[Tex/LaTex] Most useful additions in KOMA-Script

big-listdocument-classeskoma-scriptpackages

(Background: I'm a beginner who will mostly use LaTeX for university articles and reports, but no math. Also, as I reside in Canada, the German typography conventions, which I understand KOMA-Script supports better than LaTeX, are less relevant).

I've read that the KOMA-Script package has a lot of improvements for the default document classes. Yet the manual's length, about 250 pages, is somewhat daunting. I plan to read the chapters I'm interested in anyway but it'd be useful to have some pointers about low hanging fruits. I searched the site and other answers say KOMA-Script adds improvements but do not delve into details.

I'll ask this as a community wiki topic and, since the audience of this site is international, feel free to mention German typography if KOMA-Script is better there.

Best Answer

Unlike memoir, the KOMA-Script-classes do not add the functionality of dozens of packages to the LaTeX core - but the KOMA-additions are useful and extremely easy to handle. Roughly in order of the documentation:

Customizable type area with default values that also (contrary to the standard classes) work well for letter- and A4-paper,
Support for arbitrarily chosen font sizes (e.g. 10.5pt),
Ability to change font size mid-document,
Customization of the font attributes of many document elements,
Enhanced \maketitle features (e.g. \subtitle),
\addpart, \addchap, and \addsec commands producing unnumbered parts, chapters, and sections that are nevertheless included in the table of contents,
Options to include the bibliography, the index etc. in the table of contents,
parskip option that is more powerful than the package of the same name,
Configurable footnotes (including some features of the footmisc package),
Option open=left to always start chapters on left pages,
Consistent formatting of every "listofsomething" (e.g. "chapter gaps" in the "List of Listings"),
Lots of little things.

`scrextend`

This package makes basic features of KOMA-Script classes available for other classes, so it extends them. It is mainly meant for document writers, but could also be used by package and class writers. Description is found in main KOMA-Script documentation.

As explicitly stated in documentation this package should not be used together with a KOMA-Script class.

Feature overview:

Early or late option selection: Options can be given in key-value pairs, and not only with \documentclass respective \usepackage, but also later in preamble and most options even in document using \KOMAoption or \KOMAoptions.
Enhancement of draft mode: Provides marks for overful lines also for classes, where this is originally not defined, cf. What does the draft mode change?
Document titles: This feature must activated as package option, but then one can use the enhanced KOMA-Script features for \maketitle and environment titlepage.

See How to span \textit{} and \Large several lines in \author{} and compare my answer with the others or float left figure in titlepage (scrextend at the end of answer).
Fontsize selection: Choose any desired fontsize instead of the limited set of standard classes, it is also more flexible than package extsizes. Of course, a scalable font must be loaded, either explicitly or by loading fontenc and having cm-super installed.

See this:
```
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[fontsize=14pt]{scrextend}
\usepackage{kantlipsum}% for some filler text
\begin{document}
\kant[160-164]
\end{document}
```
See also How to specify font size less than 10pt (or more than 12pt)? or second part of lockstep’s answer to How to set a small default font size with beamer?.
Enhanced text markup opportunities: A \textsubscript is provided, and for a limited set of elements the commands \setkomafont, \addtokomafont etc. can be used, where in standard classes often internal commands must be redefined. Supported elements are title (and disposition, that will be only active for title markup), all elements for footnotes, dictum and all elements for labeling environment.

See in How to span \textit{} and \Large several lines in \author{} (already linked above) and Description-like environment with fixed labels width.
Detection of even and odd pages: A command \ifthispageodd is provided.

Example: If Then Else for odd page/even page.
Commands for interleaf pages: Additons to \clearpage offering more flexibility.
Footnote features of KOMA-Script, but for some features the command \deffootnote must have been used for activation.

Examples with \deffootnote: Layout of multiple lines footnotes, Different formatting of footnote mark in text and in footnote, Footnote number in braces / parentheses and How to set superscript footnote mark in the text body but normalsized in the foot?. In Reference different places to the same footnote you can see the command \footref in action.
Dicta, aphorisma, slogans for chapters and parts.
Enhanced decription list labeling.

Examples: Make the lines of a description item line up, align list of symbols with dash and Description-like environment with fixed labels width (already linked above).
Simple margin changes with (trivlist) environment addmargin.

Examples: Write text with some fixed amount of space from the margin, How can I indent a block of text for a specified amount?
Margin notes like with package marginpar. Do not mix up with package marginnote also written by Markus Kohm.

[Tex/LaTex] LaTeX list of figures/list of tables with KOMA-Script additions

Do not use two different packages to change the TOC or the lists. With a KOMA-Script class I would prefer package tocstyle because it is part of the KOMA-Script bundle. But it seems to me that there is no additional package needed.

You can use option

listof=totoc,

to get TOC entries for the lists,

listof=entryprefix,

to get prefixes for the list entries,

toc=sectionentrywithdots,

to get dots between the section entries in TOC and their page numbers.

To rename \figurename and \tablename use

\renewcaptionname{german}{\figurename}{Abb.}
\renewcaptionname{german}{\tablename}{Tab.}

and for the : after the figure or the table number in the lists

\BeforeStartingTOC[lof]{\def\autodot{:}}
\BeforeStartingTOC[lot]{\def\autodot{:}}

Code:

\documentclass[
    bibliography=totoc,
    listof=totoc,
    listof=entryprefix,
    toc=sectionentrywithdots
]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\usepackage[german]{babel}
\renewcaptionname{german}{\figurename}{Abb.}
\renewcaptionname{german}{\tablename}{Tab.}

\BeforeStartingTOC[lof]{\def\autodot{:}}
\BeforeStartingTOC[lot]{\def\autodot{:}}

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents
\listoffigures
\clearpage
\section{Test}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.7\linewidth]{example-image}
    \caption{Fertigungsprozess der GMH}
    \label{fig:GMH_Fertigungsprozess_mit_Logo}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

BTW do you really want to use german instead of ngerman?

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Using KOMA-Script packages with other classes

scrextend

Feature overview:

[Tex/LaTex] LaTeX list of figures/list of tables with KOMA-Script additions

Related Question

`scrextend`