Context: LaTeX is a typesetting system. When compiling a document, a lot of really in-depth debugging information is printed, which can be borderline incomprehensible to anyone but LaTeX experts. It can also be a visual hindrance when looking for important information like errors.
Well, overleaf.com is for LaTeX, but typst.app is for Typst, a superior alternative witch is in beta. So for some people it won’t be enough (yet), but for me it’s awesome.
Whether or not typst is “superior” is largely debatable, but here are some reasons why I personally prefer Typst to LaTeX:
- leaner syntax
- less boilerplate
- (arguably) more intuitive syntax for math and formatting
- real-time preview thanks to incremental compilation
- automatic package management
- Ability to perform calculations/data processing inline inside your document (I know you can do this in LaTeX as well, but typst makes it easier)
However, as Andrew said, it is very much still in beta, so I don’t think it can be a complete replacement for LaTeX. Basically, think of it as something in between LaTeX and Markdown. Less features, but easier to write.
Since for me it has all the needed features, for me — it’s by far superior (even compared to LuaLaTeX which is the last thing I used). But some people, mainly from academia, are still can’t switch due to some features missing. A few people were able to create thesis in Typst (including myself). In the long run it will be 100% superior. In the mean time, there are a few hacks to enable some features that are otherwise not implemented yet.
