essaykit - LaTeX Package

A comprehensive LaTeX package for creating styled boxes, titles, quotes, and bibliographic references, designed for academic and scientific documents.

Features

• 🎨 Styled Boxes (\rbox) - Customizable colored boxes with titles
• 📝 Main Titles (\maintitle) - Large, styled section titles
• 💬 Quotes (\quoter) - Formatted quotations with author attribution
• 📏 Rules (\rrule) - Clean horizontal separators
• 📚 Sources (\sources) - Bibliography with hyperlink support

Quick Start

Installation

\usepackage{essaykit}

Basic Usage

% Styled box
\rbox[title=Important, color=softblue]{
    This is a highlighted box with a title.
}

% Main title
\maintitle[titlecolor=bluecolor]{Chapter 1: Introduction}

% Quote
\quoter{Science is organized knowledge.}{Herbert Spencer}

% Horizontal rule
\rrule

% Sources with hyperlinks
\sources{
    \href{https://example.com}{Online Article},
    Book Title by Author,
    Journal Reference
}

Key Features

Customizable Options

All commands support extensive customization through key-value options:

• Colors: color, textcolor, titlecolor, authorcolor
• Sizing: width, titlesize, quotesize
• Spacing: titlespacing, quotespacing
• Content: title - Sets the box title text (any string)

Predefined Colors

greycolor,marooncolor,bluecolor, lightgray, 
softgray, boxcolor, darkgray, softblue

Box Examples

% Basic box
\rbox{Simple content}

% Titled box with custom styling
\rbox[title=Warning, color=red, textcolor=white]{
    Important safety information
}

% Custom width box
\rbox[width=0.7\textwidth, color=lightgray]{
    Narrower box for specific layouts
}

Title Examples

% Large blue title
\maintitle[titlecolor=bluecolor, titlesize=\LARGE]{
    Research Methodology
}

% Custom spacing
\maintitle[titlespacing=1cm]{Section Overview}

Quote Examples

% Styled quote
\quoter[authorcolor=darkgray, quotesize=\Large]{
    The important thing is not to stop questioning.
}{Albert Einstein}

Image Commands

Logo

Insert images without captions:

% Basic usage
\logo{image.png}{5cm}

% Use with positioning
\placeleft{2cm}{\logo{company-logo.png}{3cm}}{8cm}

Figure

Insert captioned figures that can be referenced:

% Basic figure
\fig{chart.png}{Monthly sales data}{0.7\textwidth}

% Smaller figure
\fig{diagram.png}{System architecture}{0.5\textwidth}

Positioning Commands

Position content at absolute locations on the page without affecting text flow:

Place Left

% Place content from left margin
\placeleft{distance from left}{content}{content width}

% Example
\placeleft{3cm}{\logo{sidebar.png}{4cm}}{10cm}

Place Right

% Place content from right margin
\placeright{distance from right}{content}{content width}

% Example
\placeright{2cm}{\rbox[color=softblue]{Note}}{8cm}

Note: Content placed with these commands floats above the text and doesn't affect document flow, similar to absolute positioning in CSS.

File Structure

essaykit/
├── essaykit.dtx          # Documented source code
├── essaykit.ins          # Installation script
├── essaykit.pdf          # Package documentation
├── README.md           # This file

Building from Source

# Generate package file
latex essaykit.ins

# Build documentation  
pdflatex essaykit.dtx
makeindex -s gind.ist essaykit.idx
pdflatex essaykit.dtx
pdflatex essaykit.dtx
make all

Dependencies

The package automatically loads:

• tcolorbox - Colored boxes
• hyperref - PDF hyperlinks
• xkeyval - Key-value options
• xcolor - Color support
• graphicx - Image support
• textpos - Absolute positioning
• And several others for full functionality

Compatibility

• LaTeX Version: Requires LaTeX2e (2005/12/01 or later)
• Engines: pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX
• Package Conflicts: Handles hyperref conflicts automatically

Common Use Cases

Academic Papers

\maintitle{Abstract}
\rbox[color=lightgray]{
    This paper presents a novel approach to...
}

Laboratory Reports

\rbox[title=Objective, color=softblue]{
    To investigate the relationship between...
}

Presentations

\quoter{Imagination is more important than knowledge.}{Einstein}

Troubleshooting

Package Conflicts

Load conflicting packages before essaykit:

\usepackage{animate}
\usepackage{multimedia}
\usepackage{essaykit}  % Load last

Color Issues

Use predefined colors or define custom ones:

\definecolor{mycolor}{RGB}{100,150,200}
\rbox[color=mycolor]{Content}

License

This package is released under the LaTeX Project Public License v1.3c or later. See LPPL 1.3c or later for details.

Support

• Documentation: essaykit.pdf
• Issues: Report on GitHub
• Contact: [email protected]

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Follow existing code style
2. Add tests/examples for new features
3. Update documentation
4. Submit via standard channels
5. File issue on github first

Version History

• v1.0 (2025/08/15) - Initial release
  • Core functionality: boxes, titles, quotes, rules, sources
  • Comprehensive key-value option system
  • Hyperref integration
• v2.0 (2026/01/02) - Second release
  • New logo box for university/school logos
  • New fig element for figures
  • New \placeleft and placeright commands for absolute positioning

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For complete documentation, see essaykit.pdf