I’ve been using LaTeX for years. While it produces good-looking documents, the syntax can be pretty verbose and sometimes unintuitive. But once you figure out the syntax, the setup with the packages, usage of it quite good. It always performed far better on Linux or Mac than on windows. For many years, it had been my CV and I wrote beautiful letters and documents with it. LaTeX still has a much larger ecosystem and more specialized packages, so it’s probably still the better choice for complex typographical work with specific requirements.
These days I am using a lot of markdown, for me it started as a good plain text format that LLMs can handle and I migrated from a stint in plain text documents. Next It is the default in all of the notetaking tools that I have tried Obisdian, LogSeq, Joplin, QOwnNotes and Markor. With this blogging, I write everything in markdown these days. Markdown works well for simple formatting but doesn’t give you much control when you need precise typography. But it is meant for the web but it works as is quoted in a far deeper analysis of Typst Exploring Typst, a new typesetting system similar to LaTeX
"Markdown is a product of the age of the Web and works with and for the Web. Things that don’t appear normally on web pages won’t appear on Markdown either."
Typst sits somewhere in between, it has cleaner syntax than LaTeX (like *bold* instead of \textbf{bold}) and compiles quickly, while still giving you the typographical control that Markdown lacks. The main selling point of Typst is that it simplifies common tasks that can be cumbersome in LaTeX. Adjusting spacing and creating custom layouts is more straightforward, and the error messages are clearer. The language feels more consistent overall. But for general documents like reports, articles, and presentations, Typst offers a good balance of simplicity and control. The compilation speed is faster than LaTeX, which makes the writing process smoother. The syntax for mathematical expressions is similar to LaTeX, so there’s not much of a learning curve since I am already familiar with that. Tables and figures look easier to work with, and the overall document structure feels more intuitive.
Examples:
LaTeX#
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\title{Lorem Ipsum}
\author{M. T}
\maketitle
\textbf{Lorem ipsum} dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.
\textit{Duis aute} irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
\end{document}
Typst#
#set document(title: "Lorem Ipsum", author: "Marcus Tullius")
#align(center)[
#text(17pt)[*Lorem Ipsum*]
M. T
]
*Lorem ipsum* dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.
_Duis aute_ irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Markdown#
# Lorem Ipsum
*By M. T*
**Lorem ipsum** dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.
_Duis aute_ irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
One thing to keep in mind is that Typst is still relatively new so there is not as much community resources as you would with LaTeX or Markdown. The documentation is decent, but sometimes you’ll need to figure things out on your own. For most straight forward us cases, the core functionality is good enough that this isn’t a major limitation. If you write documents regularly and find LaTeX too complex or Markdown too limited, it’s worth trying out.