Vulgar outputs your dictionary in a LaTeX file, which can be uploaded to Overleaf to generate a PDF download.
What's LaTeX?
LaTeX is a typesetting code for creating professional documents, frequently used for typesetting books and academic papers. Overleaf is a free online compiler for LaTeX files (i.e. it reads your LaTeX and outputs the PDF). Overleaf also allows you to edit the dictionary that Vulgar generates.
Quick steps:
1. Make an account at Overleaf.com
2. Go to the Vulgarlang PDF Template (note: the default template will throw a "Compile error". Don't worry about this!)
3. Click Menu
4. Copy Project to your profile (name it whatever you want)
5. Using Vulgar, generate your langauge
6. Go to Saving Options and Download this language as PDF (.tex file)
7. Back in Overleaf, click Upload
8. Select and upload the .tex file from your computer
9. Click into the .tex file that you just uploaded on the side panel (not the Preamble.tex file!)
10. Click Recompile and wait for the PDF to be generated
11. Click Download PDF
How to Edit your Overleaf Project
Lines of code that start with the percentage sign
Editing entries
If you scroll down to around line 32 you will start to see the entry code. This code matches the beginning of your dictionary at the letter A. The following code
creates
The code
Feel free to alter any of the content inside these curly brackets, and even insert a whole new conlang entry (
Note that the English entries has an empty IPA section by default.
Changing fonts styles
The document configurations are located in the Preamble.tex file (on the left hand side panel). The font styling begins on line 15. The first few lines call some packages that are required for working with Unicode symbols and imported fonts. You can ignore this. On line 18, the document sets the main font of the document:
The PDF will default to this font if no other font is specified in the code. Note that the font file
Let's examine the font style for the English translation:
This creates a new font command called
The conlang word command,
This sets the color to "wordColor", which is a custom color name defined on line 10:
This translates to: Define a new color called
(Be aware that this style of LaTeX formatting is using the
Custom conlang fonts
If you have a custom conlang font (something like Tolkien's Tengwar) you'll first need to upload it to the project. Next you'll need to change the fonts for conlang word (
Your custom font may not match the size of the other fonts. To change the font size you add
If it already has color settings, add inside the brackets, comma separated.
Chapter headings and sections
In your language's .tex file you'll see comments that say CONLANG to ENGLISH, followed by a chapter heading, and a section heading (probably for A).
% CONLANG to ENGLISH
%-------------------
\
\
\
\
You can add a new chapter by writing
You can add a new section by writing
Writing paragraphs
Writing basic paragraphs in LaTeX is normally straight forward: you simply separate your paragraphs by two lines and LaTeX automatically does paragraph indenting. However, the Vulgar template has paragraph indenting turned off (this is so that the word entries stay flush against the left side of the columns). Therefore, I recommend using quadruple backslash
This is paragraph. This is paragraph. This is paragraph. This is paragraph. This is paragraph. This is paragraph. This is paragraph.
This technically creates a new paragraph, but does not indent.
\
Creates
Note that
Another way to achieve paragraph spacing is to manually set the paragraph spaces to 1 line using
Bold text
To make some text bold, wrap it in curly brackets and use
Tables
Be aware that Vulgar does not put any grammar tables into the .tex file because the tables are often to large to fit on an A4 page. Making them automatically resize and/or split in half in LaTeX (and in a way that is visually appealing) is quite challenging, and can produce disappointing results. This means you have to do the table layout yourself. LaTeX tables can be a little bit fiddly, so we recommend using the LaTex Tables Editor
Here is a quick rundown of how the code works:
& Masculine & Feminine
Singular & el & la
Plural & los & las
creates this:
In the