typography — academic LaTeX style reference

A single-page reference. Each rule cites the package or canonical source.

microtype (core typographic polish)

Always load it. Even when its features are partly disabled by the engine.

\usepackage{microtype}

Rule: load microtype after hyperref (older guidance to load before is outdated). Source: microtype PDF §10 (Loading order).

For thesis-grade tuning:

\usepackage[
  protrusion=true, expansion=true, factor=1100,
  stretch=10, shrink=10, final
]{microtype}

final overrides class draft mode (otherwise microtype turns off).

Math display

• Use `amsmath`. align/align* for multi-line equations. equation/equation* for single. Never eqnarray — its column spacing is wrong.
• Inline: \(...\) over $...$ (catches more errors).
• Display: \[...\] over $$...$$ (plain TeX $$ skips \everydisplay, breaking amsmath features).
• Operators: \sin, \log, \max, \arg\max — never roman text in math (\text{arg max} is wrong; use \operatorname{arg\,max} or load \DeclareMathOperator{\argmax}{arg\,max} once).
• Spacing: \, (thin), \: (medium), \; (thick), \! (negative). For "d" in differentials: \mathrm{d}x. For unit spacing: use siunitx (\SI{3.5}{\meter\per\second}).
• Numbering: prefer equation numbering; for sub-equations: subequations env from amsmath.

Source: https://ctan.org/pkg/amsmath and amsldoc PDF.

Headings and sectioning

• Default classes (article, report, book) sectioning is fine for most journals. Don't redefine \section formatting unless the journal requires it — most journals provide their own class.
• Use \paragraph{} and \subparagraph{} sparingly. They are unnumbered runs-in.
• For unconventional formatting, use titlesec — but check the journal class first.
• tocloft for fine-grained ToC formatting; usually overkill.

Captions

\usepackage{caption}                  % core caption control
\usepackage{subcaption}               % for subfigures (newer than subfig)
\captionsetup{font=small, labelfont=bf, format=plain}

Convention: caption above tables, below figures. Most journal classes already enforce this.

For long captions in floats, separate the short version (in ToC/listoftables) from the full caption: \caption[short]{long full description.}.

Source: https://ctan.org/pkg/caption.

Cross-references — cleveref

cleveref produces "Figure 3" / "Figures 3, 4 and 5" automatically based on label-prefix conventions:

\usepackage[capitalize, noabbrev]{cleveref}

Load cleveref AFTER hyperref. Use \Cref{label} (capitalized for sentence start) and \cref{label} (lowercase mid-sentence). Multiple: \Cref{a,b,c}.

Line and page breaking

• Widows and orphans: set \widowpenalty=10000 and \clubpenalty=10000 in the preamble for journal-grade output. (Default: 150 — too tolerant.)
• Bad lines: \sloppy and \fussy. Default is fussy. Use \begin{sloppypar}...\end{sloppypar} for one bad paragraph instead of global \sloppy.
• Hyphenation hints: hy\-phen\-ate to allow specific breaks; \hyphenation{long-word an-other-word} in preamble for global.
• Microtype protrusion alone fixes ~80% of overfull boxes.

Floats placement

• Use [t] (top of page) and [b] (bottom) explicitly. [h] ("here") is a hint, often ignored. [!] overrides float-counter limits.
• Don't use \begin{figure}[H] (H from float package) unless absolutely necessary — it hurts page balance.
• For float-heavy documents, increase \topfraction, \bottomfraction, \textfraction cautiously.

Fonts (modern engines)

% LuaLaTeX/XeLaTeX:
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{TeX Gyre Pagella}            % free, widely available, Palatino-like
\setsansfont{TeX Gyre Heros}              % Helvetica-like
\setmonofont{TeX Gyre Cursor}             % Courier-like

% Or for Computer Modern in Unicode:
\setmainfont{Latin Modern Roman}

For pdflatex (T1 8-bit world):

\usepackage{lmodern}                       % Latin Modern as default
% or
\usepackage{newtxtext, newtxmath}          % Times-like, with proper math
% or
\usepackage{mathpazo}                      % Palatino + matching math

Stick with one consistent family per document. Source: https://tug.org/FontCatalogue/.

SI units

\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{detect-all}                      % match surrounding font
% Use:
\SI{3.5}{\meter\per\second\squared}
\num{1.234e-5}
\ang{30}

Source: https://ctan.org/pkg/siunitx.

Lists

\usepackage{enumitem}
\begin{itemize}[leftmargin=*, itemsep=2pt, topsep=4pt]
  \item ...
\end{itemize}

Source: https://ctan.org/pkg/enumitem.

hyperref hygiene

\usepackage[hidelinks, breaklinks=true, bookmarksnumbered=true, pdfusetitle]{hyperref}

• hidelinks: no colored boxes/underlines (most journal classes set this).
• breaklinks: long URLs break across lines.
• pdfusetitle: sets PDF metadata from \title/\author.

Load after most packages, before cleveref. See https://ctan.org/pkg/hyperref for the famously long option list.

When in doubt

Defer to the journal's official class file. If it sets \captionsetup or redefines \section, do not override. The class is the authority for that publication.

For package-specific fine points not covered here, invoke /academic-latex:docs-lookup.

Last verified

2026-05-09 — TUG, CTAN, microtype PDF, amsldoc.