Thoughts on Typst (and other Typesetting Software)

What is Typst?

I'm glad you asked. Typst is a software used to typeset plain text documents into stylised PDF exports. You might be thinking, 'How is that different that using Microsoft Word or another word processor?' Simply put, a word processor is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get piece of software, where you style and type the document at the same time, where-as when you are using a typesetting software, you are, for the most part, focusing entirely on typing out your content and then letting the compiler and template files style it for you. In that sense, you often only mark sections, chapters, bold or other tags in the text file that is later compiled to a PDF with a typesetting compiler, where-as in a word processor like Microsoft Word, everything is done on the fly within the software.

Why use a typesetting engine over a word processor?

Regarding the differences listed above, typesetting software offers unique advantages, the main one being that you are allowed to focus entirely on writing your content, and completely ignore any design choices, letting the template and compiler do everything for you. This is also great for institutions and works being published, as the institution can simply supply the template they want, and you do not have to do any styling to make sure the output of your document is the same as how they wish it to be.

Why use Typst over any TeX, *roff or other typesetting software

Typesetting software is nothing new, an in fact, Typst is not even the most commonly used one. TeX, or its derivatives LaTeX, Xe(La)TeX and Lua(La)TeX, are probably more commonly used. Roff, another older typesetting software, oft favoured by those going down the ultra-minimalist software route, is also used, but is probably the least popular of the known or used typesetting software out there. There also exists others, like SILE, but they have their own niches and uses and I will forgo speaking about them.

Typst, whilst not as popular as TeX, is a much newer piece of software. TeX originally released in 1978, where-as Typst is still in beta (since 2023). Both are still regularly updated, TeX is nowhere near abandoned, however, its age has led to a fair bit of Frankenstein-isation over the years, in both its package system and the extra pieces of software needed to run a full suite and comfortably take a complicated TeX file with citations, graphics, advanced typesetting, modern fonts and other things and compile it into a PDF. There are even programs like latexmk that are made to solve this exact problem, on top of the multiple compilation run problem due needing all these extra pieces of software that require running both before and after compilation runs, creating loop issues and littering the directory with many output files.

Typst, on the other hand, is being developed with many of these modern ideas and use cases being built in to its native compiler and syntax. This allows for a single program and single compilation run in order to end up with your final output file. Also, with its much expanded memory solving both the multiple run issue and output file issue, with Typst not outputting anything other than the compiled file unless specified by the user with extra flags.