Document builder reference

Builders

Choose the structure of each output

Article, Slides, and Book accept the common arguments target, source, option, title, subtitle, proceedings, maketitle, author, institute, email, address, date, package, bib, and preamble.

Article and Slides enable maketitle=True by default. Supply a title, or set maketitle=False for title-free output. A title declared inside the content file is too late for the automatic title block. Book always generates its title page in version 1.1.0, so provide its title explicitly.

Source definitions

Use one file, several files, or source directories

An Article or Slides source can be expressed in several equivalent forms. Each call below is an alternative definition for the same target:

# One source file
Article('paper.pdf', 'paper.tex', title='Experiment report')

# The matching paper.tex is inferred from paper.pdf
Article('paper.pdf', title='Experiment report')

# The default target and source are paper.pdf and paper.tex
Article(title='Experiment report')

# Several files
Article('paper.pdf', [
    'section1/paper.tex',
    'section2/paper.tex'
], title='Experiment report')

# A space-separated source string
Article('paper.pdf',
        'section1/paper.tex section2/paper.tex',
        title='Experiment report')

# A trailing slash selects paper.tex in each directory
Article('paper.pdf', 'section1/ section2/',
        title='Experiment report')

Slides supports the same source forms. Book also accepts these forms and can use dictionaries to define document structure. Diary is different: its source is a directory containing date-organized TeX notes.

Books

Define chapters, parts, and front or back matter

Use a dictionary when chapter titles should be supplied by the build definition:

chapters = {
    'Introduction': 'intro/paper.tex',
    'Methods': 'methods/',
    'Results': [
        'results-a/paper.tex',
        'results-b/paper.tex'
    ]
}

Book('research-book.pdf', {'mainmatter': chapters},
     title='Research handbook')

A key with a None value introduces a Part before the following chapters:

chapters = {
    'Background': None,
    'Introduction': 'intro/',
    'Implementation': None,
    'Methods': 'methods/'
}

Pass this chapter dictionary under mainmatter, as in the preceding Book call.

For a complete book, group content under the recognized copyright, frontmatter, mainmatter, appendix, and backmatter keys:

book = {
    'copyright': 'copyright.tex',
    'frontmatter': {
        'Preface': 'preface.tex',
        'Acknowledgements': 'acknowledgements.tex'
    },
    'mainmatter': {
        'Introduction': 'intro/',
        'Data management': 'data/'
    },
    'appendix': {
        'Reference tables': 'appendix/'
    },
    'backmatter': {
        'About the authors': 'authors.tex'
    }
}

Book('book.pdf', book, title='Research handbook')

Options and metadata

Control review output, page size, and presentation ratio

Article('paper-a5.pdf', 'paper.tex', option='a5paper',
        title='Experiment report')
Slides('slides-wide.pdf', 'slides.tex', option='16x9',
       title='Experiment results')
Book('book-with-figures.pdf', 'chapters.tex', option='listfigs',
     title='Research handbook')

Use builder arguments for metadata that should be controlled by the output definition:

Article(
    'paper.pdf',
    'paper.tex',
    title='Measurement analysis',
    subtitle='Final report',
    author='A. Researcher',
    institute='Example Laboratory',
    email='researcher@example.org',
    date='September 2026',
    bib='references.bib',
    maketitle=True
)

Content interface

Write with a focused set of TeX commands

Content authors can use the standard structural commands supported across SIGCLEAR document outputs:

With option='review', wrap removed content in \old{...} and added content in \new{...}. Normal output hides old content and retains new content; review output marks both for comparison.

Classes and styles

Build with the supplied document formats

Document Automation supplies the myarticle, myslides, and mybook document classes. Built-in style files include:

Select one or more LaTeX packages with the package argument. Confirm that a supplied publisher style still meets the publisher's current requirements before submission.