Typst

Typst reimagines LaTeX with modern tech and workflow.

Typst is a new markup-based typesetting system that is designed to be as powerful as LaTeX while being much easier to learn and use. Typst has:

• Built-in markup for the most common formatting tasks
• Flexible functions for everything else
• A tightly integrated scripting system
• Math typesetting, bibliography management, and more
• Fast compile times thanks to incremental compilation
• Friendly error messages in case something goes wrong

I suspect they are doomed because while they solve the horrible, awful, nastybad misfeatures of most of the LaTeX workflow, they are fighting an uphill battle with compatibility.

For most of us, the cost of switching from LateX at any given moment is higher than the benefit of switching to something less annoying, especially given that whole teams must switch simultaneously, which adds one to the many tedious coordination games our days are already full of.

But maybe not. It has some momentum. There is a public app, somewhat like overleaf.com, for collaborative work, at typst.app. Typst is a supported backend for quarto.

Extensions look easy-ish. For example, there is a procedural diagram extension CeTZ.

Typst Source is here.