[Tex/LaTex] Problems using Harvard dissertation template

templatestexniccenterxetex

I'm trying to produce a PDF file using the Harvard dissertation template [1] file through XeTeX. I am using TeXnicCenter 2.02 stable (64-bit) on Windows 7.

When trying to compile the thesis.tex document, TeXnicCenter yields a bunch of errors.

Reducing the contents of the thesis.tex file to the MnWE:

\documentclass{harvard-thesis}
\begin{document}
\input{frontmatter/coverpage}
\maketitle
\end{document}

produces the same errors. The first one still lies in B.mf:

 >> readfrom 
! Isolated expression.
<to be read again>
( 1.26 if unknown gen_sigma : readfrom( "gen_sigma") fi 
! Extra tokens will be flushed. 

Having a closer look at some other the errors, TeXnicCenter seems to be unable to locate the fonts: The font "Chaparral Pro" cannot be found.

I'd say that I've got installed all required packages concerning XeTeX, and have chosen the right output profile XeLaTex->PDF.

I have updated all installed packages through MikTeX update manager.

I've been googling for a while and did not find any useful hint/solution. I even downloaded the sources of a PhD dissertation [2] referenced by the above templated, and even if an output is actually produced (which is almost acceptable, except for the cover, where an lmrlmsslmtt string is randmonly placed at the top of the page), the compilation log displays many errors related to the one described above.

Any hints?

[1] https://github.com/aleifer/LaTeX-template-for-Harvard-dissertation

[2] https://github.com/aleifer/dissertation

Best Answer

There are bugs in the class file:

  • figurewithin and and tablewithin are options which are not known by package caption

  • the optional argument Ligatures={{Historic,Contextual,Rare}} has too many braces

Here you'll find a corrected version which will produce a title page when running xelatex:

enter image description here

As an alternative delete all files in the subdirectory packages because they old and are all part of the current TeX distribution.

Related Question