LaTeX in Alpine Linux

TL;DR

My first moves with LaTeX in Linux.

A few notes, future me!

With Alpine Linux in Docker:

docker run --rm -itv "$PWD:/mnt" alpine:3.16

Let’s get started: I need to use a specific TrueType font, so it seems that xelatex is needed. I hope to find out what this is at some time!

apk update
apk add texlive-xetex

Installing the font(s) means copying the files in a specific directory and indexing them. We’ll do a test using LeagueSpartan, an open font:

mkdir -p /usr/local/share/fonts
wget https://github.com/theleagueof/league-spartan/releases/download/2.220/LeagueSpartan-2.220.zip
unzip LeagueSpartan-2.220.zip
cp LeagueSpartan-2.220/static/TTF/* /usr/local/share/fonts/
fc-cache -fv

I’ll also need to place some pieces of text in specific positions using package textpos:

cd /mnt
wget https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/textpos.zip
unzip textpos.zip
cd textpos
tex textpos.ins
cp textpos.sty ..
cd ..

At this point we can run an example, adapted from here:

\documentclass{article}
    % General document formatting
    \usepackage[margin=0.7in]{geometry}
    \usepackage[parfill]{parskip}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

    % Related to math
    \usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts,amsthm}

    \usepackage{fontspec}
    \setmainfont{LeagueSpartan-Regular}

    \usepackage[absolute,overlay]{textpos}

\begin{document}

Name, date, Exercise X

\section*{Part a}

Put your answer to part a here

\section*{Part b}

etc

\begin{textblock*}{10cm}(15cm,16cm) % {block width} (coords) 
   Your text here
\end{textblock*}

\end{document}

Now:

xelatex example.tex

and enjoy the generated PDF file.

Hope this helps!

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