[Tex/LaTex] How to write a report template to match corporate design

templates

I have the problem that I have to write scientific reports for a company. I would love to use LaTeX for this as I have some experience with it when I wrote my thesis. However the report needs to be styled in corporate design with the corporate logo placed on the first page and some special lines on every page.

I have the measures for the layout but I do not know how to start customizing. Maybe writing a new class is the way to go. I also looked into the KOMA script letter class, maybe there is something possible based on this?

Best Answer

Nobody would argue with you if you base your style on the Reports of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It is a great looking class for this type of document.

The class can easily be changed to suit your Company's style, although normally the front cover will have to match the color scheme of the Company's branding.

enter image description here

It is always better to start from a base class that approximates what you are after. The class is based on standard report class. One other issue with adapting such templates, is that you should rather adopt them for use with XeLaTeX to make the use of system fonts more easily available to the user. This one uses Georgia as the main font.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to customize the standard report template

Depending on which font you need you might want to consider using xelatex and the fontspec package to set the document font.

The textcolor can be set using color/xcolor packages.

Section titles can be customised using titletoc or sectsty or choose a flexible documentclass like memoir that has customisation tools build-in.

For inspiration on how to change the titlepage see http://www.ctan.org/pkg/titlepages.

Watermarks can be added with package atbegshi http://www.ctan.org/pkg/atbegshi.

[Tex/LaTex] Implementing line-based corporate design in LaTeX

Material that should go on every page should be placed in the head or foot (\@oddhead typically). One useful trick is to put a \begin{picture}(0,0) environment this will produce a zero sized box but whose contents can spill out over the entire page, and being in the head they will be absolutely positioned. So you can \put the frame (using th epicture mode box commands, or a fancier package) and similarly \put an \includegraphics with the logo at exact coordinates. (Setting \unitlength to 1mm or some other "real world" length unit often helps when measuring this sort of thing unless your design spec is already given in points).

Then for the first page you just want a different style with perhaps a different style box. the "header" section should just be normal body text for LaTeX not set as a part of \@oddhead as it is of unspecified size.

something like this:

\documentclass{article}

\setlength\textwidth{130mm}
\setlength\textheight{190mm}

\makeatletter
\def\@oddhead{%
\setlength\unitlength{1mm}%
\begin{picture}(0,0)%

\put(120,20){\fbox{A LOGO HERE}}%
\put(-10,-200){\framebox(150,200)[tl]{}}%
\end{picture}\hfill}


\makeatother


\begin{document}

\def\x{Stuff goes here. just to fill up the space. }
\def\xx{\x\x\x\x\x\x}
\def\y{%
\xx\par some other text to fill up space. \xx\xx\xx
\xx\par some other text to fill up more space. \xx\xx\xx
\xx\par some other text to fill up space to get more pages. \xx\xx\xx}

\y

2222 \y

333 \y
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to customize the standard report template

[Tex/LaTex] Implementing line-based corporate design in LaTeX

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