LaTeX component library¶

Renderflow's PDF path keeps document meaning in publication profiles and keeps reusable presentation in a shared LaTeX component library. The current flow is:

publication profile -> Pandoc template -> Renderflow styles -> Tectonic

The built-in research template at templates/research/research.tex is the reference composition. Selecting it through the normal PDF target automatically injects the absolute renderflow-style-root for Pandoc. There is no separate LaTeX executor or manual package installation step.

Component boundaries¶

The aggregate package is templates/latex/renderflow-core.sty. It centralizes the design tokens and loads these cohesive components:

Component	Shared responsibility
`renderflow-color.sty`	semantic colors, links, print-safe link behavior
`renderflow-typography.sty`	font roles, heading rhythm, quotations
`renderflow-layout.sty`	geometry, paragraph rhythm, lists, running furniture
`renderflow-figures.sty`	image bounds, placement, captions
`renderflow-tables.sty`	booktabs/longtable support and table rhythm
`renderflow-code.sty`	Pandoc highlighting containers and listings defaults
`renderflow-callouts.sty`	callout and aside presentation primitives
`renderflow-metadata.sty`	title/author/date roles and citation-list primitives

Shared packages own visual treatment. A publication profile or its Pandoc template still owns article order, front matter, title placement, column model, editorial section meaning, and which components appear. Do not add research, magazine, or article semantics to a .sty file.

Compose a profile¶

A target selects the profile template through the existing artifact graph:

targets:
  exact:
    - id: research-pdf
      role: publication/research
      format: pdf
      template: research/research.tex
variables:
  renderflow-color-accent: "4058A6"
  renderflow-margin-inner: "28mm"

The template declares any overrides before loading the aggregate package:

\def\RenderflowStyleRoot{templates/latex}
\def\RenderflowColorAccent{4058A6}
\input{\RenderflowStyleRoot/renderflow-core.sty}

Profiles can override the supported Pandoc variables without forking the style library:

renderflow-color-accent, renderflow-color-ink, renderflow-color-muted, renderflow-color-rule, and renderflow-color-surface accept six-digit hexadecimal colors.
renderflow-margin-top, renderflow-margin-bottom, renderflow-margin-inner, renderflow-margin-outer, and renderflow-paragraph-skip accept LaTeX dimensions.
mainfont, sansfont, and monofont select semantic font-family roles.
renderflow-main-font-file, renderflow-sans-font-file, and renderflow-mono-font-file select local files under renderflow-font-root.

Profiles that need deeper changes may redefine a documented Renderflow... token before loading renderflow-core.sty. A change that benefits multiple profiles belongs in the smallest existing component that owns the concern. Add a new package only when the concern is cohesive and independently reusable, then load it from renderflow-core.sty.

Fonts and deterministic fallback¶

The three font roles default to Latin Modern. Tectonic carries the TeX support bundle needed for that deterministic fallback, so Renderflow does not assume a developer workstation font. When templates/fonts/ exists, the PDF strategy also injects it as renderflow-font-root. A user-provided root remains authoritative.

Local font variables name files rather than host-installed families. Paths may be relative to renderflow-font-root or absolute paths produced by a validated renderflow.font-registry/v1 resolution. If a manually configured font file is missing, the style layer emits a warning and deliberately falls back to the corresponding Latin Modern role. Registry fallbacks are resolved earlier and recorded in structured diagnostics. Renderflow does not ship a third-party font catalog; publication owners remain responsible for font licenses and final PDF font-embedding validation required by their publication contract.

Pandoc and Tectonic compatibility¶

The library uses ordinary LaTeX2e packages available to the current Tectonic toolchain. The research template exposes Pandoc's highlighting macros, table and figure output, header includes, table of contents, metadata, and supported Natbib/BibLaTeX hooks. renderflow-style-root is an implementation variable; profile authors normally do not set it.

The synthetic fixture exercises title metadata, headings, prose, a quotation, callout, table, figure/caption, highlighted code, footnote, and link:

renderflow build \
  --config "tests/fixtures/latex-components/renderflow.yaml"

When Tectonic is unavailable, the Pandoc composition can still be inspected without producing a PDF:

pandoc "tests/fixtures/latex-components/showcase.md" \
  --from "markdown" \
  --to "latex" \
  --template "templates/research/research.tex" \
  --variable "renderflow-style-root=$PWD/templates/latex" \
  --output "/tmp/renderflow-component-showcase.tex"

Keep custom templates close to Pandoc's current template contract. Pandoc may add generated commands over time, so profile templates should be checked when the supported Pandoc tool version changes.