On Typesetting Engines: A Programmer's Perspective

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Style Pass

2024-11-01 14:30:17

Typesetting is a big topic, it is both an art and an engineering technique that has evolved significantly with the advent of digital technology. Obviously I cannot cover this topic in one post, even a book cannot do.

Among many typesetting concepts, the typesetting engine is one of the core concepts. Basically, a typesetting engine is a piece of software that decides how the glyphs, graphics, tables, etc. are laid out for printing or digital display.

When PPResume (opens in a new tab) was launched (opens in a new tab) , some people asked (opens in a new tab) me why chose LaTeX as the default typesetting engine for PPReseume. Hmmm, this is a big topic.

In this post, I would like to explore the pros and cons of some popular typesetting engines: HTML/CSS, LaTeX.js (opens in a new tab) , LaTeX (opens in a new tab) , Typst (opens in a new tab) , react-pdf (opens in a new tab) and conclude why PPResume chose LaTeX as the default typesetting engine.

But before we start, let us agree on some glossaries that will be used thoughout whole post. Yes this is a long post and it takes time and energy to read. Don't complain to me later. I warned you here!