Pi In the Sky LaTeX template
PiInTheSky LaTeX Class
A LateX class file has been created to simplify the process of making articles submitted to Pi In the Sky publication ready. The class file constrains the output from LaTeX to a two column layout with various minor styling modifications used in Pi In The Sky.
Obtaining the Class File
The latest version of the class file can be downloaded from this link: PiInTheSky.cls.
Using the Class File
The class file uses the following packages: ccaption, graphicx and geometry. You must have these latex packages installed and available to use the class. All of these packages are available from CTAN and are usually included in a full LaTeX install.
To use the class file it simply copy it into the same directory as your LaTeX file and use "PiInTheSky" as the documentclass. i.e. start your LaTeX document with the line "\documentclass{PiInTheSky}"
The class file is basically a subclass of the article class which uses the "two-column" layout option. Some font sizes are slightly altered and the spacing and hyphenation patterns are re-configured for the two column layout.
Figures
Figures may be included via the graphicx package, this package supports a wide range of image file formats including pdf, jpg and eps. Figures which span a single column can be placed using a standard LaTeX
incantation
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=3.5in]{./myfigure.pdf}
\end{figure}
Figures which must span both columns should be included using the "figure*" environment.
Unknown environment 'figure*'Unknown environment 'figure*'
These figures will be floated to a page of their own. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS, simply tell us where you would like the figure included and our publisher will manually align the figure.
One additional latex command is defined by the class file to allow an optional small biographical block to be added to each article, the command is invoked as \picturebiography{<NAME>}{<PHOTO>}{BIO}
This command will create a biography block describing the author for the reader, it uses the following parameters
- NAME: The author's name
- PHOTO: A biogrpahical picture of the author (in any of the formats supported by graphicx (e.g. pdf, jpg...)
- BIO: A short biographical paragraph describing the author
Tips and Common Issues
1. The class file includes the following packages
geometry
ccaption
graphicx
You should not try to include them again via "\usepackage" in your LaTeX file or you will recieve an error.
Example
The following files provide an example of the use of the class file and what to expect from the output.
Assuming all of these files are located in the same directory, a pdf output file could be generated by running pdflatex twice (the second run is needed to ensure that the references are correct)
pdflatex example.tex
pdflatex example.tex
The output should look like this example.pdf