LaTeX customization¶

The latex target does not benefit from pre-prepared themes like the html target does (see HTML theming support).

Basic customization¶

It is achieved via usage of the Options for LaTeX output as described in The build configuration file. For example:

# inside conf.py
latex_engine = 'xelatex'
latex_elements = {
    'fontpkg': r'''
\setmainfont{DejaVu Serif}
\setsansfont{DejaVu Sans}
\setmonofont{DejaVu Sans Mono}
''',
    'preamble': r'''
\usepackage[titles]{tocloft}
\cftsetpnumwidth {1.25cm}\cftsetrmarg{1.5cm}
\setlength{\cftchapnumwidth}{0.75cm}
\setlength{\cftsecindent}{\cftchapnumwidth}
\setlength{\cftsecnumwidth}{1.25cm}
''',
    'fncychap': r'\usepackage[Bjornstrup]{fncychap}',
    'printindex': r'\footnotesize\raggedright\printindex',
}
latex_show_urls = 'footnote'

If the size of the 'preamble' contents becomes inconvenient, one may move all needed macros into some file mystyle.tex of the project source repertory, and get LaTeX to import it at run time:

'preamble': r'\input{mystyle.tex}',
# or, if the \ProvidesPackage LaTeX macro is used in a file mystyle.sty
'preamble': r'\usepackage{mystyle}',

It is needed to set appropriately latex_additional_files, for example:

latex_additional_files = ["mystyle.tex"]

The LaTeX style file options¶

The sphinxsetup interface¶

The 'sphinxsetup' key of latex_elements provides a convenient interface to the package options of the Sphinx style file:

latex_elements = {
    'sphinxsetup': 'key1=value1, key2=value2, ...',
}

some values may be LaTeX macros, then the backslashes must be Python-escaped, or the whole must be a Python raw string,
LaTeX boolean keys require lowercase true or false values,
spaces around the commas and equal signs are ignored, spaces inside LaTeX macros may be significant.

If non-empty, it will be passed as argument to the \sphinxsetup macro inside the document preamble, like this:

\usepackage{sphinx}
\sphinxsetup{key1=value1, key2=value2,...}

New in version 1.5.

It is possible to insert further uses of the \sphinxsetup LaTeX macro directly into the body of the document, via the help of the raw directive. This is what is done for this documentation, for local styling of this chapter in the PDF output:

.. raw:: latex

   \begingroup
   \sphinxsetup{%
         verbatimwithframe=false,
         VerbatimColor={named}{OldLace},
         TitleColor={named}{DarkGoldenrod},
         hintBorderColor={named}{LightCoral},
         attentionborder=3pt,
         attentionBorderColor={named}{Crimson},
         attentionBgColor={named}{FloralWhite},
         noteborder=2pt,
         noteBorderColor={named}{Olive},
         cautionborder=3pt,
         cautionBorderColor={named}{Cyan},
         cautionBgColor={named}{LightCyan}}

at the start of the chapter and:

.. raw:: latex

   \endgroup

at its end.

Note

The colors above are made available via the svgnames option of the “xcolor” package:

latex_elements = {
    'passoptionstopackages': r'\PassOptionsToPackage{svgnames}{xcolor}',
}

The available styling options¶

hmargin, vmargin

The dimensions of the horizontal (resp. vertical) margins, passed as hmargin (resp. vmargin) option to the geometry package. The default is 1in, which is equivalent to {1in,1in}. Example:

'sphinxsetup': 'hmargin={2in,1.5in}, vmargin={1.5in,2in}, marginpar=1in',

Japanese documents currently accept only the one-dimension format for these parameters. The geometry package is then passed suitable options to get the text width set to an exact multiple of the zenkaku width, and the text height set to an integer multiple of the baselineskip, with the closest fit for the margins.

Hint

For Japanese 'manual' docclass with pointsize 11pt or 12pt, use the nomag extra document class option (cf. 'extraclassoptions' key of latex_elements) or so-called TeX “true” units:

'sphinxsetup': 'hmargin=1.5truein, vmargin=1.5truein, marginpar=5zw',

New in version 1.5.3.

marginpar

The \marginparwidth LaTeX dimension, defaults to 0.5in. For Japanese documents, the value is modified to be the closest integer multiple of the zenkaku width.

New in version 1.5.3.

verbatimwithframe

default true. Boolean to specify if code-blocks and literal includes are framed. Setting it to false does not deactivate use of package “framed”, because it is still in use for the optional background colour.

verbatimwrapslines

default true. Tells whether long lines in code-block’s contents should wrap.

verbatimhintsturnover

default false. If true, code-blocks display “continued on next page”, “continued from previous page” hints in case of pagebreaks.

New in version 1.6.3: the default will change to true at 1.7 and horizontal positioning of continuation hints (currently right aligned only) will be customizable.

parsedliteralwraps

default true. Tells whether long lines in parsed-literal’s contents should wrap.

New in version 1.5.2: set this option value to false to recover former behaviour.

inlineliteralwraps

default true. Allows linebreaks inside inline literals: but extra potential break-points (additionally to those allowed by LaTeX at spaces or for hyphenation) are currently inserted only after the characters . , ; ? ! /. Due to TeX internals, white space in the line will be stretched (or shrunk) in order to accomodate the linebreak.

New in version 1.5: set this option value to false to recover former behaviour.

verbatimvisiblespace

default \textcolor{red}{\textvisiblespace}. When a long code line is split, the last space character from the source code line right before the linebreak location is typeset using this.

verbatimcontinued

A LaTeX macro inserted at start of continuation code lines. Its (complicated…) default typesets a small red hook pointing to the right:

\makebox[2\fontcharwd\font`\x][r]{\textcolor{red}{\tiny$\hookrightarrow$}}

Changed in version 1.5: The breaking of long code lines was added at 1.4.2. The default definition of the continuation symbol was changed at 1.5 to accomodate various font sizes (e.g. code-blocks can be in footnotes).

TitleColor

default {rgb}{0.126,0.263,0.361}. The colour for titles (as configured via use of package “titlesec”.)

Warning

Colours set via 'sphinxsetup' must obey the syntax of the argument of the color/xcolor packages \definecolor command.

InnerLinkColor: default {rgb}{0.208,0.374,0.486}. A colour passed to hyperref as value of linkcolor and citecolor.
OuterLinkColor: default {rgb}{0.216,0.439,0.388}. A colour passed to hyperref as value of filecolor, menucolor, and urlcolor.
VerbatimColor: default {rgb}{1,1,1}. The background colour for code-blocks. The default is white.
VerbatimBorderColor: default {rgb}{0,0,0}. The frame color, defaults to black.
verbatimsep: default \fboxsep. The separation between code lines and the frame.
verbatimborder: default \fboxrule. The width of the frame around code-blocks.
shadowsep: default 5pt. The separation between contents and frame for contents and topic boxes.
shadowsize: default 4pt. The width of the lateral “shadow” to the right.
shadowrule: default \fboxrule. The width of the frame around topic boxes.
noteBorderColor, hintBorderColor, importantBorderColor, tipBorderColor: default {rgb}{0,0,0} (black). The colour for the two horizontal rules used by Sphinx in LaTeX for styling a note type admonition.

Note

The actual colour names declared to “color” or “xcolor” are prefixed with “sphinx”.

noteborder, hintborder, importantborder, tipborder: default 0.5pt. The width of the two horizontal rules.

warningBorderColor, cautionBorderColor, attentionBorderColor, dangerBorderColor, errorBorderColor: default {rgb}{0,0,0} (black). The colour for the admonition frame.

warningBgColor, cautionBgColor, attentionBgColor, dangerBgColor, errorBgColor: default {rgb}{1,1,1} (white). The background colours for the respective admonitions.
warningBorder, cautionBorder, attentionBorder, dangerBorder, errorBorder: default 1pt. The width of the frame.
AtStartFootnote: default \mbox{ }. LaTeX macros inserted at the start of the footnote text at bottom of page, after the footnote number.
BeforeFootnote: default \leavevmode\unskip. LaTeX macros inserted before the footnote mark. The default removes possible space before it (else, TeX could insert a linebreak there).

New in version 1.5.
HeaderFamily: default \sffamily\bfseries. Sets the font used by headings.

LaTeX macros and environments¶

Here are some macros from the package file sphinx.sty and class files sphinxhowto.cls, sphinxmanual.cls, which have public names thus allowing redefinitions. Check the respective files for the defaults.

Macros¶

text styling commands \sphinx<foo> with <foo> being one of strong, bfcode, email, tablecontinued, titleref, menuselection, accelerator, crossref, termref, optional. The non-prefixed macros will still be defined if option latex_keep_old_macro_names has been set to True (default is False), in which case the prefixed macros expand to the non-prefixed ones.

New in version 1.4.5: Use of \sphinx prefixed macro names to limit possibilities of conflict with LaTeX packages.

Changed in version 1.6: The default value of latex_keep_old_macro_names changes to False, and even if set to True, if a non-prefixed macro already exists at sphinx.sty loading time, only the \sphinx prefixed one will be defined. The setting will be removed at 1.7.
more text styling: \sphinxstyle<bar> with <bar> one of indexentry, indexextra, indexpageref, topictitle, sidebartitle, othertitle, sidebarsubtitle, thead, theadfamily, emphasis, literalemphasis, strong, literalstrong, abbreviation, literalintitle, codecontinued, codecontinues.

New in version 1.5: these macros were formerly hard-coded as non customizable \texttt, \emph, etc…

New in version 1.6: \sphinxstyletheadfamily which defaults to \sffamily and allows multiple paragraphs in header cells of tables.

Deprecated since version 1.6: macro \sphinxstylethead is deprecated at 1.6 and will be removed at 1.7.

New in version 1.6.3: \sphinxstylecodecontinued and \sphinxstylecodecontinues.
by default the Sphinx style file sphinx.sty executes the command \fvset{fontsize=\small} as part of its configuration of fancyvrb.sty. This may be overriden for example via \fvset{fontsize=auto} which will let code listings use the ambient font size. Refer to fancyvrb.sty’s documentation for further keys.

New in version 1.5.
the table of contents is typeset via \sphinxtableofcontents which is a wrapper (whose definition can be found in sphinxhowto.cls or in sphinxmanual.cls) of standard \tableofcontents.

Changed in version 1.5: formerly, the meaning of \tableofcontents was modified by Sphinx.
the \maketitle command is redefined by the class files sphinxmanual.cls and sphinxhowto.cls.

Environments¶

a figure may have an optional legend with arbitrary body elements: they are rendered in a sphinxlegend environment. The default definition issues \small, and ends with \par.

New in version 1.5.6: formerly, the \small was hardcoded in LaTeX writer and the ending \par was lacking.
for each admonition type <foo>, the used environment is named sphinx<foo>. They may be \renewenvironment ‘d individually, and must then be defined with one argument (it is the heading of the notice, for example Warning: for warning directive, if English is the document language). Their default definitions use either the sphinxheavybox (for the first listed directives) or the sphinxlightbox environments, configured to use the parameters (colours, border thickness) specific to each type, which can be set via 'sphinxsetup' string.

Changed in version 1.5: use of public environment names, separate customizability of the parameters, such as noteBorderColor, noteborder, warningBgColor, warningBorderColor, warningborder, …
the contents directive (with :local: option) and the topic directive are implemented by environment sphinxShadowBox.

New in version 1.4.2: former code refactored into an environment allowing page breaks.

Changed in version 1.5: options shadowsep, shadowsize, shadowrule.
the literal blocks (via :: or code-block), are implemented using sphinxVerbatim environment which is a wrapper of Verbatim environment from package fancyvrb.sty. It adds the handling of the top caption and the wrapping of long lines, and a frame which allows pagebreaks. Inside tables the used environment is sphinxVerbatimintable (it does not draw a frame, but allows a caption).

Changed in version 1.5: Verbatim keeps exact same meaning as in fancyvrb.sty (also under the name OriginalVerbatim); sphinxVerbatimintable is used inside tables.

New in version 1.5: options verbatimwithframe, verbatimwrapslines, verbatimsep, verbatimborder.
the bibliography uses sphinxthebibliography and the Python Module index as well as the general index both use sphinxtheindex; these environments are wrappers of the thebibliography and respectively theindex environments as provided by the document class (or packages).

Changed in version 1.5: formerly, the original environments were modified by Sphinx.

Miscellany¶

the section, subsection, … headings are set using titlesec’s \titleformat command.
for the 'manual' docclass, the chapter headings can be customized using fncychap’s commands \ChNameVar, \ChNumVar, \ChTitleVar. File sphinx.sty has custom re-definitions in case of fncychap option Bjarne.

Changed in version 1.5: formerly, use of fncychap with other styles than Bjarne was dysfunctional.
check file sphinx.sty for more…

Hint

As an experimental feature, Sphinx can use user-defined template file for LaTeX source if you have a file named _templates/latex.tex_t in your project.

New in version 1.5: currently all template variables are unstable and undocumented.

Additional files longtable.tex_t, tabulary.tex_t and tabular.tex_t can be added to _templates/ to configure some aspects of table rendering (such as the caption position).

New in version 1.6: currently all template variables are unstable and undocumented.

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