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LaTeX is everywhere in academia. It produces beautiful output and handles mathematics like nothing else. But let’s be honest: the experience of writing in LaTeX is often frustrating. Obscure error messages, a verbose syntax, a heavy toolchain, and a steep learning curve are familiar complaints. Producing a decent HTML version of a LaTeX document is a project in itself.

Two relatively recent tools change this picture significantly: MyST Markdown and Typst . I recently put together a small public repository to demonstrate what they can do together — and how far you can get without touching LaTeX at all.

The repository ¶

The repository examples-myst-typst contains two example documents:

a report , structured like an internship report,
a book , structured like a PhD thesis manuscript.

Both are written in MyST Markdown and compiled to PDF via Typst. No LaTeX involved. Dependencies are managed with Pixi , so (i) you do not need to worry about dependency installations and (ii) it’s reproducible.

MyST: Markdown that grows with you ¶

MyST ( Markedly Structured Text ) extends Markdown with the features that technical writers actually need: numbered equations and figures, cross-references, citations, admonitions, and structured metadata. The syntax stays close to plain Markdown, which means source files are readable, diffable, and easy to version-control.

What makes MyST particularly compelling is its output flexibility. From a single source, mystmd can produce an interactive website, a Word document, JATS XML, and a PDF — either via LaTeX (with support for over 400 journal templates) or, increasingly, via Typst.

Typst: a breath of fresh air for PDF generation ¶

Typst is a new composition system for producing PDFs. It feels like what you would design if you started from scratch today, with LaTeX’s lessons in mind. The syntax is concise, the compiler is fast, the error messages are actually helpful, and the scripting model for layouts is clean and powerful. Installation is a single binary.

Used as MyST’s PDF backend, Typst closes the loop: you write plain Markdown, and you get a well-typeset PDF — without ever installing a LaTeX distribution.

When can you drop LaTeX entirely? ¶

Not always. If your target journal requires a .tex submission, you still need LaTeX — and MyST can produce that too. But for theses, reports, books, course notes, and internal technical documents, the MyST + Typst combination is already very capable, and the workflow is genuinely pleasant.

The introduction of the report document in the repository goes into more detail on these trade-offs, if you want a longer read.

Try it ¶

    # Clone the repository
hg clone https://foss.heptapod.net/fluiddyn/examples-myst-typst
cd examples-myst-typst

# Build the report as PDF
cd report
pixi run myst build --typst report.md

# Launch a web server useful for visualizing changes
pixi run myst start

# Build the book as PDF
cd ../book
pixi run myst build --typst

# Launch a web server useful for visualizing changes
pixi run myst start

   

Feedback and contributions welcome.