📚 LaTeX-Cookbook

LaTeX-Cookbook is a modular LaTeX template for creating beautifully formatted cookbooks from individual recipe files.
Each recipe is written as its own .tex file and compiled into a full PDF using GitHub Actions.

Ideal for food bloggers, home chefs, and LaTeX enthusiasts — now also available to use directly on Overleaf.

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📖 Recipe Preview

Preview of a compiled recipe page:

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✅ Features

• Modular recipe files
• Inbuilt scaling and cropping of recipe images
• Automatic PDF generation via GitHub Actions
• Versioned GitHub Releases with PDF download
• Localization support (English, German, Spanish, French)
• Available on Overleaf for easy use

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🔧 Compilation Requirement

This cookbook must be compiled using XeLaTeX, not pdflatex, in order to:

• Support Unicode characters
• Use system fonts
• Ensure proper layout as defined by the recipebook class

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🌐 Language Settings

You can set the main language of your cookbook in the recipebook.cfg file:

% recipebook.cfg
% Set the main language of the cookbook.
% Change this to 'german', 'french', 'spanish', etc. to localize labels and babel.
\newcommand{\recipebooklang}{german}

Note

Currently, English, German, French and Spanish are supported. More languages may be added in future updates.

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📖 How It Works

1. Recipes are created as individual .tex files inside the recipes/ folder, using the custom recipebook document class that defines the cookbook's layout and style.
2. The main.tex file assembles all content using \input, including the title page, table of contents, and individual recipes.
3. Images are automatically scaled and cropped by the LaTeX recipebook class to fit the A4 page layout, ensuring consistent and professional formatting.
4. The build-pdf.yml GitHub Actions workflow compiles the LaTeX source files into a formatted PDF.
5. The release.yml workflow creates a new GitHub Release and uploads the final PDF as a downloadable artifact.

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🧑‍🍳 How to Add a New Recipe

Each recipe lives in its own .tex file inside the recipes/ directory.

📄 Example: recipes/SpaghettiBolognese.tex

\setRecipeMeta{Spaghetti Bolognese}{4 servings}{15 min}{45 min}{./images/SpaghettiBolognese}

\begin{recipe}
  \begin{ingredients}
    \ingredient{400g spaghetti}
    \ingredientGroup{Sauce}
    \ingredient{2 tbsp olive oil}
    \ingredient{1 onion, chopped}
    \ingredient{2 garlic cloves, minced}
    \ingredient{400g ground beef}
    \ingredient{400g canned tomatoes}
    \ingredient{Salt and pepper to taste}
    \ingredient{Fresh basil, chopped}
  \end{ingredients}
  \begin{steps}
    \step{Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.}
    \step{Heat olive oil in a pan. Sauté onion and garlic until translucent.}
    \step{Add ground beef and cook until browned.}
    \step{Stir in tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.}
    \step{Serve sauce over spaghetti and garnish with basil.}
  \end{steps}
\end{recipe}

Tip

You can use \ingredientGroup{Sauce} to organize ingredients into logical subgroups within the ingredients block.

📷 Required Image

Each recipe must include an accompanying image file (e.g., .jpg, .png) placed in the /images/ directory.

For example, for recipes/SpaghettiBolognese.tex, you should place the image at images/SpaghettiBolognese.jpg

Warning

The image filename must match the path provided in \setRecipeMeta{...}{...}{...}{...}{./images/SpaghettiBolognese}

🧩 Include the Recipe in the Book

Add your new recipe to main.tex using \input:

\documentclass{recipebook}

\begin{document}
  \input{titlepage}
  \input{toc}
  \input{recipes/SpaghettiBolognese}
\end{document}

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📌 TODOs & Improvements

• Improve Table of Contents (toc.tex)
• Redesign titlepage.tex
• Auto-include recipes (Only possible with GitHub Actions)
• Auto-page layout
• Localization
• Inbuilt image scaling and cropping
• Publish as Overleaf template

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🤝 Contribute

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to improve the project, fix bugs, or suggest features, please open a Pull Request (PR).

• Make your changes in a new branch and push it to your fork.
• GitHub Actions will automatically build the PDF on push.
• Write clear commit messages to help us review your changes.

Thank you for helping improve the cookbook!

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.