Feature guide

Typsastra is a desktop authoring environment around ordinary Typst projects. Use this guide to find a feature area, then open its tutorial for a task-by-task walkthrough.

Project and document work

• Explorer and projects — open a workspace, manage files and tabs, and set the main document.
• Create from templates — browse cached/online Universe templates and reusable user templates.
• Editor and PDF preview — edit source, choose preview behavior, navigate pages, and synchronize source with the PDF.
• Editor productivity — search, shortcuts, Typst-aware editing, drag/drop and paste, and save/recompile behavior.
• Standalone files and PDFs — open individual documents and use PDF reading, search, selection, and copy tools; opt into the experimental Unicode export engine when needed.
• Long-document workflow — use large-file guardrails, on-save rendering, and long-project organization.
• Project import and export — share a portable .typsastra archive.

Visual authoring tools

• Image Tools — inspect, crop, optimize, and replace project image references.
• Table Tools — build and edit structured tables, import data, and synchronize generated Typst.
• PDF preview and source synchronization — configure color, page navigation, links, and source mapping.
• Low-Memory Mode — compile long documents with a one-shot compiler and indexed navigation.
• Draft Preview — preview image-heavy documents with layout-preserving image placeholders.
• Document typography — configure fonts and script-specific typography.
• Toolchain and storage — manage Tinymist, private fonts, local caches, WebView storage, and compatibility settings.

Language and writing support

• Multilingual spellcheck
• Keyboard language completion
• Language provider installation
• Markdown live preview

Behaviors that are easy to miss

• One main-document preview: included chapters share the configured main document's compiler, PDF, page position, and source map. Switching tabs does not start unrelated chapter previews.
• Script editing is independent from fonts: cursor movement, deletion, spellcheck, and completion are separate capabilities. A font choice does not silently select a language provider.
• External edits are reconciled: project file changes are read from disk, synchronized to open editor/LSP documents, and cause the preview to refresh. Replacement-by-rename events are checked against current disk state before being reported to Tinymist.
• Generated data stays out of source: render mirrors, PDFs, source maps, Draft thumbnails, and scaled-font variants are kept in machine-local caches. Portable project archives intentionally exclude font binaries and generated output.
• Author intent is explicit: large documents require confirmation before editor/compiler initialization; image optimization previews never overwrite originals; and exporting a PDF requires an explicit destination.

See the demo project for a small workspace that combines included chapters, local images, Khmer text, and a linked table.