on yours)

2. the second command (\ProvidesPackage) gives the name of your new package, and in square brackets you provide the date and the version number and a line of explanation.

You should also add a comment line saying who wrote it, and add \endinput at the very end of the file.

\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[2020/02/02]
\ProvidesPackage{novel}[2023/08/01 v0.01
  Package code for novel layout]
% Written by ...........................
\def\@title{Untitled document}
\def\@subtitle{\relax}
\def\@author{A N Other}
\def\@date{\today}
\renewcommand{\title}[1]{\gdef\@title{#1}}
\newcommand{\subtitle}[1]{\gdef\@subtitle{#1}}
\renewcommand{\author}[1]{\gdef\@author{#1}}
\renewcommand{\date}[1]{\gdef\@date{#1}}
\renewcommand{\maketitle}{%
  \begin{titlepage}
    \sffamily
    \raggedright
    \null\vspace{2cm}
    \Huge\bfseries\@title\par
    \if\@subtitle\relax\else
      \vspace{1cm}
      \huge\bfseries\@subtitle\par
    \fi
    \vspace{4cm}
    \LARGE\fontseries{m}\selectfont\@author\par
    \vfill
    \normalsize\@date\par
    \clearpage
  \end{titlepage}
}
\endinput

E.1.6 Putting it to work

Now you can give this as a template to an author to fill in the title, subtitle, author, and date, and start typesetting.

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{fontspec,novel}
\begin{document}
\title{The Habit}
\subtitle{or They’re Back Again}
\author{J R Hartley}
\date{1973}
\maketitle
\chapter{An unexpected parley}
\end{document}

They don't need to know anything about how it works: they just use the commands as normal, and out comes the new style title page.

E.1.7 Extending the metadata

One immediate benefit of storing the data for re-use is that if you implement running headers and footers, you can use any of these @-commands in them, which avoids errors in retyping or having to specify the metadata in more then one place.

In practice, there is usually a lot more that which goes into the titling of a book or a report or a journal article. Some or all of the following items may be needed, usually spread over several pages called ‘preliminaries’ or ‘prelims’ for short:

• title, subtitle, author or editor, and date, as we know;

• if the work was translated, the original title and subtitle may be needed, and the name of the translator;

• there may be many authors or editors, especially on a report or article, and maybe other contributors;

• each author may need their qualifications, email address, and institutional affiliation;

• in journals, there may be date submitted, date received, date last edited, and others;

• there will almost always be some legal blurb and a copyright notice with a separate date and owner;

• the name and logo of the publisher, with their address;

• if the document is part of a series, the name of the series and related series, and the names of the editorial board;

• the edition and the publication history;

• an abstract (in reports, white papers, articles etc, but not books)

• acknowledgements and dedication;

• warnings or admonishments;

• declarations of interest or independence.

Most of these can be implemented in exactly the way we have used, as @-commands that can be used or not, as the case demands.

Longer passages of text such as an abstract can be typeset into a savebox (see for example the \Sbox feature of the fancybox package), and then output on the relevant page. Using this approach means authors don't have to bother knowing the right order of things: they just specify what needs specifying and your code takes care of the arrangement.

Some of the pages may need to go in a fixed order: universities and publishers in particular can be very picky about having everything in the right sequence. A common book sequence for prelims might be:

1. cover page (title page)

2. blank, or maybe legal;

3. half title;

4. publisher identity, board and series;

5. abstract;

6. continuation or blank;

7. dedication;

8. warning or blank;

9. admonishments;

10. blank;

11. table of contents;

12. list of figures;

13. list of tables;

14. list of acronyms or taxa;

15. blank;

16. introduction;

17. preface;

18. foreword;

19. first chapter.

The intro, preface, and foreword all begin on right-hand pages in western Latin designs, but they may have many continuation pages among them, depending on how long they are. Even though we are in a digital age now, the heavy hand of the western world’s history of printing practices still affects the layout of formal documents, so the list above is aimed at double-sided printing, hence the blank pages, because important stuff always starts on a right-hand (odd) page (left-hand for left-to-right language documents).

In theory you could automate the entire sequence in a single \maketitle command, thereby ensuring that all documents in this series come out with the information easily findable because it's in the same place in each document, and that the authors don't have to worry about getting it ordered.