Latex-Template and information

Figures

Visual elements like images can significantly enhance the understanding of complex information at a glance. They add color and dynamics, offering a visual break from continuous, monotonous text, thus maintaining reader engagement. Therefore, do incorporate them effectively in your document to enrich the reader's experience and aid in the comprehension of your material.

Criteria for Figures

Your figures should adhere to specific criteria:

• Content: Select content that is most relevant and illustrative of your point.
• Resolution: Opt for scalable vector graphics (such as SVG) or high-resolution images (minimum 300dpi). For diagrams or charts, consider using LaTeX-native graphics like TikZ or PGF.
• Colors: The choice of color depends on your printing method:
  • Colored: Use colors with significant contrast in hue, saturation, and lightness. You can find various color palettes online that suggest harmonious combinations. Ideally, choose palettes that are accessible to those with color vision deficiencies [1] [2]. In your descriptions, opt for universally recognized color names like "dark red" or "light blue" rather than obscure ones.
  • Gray scale: If printing in gray scale, ensure adequate contrast between different shades. Avoid using very light grays as they might not print well. In diagrams, differentiate elements through distinct shapes or strokes, as you would with color.
• Dimensions: Figures do not necessarily have to span the entire page width. They should be appropriately scaled (e.g., to 60%) and centered.
• Scaling: Maintain consistent scale across similar types of figures, such as bar charts, ensuring uniform bar widths and font sizes.
• Labeling: Ensure that all diagrams are fully labeled, particularly the axes. Utilize legends or detailed captions to explain each component's significance. Captions appear in the lists of figures and should be informative yet concise; if needed, provide a shortened version for lengthy descriptions.

Layout

LaTeX's layout algorithms automatically place figures, tables, and listings in your text.

Unfortunately, these positions are not always ideal. Still, you should not waste time tweaking their positions throughout the writing process; it's more efficient to adjust their placement only towards the end, once your full text is finished.

If you need to reposition these elements manually, it is advisable to position them preferably only at the top or only at the bottom of the page. This approach prevents isolated lines of text from getting sandwiched between them.

When multiple graphics are related or shall be compared, you can place them together on a special page. This page will then contain only graphics, no text.

In the figure, table, and listings environments, prefer the position arguments t for top of the page, or p for a special page.

Simple Figures

If you have an existing image, including it in your document is straightforward, as demonstrated with Figure 1. Additionally, it's essential to accompany each image with a descriptive caption that explains the image's content, including relevant details like colors, shapes, and groups. This is also the appropriate place to cite the source of the image using the \cite command if it is not originally yours. For the List of Figures, you may provide a shortened version of the caption if necessary. Lastly, assigning a label to the figure is crucial, as it enables you to refer to the figure elsewhere in your text efficiently. This approach ensures that your figures are not only well-integrated but also informative and correctly referenced.

Subfigures

If you provide related figures, use subfigures as shown in Figure 2. Assign individual captions and labels to each subfigure and an overall caption and label for the entire group.

TikZ and PGF

For creating graphs like those in Figures 3 and 4, consider using the TikZ and PGF packages. With these, similar to LaTeX, you simply supply the content and select a style; the layout is then generated automatically.

Many mathematics and statistics applications support direct export to TikZ and PGF formats. In R, you can use the tikzDevice library, and in Python projects with matplotlib, you can use the tikzplotlib library to transform your graph into TikZ.

Note, TikZ consists of various libraries tailored for specific functionalities, so you may need to incorporate additional ones depending on your needs. To do this, include the necessary libraries using the command \usetikzlibrary in your main.tex file.

1. Coloring for Colorblindness
2. Data Visualization with Flying Colors
3. Wikimedia Commons. File:LaTeX logo.svg

Tables

Utilize tables to present structured data effectively, like comparisons or evaluation results.

Ensure all essential information is included and clearly label each column and/or row. Also, provide a descriptive caption to concisely explain the table's content.

However, avoid overcrowding tables. It's often more effective to split dense tables into smaller ones to enhance clarity and underscore their significance.

In terms of design, use lines sparingly as separators: typically, a table requires only three lines:

• \toprule above the header,
• \midrule below the header, and
• \bottomrule at the bottom.

This minimalist approach takes advantage of cell alignment and spacing to naturally delineate the data. For more complex structures, like in Table 2, only a few additional lines may be necessary.

Creating Tables

Creating tables manually is a very tedious task. We recommend the Tables Generator that provides you with a graphical user interface.

Table Environments

LaTeX offers several table environments, including tabular, tabular*, and tabularx. These differ in layout, column styling, and compatibility. Choose the format that best fits your data. While tabular* is a good starting point, switch to tabular or tabularx as needed based on the specific requirements of your table. For instance, use tabular* for Table 2 and opt for tabular or tabularx if the table includes lists or more complex data arrangements, similar to Table 1.

Listings

When you're explaining an algorithm or a complex workflow, using source code or pseudocode can be exceptionally effective. LaTeX offers the listings environment, which accommodates syntax highlighting for various programming languages, as well as for custom-defined and -styled languages. For instance, Listing 1 showcases a "Hello World" example in Java, while Listing 3 presents the equivalent in pseudocode. Notably, "Pseudo" is a custom language defined in template/custom_listings.sty.

Listings Side by Side

The listingsbox environment automatically manages the spacing around your code block. If you need to display two listings adjacent to each other, utilize the sublistingsbox environment. Unlike figures and subfigures, when using sublistingsboxes, you do not need to provide separate captions and labels for each listingsbox.

Labels

You should discuss the code within your text, even if the code appears self-explanatory. Make use of labels to refer to specific code lines. For example:

Line 3 in Listing 1 and line 2 in Listing 2 highlight critical sections of the code.

To achieve this, enclose the \label command within the language-specific escape characters (e.g., $|$ for Java and § for Pseudo).

Citations

Relevant Commands

Cite a source by referencing the label of a BibTeX entry (see next section):

We base our evaluation on that from \cite{author2023}.

Use the correct quotation marks. Do not just use the single or double quotes from your keyboard. Instead:

``Text'' \enquote{Text} `Text' \enquote*{Text}

For longer quotes, you can optionally use the quote environment (provided by our template):

\begin{quote}[Whitten et al. \cite{sample:whitten1999johnny}]
    ``It is well known that the security of a networked computer is only as strong as its weakest component.''
\end{quote}

BibTeX

BibTeX formats your bibliography automatically at the end of your text; you just need to provide the relevant information in BibTeX entries. Many science-related websites, including conference sites, Google Scholar, and Wikipedia, supply these BibTeX entries. However, the level of detail and their values may vary across sites, hence requiring some cleanup on your part.

Below are the most crucial source types you will need and their expected formatting¹.

Some General Rules:

• Please ensure these details are included and remove any additional information. If a digital object identifier (DOI) is available, you can keep it.
• Using quotation marks or braces around the values makes no difference.
• For titles featuring subtitles, divide them using a colon, dash, or period.
• Regarding author names, adhere to the syntax {Doe, John}. For collaborations involving two or more authors, link them with "and": {Doe, Joe and Smith, Jane}.
• To prevent the misinterpretation of company names or similar entities as individual names, enclose them in additional braces: {{Super Important Company} and Doe, John} or "{Super Important Company} and Doe, John".
• The BibTeX entries are identified by a label, such as "author2023" or "website2023" in the examples below. You can select any unique name that suits you; opt for those that you can most easily recognize and remember.
• If information is missing, write "unknown". For websites, if no author is explicitly mentioned, use the website owner, which can be found in the Impressum. For Git repositories and similar platforms, use the repository owner as the author.

Conference/workshop/... paper:

@inproceedings{author2023,
    title = {An Analysis of Example},
    author = {John Smith and Jane Doe},
    year = {2023},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Example},
    publisher = {ACM Press},
    volume = {1},
    number = {2},
    pages = {123--130}
}

Article:

@article{author2023,
    author = {Jane Smith},
    title = {Title of the Article},
    journal = {Name of the Journal},
    year = {2023},
    volume = {4},
    number = {2},
    pages = {100-105}
}

Book:

@book{author2023,
    author = {Jane Smith},
    title = {Title of the Book},
    publisher = {Publishing House},
    year = {2023},
    address = {City of Publication},
    edition = {3rd}
}

Website:

@misc{website2023,
    author = {John Doe},
    title = {Title of the Web Page},
    year = {2023},
    url = {http://www.example.com},
    note = {Accessed on: 2023-10-04}
}

Personal conversation or interview:

@misc{website2023,
    author = {John Doe},
    title = {Personal conversation with the developer of SomeAwesomeTool},
    note = {2023-10-04}
}

1. Examples adopted from: https://bibtex.eu/

Acronyms

For long terminologies, you might want to use acronyms, such as "SSL" for "Secure Sockets Layer". Introduce each acronym at its first occurrence in your document, and subsequently, refer to the acronym alone. However, this rule does not apply to headings; headings should generally not contain acronyms unless they have been previously introduced and are well-understood by the intended reader.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) extends the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with Transport Layer Security (TLS), where TLS is a successor of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

In LaTeX, the commands \acrshort, \acrlong, and \acrfull ensure accurate acronym usage, preventing misdefinition or misspelling. For example:

The \acrfull{https} extends the \acrfull{http} with \acrfull{tls}, where \acrshort{tls} is a successor of \acrfull{ssl}.

Furthermore, compile an overview of the utilized acronyms to append after the table of contents. Place these definitions in the parts/_acronyms.tex file. Example:

\newacronym{http}{HTTP}{Hypertext Transfer Protocol}
\newacronym{https}{HTTPS}{Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure}
\newacronym{ssl}{SSL}{Secure Sockets Layer}
\newacronym{tls}{TLS}{Transport Layer Security}

Glossary

The glossary lists all the terms used throughout your document. You should define these terms in the parts/_glossary.tex file, each with a brief description. For example:

Glossary: An alphabetical list of terms accompanied by brief explanations.
Thesis: Scholarly documents detailing research and findings, required for academic degrees.

\newglossaryentry{glossary}{
    name=glossary,
    plural=glossaries,
    description={An alphabetic list of terms with brief descriptions.}
}
\newglossaryentry{thesis}{
    name=thesis,
    plural=theses,
    description={Scholarly document detailing research and findings, required for academic degrees.}
}

To use these glossary entries within your text, use the \gls{} command.