✉️ Brief — DIN 5008 compliant letters with Quarto

This quarto extension provides a letter template that adheres to the German DIN 5008 requirements, based on the scrlttr2 LaTeX document class.

🚀 Usage

Install the extension and example qmd file as follows:

quarto use template mavam/quarto-brief

Then adapt the example as you see fit.

⚙️ Format options

The sample template.qmd demonstrates all available frontmatter knobs. Many options are directly lifted from the scrlttr2 class.

🗂️ Frontmatter overview

• author[].name: sender name shown in the letter head and signature block.
• author[].email: activates and fills the “E-Mail” line in the letter head.
• author[].phone: activates and fills the telephone line.
• author[].url: displays a sender website if provided.
• author[].affiliation[].address: street and number for the sender address.
• author[].affiliation[].postal-code: postal code for the sender address.
• author[].affiliation[].city: sender city.
• author[].affiliation[].country: sender country (optional).
• signature: path to an image that appears above the typed sender name.
• address[]: each entry renders as a separate line in the recipient block.
• date: overrides the default date with your own value.
• date_label: custom caption for the date (for example, “Datum”).
• yourmail / yourmail_label: incoming correspondence reference plus caption.
• yourref / yourref_label: recipient reference designation and label.
• myref / myref_label: sender reference designation and label.
• customer / customer_label: customer identifier and label.
• invoice / invoice_label: invoice number and label.
• place / place_label: location line (for example, “Berlin”) and label.
• subject: bolded subject line before the body text.
• opening: greeting that precedes the main letter text.
• closing: complimentary close placed before the signature block.
• ps: optional postscript appended after the closing.
• encl[]: list of enclosures printed at the end of the letter.
• cc[]: carbon copy recipients rendered after enclosures.
• fontsize: overrides the document base font size (10pt, 11pt, 12pt, …).

✏️ Setting the font size

The default font size is 12pt. To specify a different size for the document, use the YAML option 'fontsize'

---
fontsize: 11pt
---

Any TeX-compatible unit should work, like e.g. ex, in or mm. However, to avoid layout breaks, it is recommended to use one of the most common sizes 10pt, 11pt or 12pt.

Customize fonts

You can adjust fonts by adjusting Quarto's PDF font options.

To use a different font, e.g. Roboto, download and unpack the font archive to get the TTF files. We use these in the example below:

• Roboto-Bold.ttf
• Roboto-BoldItalic.ttf
• Roboto-Italic.ttf
• Roboto-Regular.ttf

Then adjust the frontmatter as follows:

---
# Used for most parts of the letter.
mainfont: Roboto
mainfontoptions:
- Extension=.ttf
- UprightFont=*-Regular
- BoldFont=*-Bold
- ItalicFont=*-Italic
- BoldItalicFont=*-BoldItalic
# Used for back-address and address field.
sansfont: Roboto
sansfontoptions:
- Extension=.ttf
- UprightFont=*-Regular
- BoldFont=*-Bold
- ItalicFont=*-Italic
- BoldItalicFont=*-BoldItalic
---

For more involved letters, you may want to consider setting monofont and mathfont and their respective options.

🙏 Credits

I got inspired by Mickaël Canouil's quarto-letter extension, but needed something that adheres to DIN 5008.