LCFstyle

LCFstyle is a family of document formatting templates used to standardize the presentation of academic and technical material within communities that adopt the LCF standard. The name commonly refers to a LaTeX class and related packages, as well as web templates based on CSS, bundled to produce a coherent look across reports, articles, and conference materials. It emphasizes clarity, consistent typography, and structured metadata.

Components typically include a LaTeX class (LCFstyle.cls) with predefined page layout, sectioning, and captioning rules; a set of style packages; and CSS styles for HTML versions of documents. Some distributions offer starter templates for word processors or Markdown-to-HTML workflows. The goal is to enable authors with varying levels of typographic expertise to generate uniform outputs.

Development of LCFstyle is community-driven, without a single centralized authority. Projects are hosted in public repositories and maintained by volunteers who contribute bug fixes, documentation, and new features. Updates usually address compatibility with newer engines and browsers, accessibility improvements, and alignment with evolving publishing norms.

Usage considerations include compatibility with major LaTeX engines such as pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, and LuaLaTeX, and with modern web environments. The style emphasizes accessible color contrast, semantic heading structure, and consistent citation formats. Critics note that institution-specific adaptations can produce variations in appearance, which can complicate cross-institution sharing.

See also LaTeX class, CSS stylesheet, document templates.