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Vintage Scientific Papers with LaTeX
Twenty small examples show independent mechanisms behind a convincing
old-scientific-paper aesthetic. Each file is deliberately standalone: copy one,
compile it, and remove individual effects to see what they contribute.
The examples fall into three groups: pure LaTeX pages (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10 to
14), standalone fiziko MetaPost
figures (3, 7, 8, 9), and LaTeX pages with fiziko figures drawn inside them by
LuaTeX's built-in MetaPost (15 to 20).
Low-resolution previews of the compiled output; the PDFs themselves are
vector and searchable.
The .tex files compile independently with LuaLaTeX. The .mp files are
standalone MetaPost sources with fiziko as an explicit external dependency.
Examples 15 to 20 need both: they are LuaLaTeX documents that load fiziko
through luamplib.
The quickest route is the script for your shell, run from the repository
root. Both compile every example into build/ and skip the fiziko examples
unless a fiziko checkout is given:
Append example names to build only those. The sections below spell out the
same commands by hand.
From the repository root, create an output directory and compile all
pure-LaTeX examples:
The source files intentionally reject pdfLaTeX. That engine cannot provide the
OpenType controls demonstrated here.
Clone fiziko separately; it is not vendored or relicensed here:
MetaPost finds fiziko.mp through MPINPUTS. Preserve the trailing path
separator so the normal MetaPost search path remains available.