Summary
Why HTML/CSS + WeasyPrint makes automated typesetting maintainable and fast.
Why not LaTeX?
LaTeX produces beautiful results, but it is brittle in automated pipelines: template incompatibilities, package conflicts, and environment drift can turn production into incident response. We use HTML/CSS templates rendered to PDF so layout is predictable, testable, and maintainable.
HTML/CSS as a production surface
- Deterministic templates: standardized typography, spacing, and figure/table styling.
- Accessible semantics: headings, lists, captions, and links are explicit.
- Reusable components: callouts, references, and tables render consistently across journals.
How the Layout Engine works
The Layout Engine transforms validated Markdown/HTML into semantic templates and renders PDFs using WeasyPrint. Assets (figures, logos, fonts) are bundled deterministically so reruns produce the same output.
Known limitations
- Highly specialized mathematical typesetting can require additional tooling.
- Some publisher-specific formatting rules may need custom templates.
- Large tables may require responsive or multi-page strategies.
Learn more
Explore Layout Engine and our Editorial policies.