relatese

relatese is a small LaTeX helper package for scientific reports, lecture notes, and related academic documents.

It provides a compact set of defaults and optional modules for common report-writing tasks: page geometry presets, figure and table helpers, mathematical notation shortcuts, scientific-writing tools, bibliography setup, hyperlinks, and clever references.

The package is organized as a documented LaTeX source (.dtx) plus an installer (.ins). The generated relatese.sty file should be treated as a derived file.

Status

This package is currently in early development.

The public interface is mostly stable, but option names and helper commands may still change before a first CTAN release.

Features

The core package loads broadly useful packages and applies conservative defaults for:

• page geometry through geometry;
• graphics through graphicx;
• captions through caption;
• tables through booktabs;
• lists through enumitem;
• colors through xcolor;
• basic mathematics through amsmath and bm;
• microtypographic improvements through microtype.

Additional features are enabled with package options.

Installation

For local use, place the generated relatese.sty file somewhere LaTeX can find it, for example in the same directory as your document:

my-document/
├── main.tex
└── relatese.sty

Then load it with:

\usepackage{relatese}

For a local TeX tree installation, place the package under a suitable directory such as:

~/texmf/tex/latex/relatese/

and refresh the filename database if your TeX distribution requires it.

Generating the package

The package source is maintained in relatese.dtx.

To generate relatese.sty, run:

latex relatese.ins

To build the documentation, run:

pdflatex relatese.dtx

For a cleaner build, latexmk can be used:

latexmk -pdf relatese.dtx

The generated files should normally not be edited by hand. Edit relatese.dtx instead.

Basic usage

A minimal document can load the core package without options:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{relatese}

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}

This document uses the core defaults provided by \textsf{relatese}.

\end{document}

The paper size should be selected by the document class. The geometry presets provided by relatese change margins only; they do not force a4paper or letterpaper.

Package options

Options can be combined in the usual LaTeX way:

\usepackage[math,sciencecomma,refs]{relatese}

layout

Loads additional packages for document layout and structure, such as changepage, multicol, authblk, setspace, indentfirst, tocloft, lastpage, titlesec, and footmisc.

Use this option when the document layout is controlled by the author.

\usepackage[layout]{relatese}

math

Loads additional mathematical tools and defines notation helpers for derivatives, differentials, inner products, chi-square notation, Roman numerals, prime marks, slanted parallel marks, and unit vectors.

\usepackage[math]{relatese}

Example:

\[
  \dd{f}{x}
  \qquad
  \ddp{f}{t}
  \qquad
  \vperp
  \qquad
  \vpar
\]

figures

Loads figure-related tools: float, subcaption, placeins, pdflscape, and svg.

Use this option for subfigures, float barriers, landscape pages, forced float placement, or SVG inclusion.

\usepackage[figures]{relatese}

tables

Loads additional table tools: colortbl and makecell.

Use this option for colored rows or cells and multi-line table cells.

\usepackage[tables]{relatese}

science

Loads siunitx and mhchem.

Use this option for physical quantities, units, chemical formulae, and chemical reactions.

\usepackage[science]{relatese}

Example:

The sample thickness was \SI{10}{\micro\meter}.

\[
  \ce{H2O -> H^. + OH^.}
\]

sciencecomma

Loads the same tools as science, but configures siunitx to use a decimal comma.

\usepackage[sciencecomma]{relatese}

This is useful for Portuguese and other decimal-comma conventions.

refs

Loads the complete reference setup: csquotes, biblatex, hyperref, and cleveref.

\usepackage[refs]{relatese}

The bibliography backend is biber, with numeric compressed citations, sorting by order of appearance, back-references, and superscript autocitations.

Example:

\addbibresource{references.bib}

As discussed in \autocite{key}, ...

See \cref{sec:method}.

\printbibliography

Documents using this option should be compiled with biber.

biblatex

Loads only csquotes and biblatex, using the package bibliography defaults.

\usepackage[biblatex]{relatese}

Use this when you want the bibliography setup without automatically enabling hyperref and cleveref.

cleveref

Loads cleveref, loading hyperref first when needed.

\usepackage[cleveref]{relatese}

No explicit language option is passed to cleveref; language selection should be handled by babel or polyglossia.

drafttools

Loads tools useful while drafting. Currently this enables lipsum.

\usepackage[drafttools]{relatese}

full

Enables the main working set of modules:

\usepackage[full]{relatese}

This is intended for documents that use most of the package conventions. For documents subject to journal, publisher, or institutional formatting requirements, prefer enabling only the specific options needed.

Geometry presets

Since geometry is part of the core package, geometry presets are always available.

Use a preset in the preamble with:

\setgeometry{standard}

Available presets:

Preset	Margins	Intended use
standard	hmargin=2.5cm, vmargin=3.5cm	General reports and default use.
compact	hmargin=2cm, vmargin=2.5cm	Shorter documents or drafts with less white space.
wide	hmargin=2cm, top=2.5cm, bottom=3cm	Documents needing a wider text block.
binding	inner=3cm, outer=2cm, top=3cm, bottom=3.5cm	Printed documents that need extra inner margin for binding.
draft	hmargin=3cm, vmargin=3.5cm	Drafts with larger margins for notes and corrections.

For temporary changes inside the document body, use:

\newsetgeometry{compact}

and return to the previous geometry with:

\restoregeometry

Development workflow

A typical development cycle is:

latex relatese.ins
latexmk -pdf relatese.dtx

Before committing, check that:

• relatese.sty can be extracted from relatese.dtx;
• the documentation builds without errors;
• examples compile with the intended engines;
• generated auxiliary files are not committed unless intentionally tracked.

Suggested tests:

latex relatese.ins
pdflatex relatese.dtx

Then test small documents using:

\usepackage{relatese}
\usepackage[math,sciencecomma]{relatese}
\usepackage[full]{relatese}

Repository layout

A recommended repository layout is:

relatese/
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── relatese.dtx
├── relatese.ins
├── relatese.pdf
├── examples/
│   ├── basic.tex
│   ├── science.tex
│   └── full.tex
└── CHANGELOG.md

The generated relatese.sty may be included for convenience, but the canonical source is relatese.dtx.

License

This project is intended to be distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License, version 1.3c or later.

Author

Francisco M Neto