Masterthesis

An elegant LaTeX template for your thesis and presentation.

Final results

Sane typesetting defaults, drop caps and a touch of color make the reading more enjoyable, both on screens and paper:

Ideal for every major:

The simplicity of the accompanying presentation will keep the audience focused:

Find example PDFs inside the example folder.

Requirements

To use this template, you will need:

• a LaTeX distribution such as MiKTeX (for Windows), MacTeX (for MacOS), or TeXLive (for Linux)
• a LaTeX or code editor, like TeXStudio or VSCodium
• a reference manager like Jabref
• make to start compilation workflows (Windows installation steps)

Once you installed them, clone this repo or extract its .zip archive.

PDF generation

There are two ways to generate PDFs:

• using your editor's "build" features (make sure it is using LuaLaTeX instead of PDFLaTeX)
• running make from the terminal

Here is a list of the most useful make commands that you can run from your terminal:

 # generate covers
make cover

 # generate thesis
make thesis

 # generate presentation
make presentation

 # deletes temporary files
make clean

Content editing

To understand how to write a thesis document using the template, read USAGE-THESIS.md. If you also need to prepare an accompanying slideshow, read USAGE-PRESENTATION.md

File structure

Thesis

These files can be used to generate thesis.pdf

├── chapters/                       # folder for structured document content
│   └── 1.tex                       #     content of first chapter
├── pages/                          # folder for single pages, lists, references and variables
│   ├── abstract.tex                #     brief introduction to the research
│   ├── acknowledgements.tex        #     people that have professionally helped and supported you
│   ├── acronyms.tex                #     list of acronyms
│   ├── bibliography.tex            #     layout of bibliography
│   ├── colophon.tex                #     notes about typesetting
│   ├── committee.tex               #     empty page for signatures
│   ├── copyright.tex               #     simple copyright notice
│   ├── cover-digital.pdf           #     colorful first and last page of the final document
│   ├── dedication.tex              #     dedication to someone special
│   ├── lists.tex                   #     layout of content, list of figures, list of tables, etc.
│   ├── placeholder.tex             #     standard placeholder text
│   └── title.tex                   #     layout of title page
├── pictures/                       # folder for pictures and covers
├── masterthesis.cls                # layout of the thesis document
├── references.bib                  # biblatex database of bibliographical references
├── thesis.tex                      # main structure of the thesis document
└── variables.tex                   # contains variables such as university, author, title, logo files, etc.

Presentation

These files are used to generate presentation.pdf

├── chapters/                       # folder for structured document content
│   └── slides.tex                  #     content of slides
├── beamerthememasterthesis.sty     # layout of presentation
├── presentation.tex                # main structure of the presentation
├── references.bib                  # biblatex database of bibliographical references
└── variables.tex                   # contains variables such as university, author, title, logo 

Other files

Other files and their purpose:

├── examples/                       # folder containing example PDF outputs
├── extra/                          # folder for files that generate other PDFs
│   ├── cover-digital.tex           #     layout of cover for digital reading in thesis.pdf
│   ├── part.tex                    #     quickly compile a part of the content
│   ├── cover-printed.tex           #     layout of front cover for relief printing in a copy shop
│   └── cover-printed-spine.tex     #     layout of cover spine for relief printing in a copy shop
├── .gitignore                      # prevents git from saving temporary files
├── .hidden                         # prevents many linux file managers from showing temporary files
├── LICENSE                         # license file
├── Makefile                        # allows to build the thesis via `make` commands
├── README.md                       # explain objective
├── USAGE-PRESENTATION.md           # explain usage of presentation
└── USAGE-THESIS.md                 # explain usage of thesis

Showcase

List of friends that used this template for their theses:

• Giacomo Coletto (2023), The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic and Operational Decision Making, business administration
• Federico Roncaglia (2023), A Calorimetric Loss Measurement for Switching Power Devices, electronic engineering
• Riccardo Cazzin (2023), Soluzione numerica di equazioni integrali di Fredholm su domini poligonali, mathematics
• Maggye Rizzante (2024), Evoluzione delle tecniche di vendita: un’analisi del modello di business di Goppion Caffè S.p.A. e il confronto tra tentata vendita e copia commissione, business administration