LaTeX Dissertation Template

This repository provides a ready-to-use LaTeX template and skeleton structure for writing a PhD dissertation. While parts of the setup, in particular some of the included packages, are geared toward computer science and cryptography, the template is not limited to those areas and should readily be usable for (or adaptable to) other disciplines as well.

It is built around KOMA-Script’s scrbook class and aims to offer a typographically aware starting point. The goal is not to impose a single "correct" style, but to give you a solid foundation that already tries to make a number of formatting decisions with care.¹

Getting started

This template assumes a reasonably recent TeX distribution, in particular TeX Live. It uses the LuaLaTeX engine together with biber for bibliography processing and latexmk for building; recent TeX Live versions include all of these out of the box. In practice, the template has been developed and tested only with TeX Live 2025 and 2026. Although it can also be used with Overleaf, the instructions below focus first on a local TeX Live installation, since that is the primary setup assumed by this repository.

Local setup (recommended)

1. Ensure that you have a reasonably recent TeX Live distribution installed; see the TeX Live website.

2. Create your own repository from this template repository.
   If you do not want to use GitHub yourself, you can skip this step.

3. Clone or download your newly created repository.
   If you do not want to use GitHub yourself, you can also clone or download this repository directly, i.e., without first creating your own repository from the template.

4. As a quick first check, you can try compiling the project from the repository root by running latexmk in a terminal. If everything is set up correctly, this should produce the dissertation PDF. If you prefer, you can skip this step and continue with your editor setup.

5. Open the project in your TeX editor of choice.
   If you do not yet have a preferred editor, you may first want to choose and set up one.

6. Configure your (editor’s) build setup to use LuaLaTeX (and/or latexmk).
   The simplest option is usually to perform a full build with latexmk, which typically just requires setting your (editor’s) build command to latexmk. However, a full latexmk build may invoke multiple runs of LuaLaTeX and Biber in order to regenerate citations, references, and other auxiliary data, so it can take noticeable time for larger documents. In practice, many edits require only a single LuaLaTeX run to preview the result. It is therefore often useful to configure your setup so that you can do both: run a full latexmk build when needed, and run a single lualatex pass for quicker iteration during writing. Depending on your editor, this is typically done by setting up lualatex as an additional build command or binding it to a shortcut. It may also be useful to pass options such as --interaction=nonstopmode, --halt-on-error, and --file-line-error to this command. If you use features such as TikZ externalization, you may additionally need --shell-escape.

7. Compile main.tex.
   If everything is set up correctly, this should produce the dissertation PDF.

8. Optionally, if your editor supports it, set main.tex as the main project file.
   In other words, make it the default file your editor compiles.

Overleaf setup

WIP

Personalizing

Once your editor and build setup are working and the project compiles successfully, the first thing you will likely want to do is personalize the template by replacing the placeholders with your own information.

All placeholders are written in angled brackets, that is, in the form <X>, where X indicates the information to be filled in.

At the moment, placeholders occur in the following files:

• preamble/preamble.tex
• frontmatter/frontmatter.tex
• frontmatter/tuetitlepage.tex
  If you are not at TU/e, you will likely want to replace this file with a title page that follows your own university’s requirements rather than fill in the placeholders in the existing TU/e-specific version.

Naturally, you may not be able to fill in every placeholder immediately, so it is perfectly normal to leave some of them for later.

Familiarizing

After personalizing the template, it might be worth taking a little time to familiarize yourself with its overall structure and features, so that you know where to look, what is already provided, and what to expect while writing.

For information about the skeleton’s layout, see Skeleton structure; for an overview of the available features, see Features. In addition, the repository includes a dummy chapter (mainmatter/dummy.tex) showcasing and explaining some of the most common features. Finally, many of the files contain comments with further explanation.

Customizing

WIP

Skeleton structure

.
├── main.tex
├── bibliography.bib
├── .gitignore
├── .latexmkrc
├── preamble
│   ├── preamble.tex
│   ├── packagesetup.tex
│   ├── macrosetup.tex
│   ├── tikzsetup.tex
│   └── listingssetup.tex
├── frontmatter
│   ├── frontmatter.tex
│   ├── tuetitlepage.tex
│   ├── acknowledgments.tex
│   └── abstract.tex
├── mainmatter
│   └── ...
├── backmatter
│   ├── backmatter.tex
│   └── cv.tex
├── figures
│   ├── ...
│   └── tikz
└── .github
    └── workflows
        └── build_and_release.yml

At a high level, the purpose of each included directory and file is as follows:

• main.tex
  Main entry point of the dissertation. This is the file you compile, and the main file to inspect when first exploring the project.
• bibliography.bib
  Main bibliography file. Add your BibLaTeX entries here.
• .gitignore
  Preset gitignore file that also includes non-standard auxiliary files originating from custom setup
• .latexmkrc
  Build configuration for latexmk. Lets you compile the project with latexmk and clean auxiliary files with latexmk -C.
• preamble/
  This directory contains the global document setup.
  • preamble.tex
    Main preamble file, loaded by main.tex.
  • packagesetup.tex
    Loads and configures LaTeX packages.
  • macrosetup.tex
    Defines custom macros, notation, and theorem-like environments.
  • tikzsetup.tex
    Place for TikZ libraries, styles, and related setup.
  • listingssetup.tex
    Place for source-code listing styles and related configuration.
• frontmatter/
  This directory contains the material before the main chapters.
  • frontmatter.tex
    Main frontmatter file. Controls the order of the title pages, acknowledgments, abstract, table of contents, and lists of figures/tables/algorithms/listings.
  • tuetitlepage.tex
    TU/e-specific title page. Replace or adapt this to match your university's specific requirements.
  • acknowledgments.tex
    Acknowledgments chapter.
  • abstract.tex
    Abstract chapter.
• mainmatter/
  This directory is for the dissertation chapters. Put your main chapter files here, typically one file per chapter. In the current setup (by default), although conceptually questionable, the appendices are also part of the mainmatter to maintain chapter numbering. A dummy chapter file (dummy.tex) is provided, demonstrating some of the basic elements and features you can use for typesetting your dissertation.
• backmatter/
  This directory contains the material after the main chapters.
  • backmatter.tex
    Main backmatter file. In the current setup, this handles the bibliography and appendix transition.
  • cv.tex
    Curriculum vitae chapter.
• figures/
  This directory is for figures and graphics. Store image files and other graphical assets here.
  • tikz/
    Cache directory for externalized TikZ figures, if you decide to enable that.
• .github/workflows/
  This directory contains the GitHub Actions workflow.
  • .github/workflows/build_and_release.yml
    Builds the dissertation PDF on each push, creates a GitHub release with the PDF on tags or manual dispatch.

Features

• Document layout
  • Dissertation-oriented layout based on KOMA-Script’s scrbook class.
  • B5, two-sided setup, with a built-in guess for binding correction.²
  • Configured headings, chapter openings, running heads, captions, margin equation tags, and microtypography.
• Fonts, language, and quotations
  • LuaLaTeX-based font setup using Libertinus.
  • STIX Two calligraphic, script, and fraktur math alphabets.
  • Multilingual support via polyglossia and quotations via csquotes.
• Floating environments and graphics
  • Consistent setup for figures, tables, algorithms, and listings.
  • Matching captions, float behavior, and content lists.
  • Support for regular graphics, TikZ, forest, and optional TikZ externalization.
• Mathematics and formal statements
  • Mathematical setup based on mathtools, including margin equation numbering.
  • Theorem-like environments for theorems, lemmas, propositions, corollaries, axioms, definitions, remarks, and claims.
• Pseudocode, code, and technical writing support
  • Pseudocode support via algpseudocodex and a custom algorithmicframed environment.
  • cryptocode styling adjusted to better match the main pseudocode setup.
  • Default listings configuration for source-code listings.
• Referencing, bibliography, and metadata
  • Hyperlinks and automatic cross-referencing via hyperref and cleveref.
  • Bibliography support via biblatex and biber.
  • PDF metadata configured through \hypersetup.
• Drafting, notes, and helper macros
  • Todo notes, a corresponding todo list, layout visualization, and dummy text.
  • Margin notes.
  • Small helper macros for, e.g., simultaneous text sub- and superscripts and context-aware outlined text/math boxes.
• Colors
  • Default color setup via colorblind.
  • Colorblind-friendly remappings of built-in color names.
• Project structure and build tooling
  • Modular project structure with separate files for package setup, macros, TikZ setup, listings setup, front matter, and back matter.
  • Local build workflow centered around LuaLaTeX, latexmk, and biber.
  • GitHub Actions workflow for automatic PDF builds and optional tagged/manual releases.

Acknowledgments

WIP

Footnotes

1. I am by no means an expert in typography or related fields. The choices in this template reflect a good-faith attempt to make reasonable typesetting and formatting decisions, based primarily on the KOMA-Script manual (and some forums/blogs). ↩

2. Binding correction depends on several factors, including the paper type, the number of pages, and the binding method. This template uses a default value of 5,mm, which is only a rough estimate based on personal communication with dissertation printers in the Netherlands. You may want to verify this value for your specific case; see the KOMA-Script manual for more information on binding correction. ↩