typsmthng desktop

typsmthng is a native GTK 4 editor and presentation app for Typst. It opens ordinary folders, writes ordinary files, and uses Typst 0.15.1 for preview and document exports. Live preview keeps the compiler, parsed sources, and fonts in memory between edits; exports use the bundled CLI. The shipped application has no browser, WebView, JavaScript runtime, React renderer, or WASM compiler.

The project is in beta. Keep backups of important work.

The interface uses libadwaita, follows the system appearance, and has one native header bar.

Screenshots

The project home in light mode:

The editor and live Typst preview in dark mode:

See the full screenshot gallery and migration notes for settings, templates, presentation views, narrow layouts, and implementation details.

What is included

• Folder-backed projects with safe file creation, rename, duplicate, move, Trash, binary assets, hidden-file control, and external-change detection
• GtkSourceView editor with Typst syntax, diagnostics, line numbers, wrapping, search, undo, Vim-style modal input, and configurable font size
• Ctrl+Space semantic completion, hover help, and explicit Typst formatting
• Debounced writes and latest-wins background compilation
• Multi-page preview with native Typst glyph rendering, display-resolution zoom, compiled heading navigation, image preview, and optional magnifier
• PDF standards, multipage SVG/PNG ZIP exports, and experimental HTML export
• Click rendered text or formulas to jump to their source, including local imports; use Ctrl+Shift+J to show the source cursor in preview
• Rendered page and non-whitespace character counts, including generated and repeated text
• Diagnostics wait for a 900 ms typing pause while valid previews update independently
• Path and full-text search across the open project
• ZIP project import and export with traversal checks
• LaTeX import for document structure, text styles, lists, links, citations, math, figures, and tables
• Recent and favorite projects, persisted home workspaces, reopen state, and window geometry
• Built-in starters plus live Typst Universe template search and initialization
• System-font control and cached Google Fonts resolution for families declared in Typst source
• Drag-and-drop file import and safe ZIP/Overleaf project import
• Stable-channel update checks with native installer download and launch
• Single-window presentation and presenter view with a separate audience window
• Slide navigation, overview, editable sidecar and inline metadata notes, automatic double-width rendered-note splitting, timer, wall clock, laser pointer, pen, highlighter, eraser, per-slide annotations, and black or white screen
• Positional folder and .typ arguments for file-manager and terminal launches

Requirements for source builds

• Rust 1.93.1 or newer
• GTK 4.12 or newer
• GtkSourceView 5.4 or newer
• libadwaita 1.5 or newer
• Typst 0.15.1

Packaged releases include the pinned Typst compiler. AppImage, macOS, and Windows releases also carry their GTK runtime; deb and rpm packages use the system GTK libraries. Linux binaries target Ubuntu 24.04 or a compatible system with glibc 2.39 or newer.

Install development packages on macOS:

brew install rust gtk4 gtksourceview5 libadwaita adwaita-icon-theme typst

Install development packages on Ubuntu 24.04 or a compatible Debian system:

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libgtk-4-dev libgtksourceview-5-dev libadwaita-1-dev librsvg2-common

Windows builds use MSYS2 MinGW64 with mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk4, mingw-w64-x86_64-gtksourceview5, mingw-w64-x86_64-libadwaita, mingw-w64-x86_64-pkgconf, and the Rust GNU toolchain.

Build and run

Check the local toolchain:

scripts/check-gtk-prereqs.sh

Run a development build:

cargo run -p typsmthng-gtk

Open a project or a Typst file directly:

cargo run -p typsmthng-gtk -- /path/to/project
cargo run -p typsmthng-gtk -- /path/to/project/main.typ

Build the optimized binary:

scripts/build-gtk.sh

The binary is written to target/release/typsmthng.

Test

See native app modules for responsibilities and the headless/desktop test split.

Run backend and Typst compatibility tests without GTK development libraries:

scripts/test-typst-compatibility.sh

The script uses Typst 0.15.1 from TYPSMTHNG_TYPST or PATH, or downloads the checksum-verified compiler to target/tools/typst on supported platforms (under CARGO_TARGET_DIR when set). A supplied compiler must match the pinned version. The suite compares preview and CLI SVG, checks PDF compilation, and tests fonts, packages, dates, diagnostics, and document features. Environment cases run in separate processes so they can run safely alongside other tests.

With the pinned compiler already installed, the equivalent Cargo command is:

cargo test --locked --workspace --no-default-features --all-targets

CLI-dependent tests fail if the compiler is missing or incompatible. The desktop feature is enabled by default; the following full workspace checks also require the GTK development libraries:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo test --workspace --all-targets
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings

Preview, PDF export, and speaker-note queries share resolved Typst settings. They honor TYPST_FONT_PATHS, TYPST_PACKAGE_PATH, TYPST_PACKAGE_CACHE_PATH, SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH, TYPST_IGNORE_SYSTEM_FONTS, and TYPST_IGNORE_EMBEDDED_FONTS. Ignore-font variables accept true or false. Explicit paths, timestamps, and enabled ignore-font flags override environment defaults. Invalid settings produce the same configuration error in both compilation paths. The app keeps environment font directories when adding its Google Fonts cache.

Linux CI also starts the application in Xvfb with --smoke-test, then compiles the bundled three-slide fixture and opens both presenter and audience windows with --presentation-smoke-test. The same smoke modes can run against a logged-in X11 or Wayland session. scripts/capture-gtk4.sh captures the native home, editor, settings, narrow layout, 125% text scaling, and presentation screens into build/gtk4-screenshots. It requires Xvfb and dbus-run-session.

Presentation controls

Start presentation with Ctrl+Shift+P or F5. Start presenter view with Ctrl+Alt+P. On macOS, use Command in place of Control.

• Next slide: Right, Down, Page Down, Space, Enter, N, or J
• Previous slide: Left, Up, Page Up, Backspace, P, or K
• First or last slide: Home or End
• Jump to a slide: type its number, then press Enter
• Black or white screen: B or period, W or comma
• Laser, pen, highlighter, eraser: L, D, H, E
• Clear the current slide: C or Delete
• Slide grid and notes: G or O, S
• Pause or reset the timer: T, R
• Fullscreen: F or F11
• End: Escape

Speaker notes live next to the deck as <deck>.notes.md. Annotation points use slide-relative coordinates, so the presenter and audience windows draw the same strokes at different sizes.

Editor shortcuts

• Save, compile, or export PDF: Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Enter, Ctrl+Shift+E
• Search, settings, or file tree: Ctrl+K, Ctrl+,, Ctrl+\
• Toggle comments or duplicate selected lines: Ctrl+/, Ctrl+D
• Type $ to open a paired math region, then Space between the delimiters to start a block equation. Typing the closing $ moves past it. Backspace removes an empty pair.
• Font ligatures default to on and can be disabled in Settings → Fonts. The selected editor font must include the ligatures.
• Settings → Equations lets you disable equation backgrounds or choose a CSS color. Clear the color to follow the light or dark theme. Syntax colors remain enabled.
• Enable centered scrolling in Settings → Editor to keep the cursor line centered while editing. Manual scrolling remains available; the preference defaults to off.
• In Settings, Preview quality offers Standard, High, and Ultra. Higher quality refines fine lines and curves with more processing time; only nearby pages render, and raster memory remains capped.
• Fit text width zooms the full page and centers it horizontally. Pan sideways to inspect the original page margins.
• Toggle the preview magnifier in the preview toolbar to inspect rendered text at 2× without changing the page zoom.
• Format the current Typst document: Ctrl+Shift+I, or "Format document" in the command palette
• Cycle system, light, and dark themes: Ctrl+J

Formatting uses Typstyle 0.15.1 and takes one undo step. It preserves selected tokens and scroll position. Carets in whitespace stay near their previous line and character column. Files with syntax errors remain unchanged.

Auto-save defaults to writing the current file atomically 100 ms after the last edit. Settings → Saving lets you disable timed saving, set its delay from 50 ms to 60 seconds, or enable saving when the window loses focus, which defaults to off. Live compilation has its own delay and reads unsaved edits without writing them to disk. Ctrl+S, switching files, and closing still save; failed writes preserve unsaved changes and block navigation or closing.

On macOS, use Command in place of Control.

Packaging

• Fedora COPR packaging builds a source RPM with vendored dependencies and can publish verified releases to a configured COPR project.
• Linux desktop metadata, Flatpak, AppImage, deb, and rpm files live in packaging/linux and packaging/flatpak.
• The macOS bundler copies the GTK dylib closure and runtime data before signing the .app and creating a DMG.
• The Windows collector copies the GTK DLL and data closure before NSIS builds the installer.
• GitHub Actions compiles the app on Ubuntu, Apple Silicon macOS, Intel macOS, and Windows x64. Release jobs build platform artifacts and SHA-256 checksums.

Repository layout

native/gtk/           Rust backend and GTK application
native/gtk/src/ui/    Home, editor, preview, search, settings, and presentation UI
packaging/            Linux, macOS, Windows, and Flatpak definitions
scripts/              Local prerequisite and release build helpers
assets/               Application icon and MIME definition

License

MIT. See LICENSE.