academic-letter-template.tex

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Academic Letter LaTeX and RMarkdown Structure                       %
% Author: Pedro Henrique Pereira Braga                                %
%                                                                     %
% License:                                                            %
% CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) %
%                                                                     %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% Set the font size (11pt, for now) and paper size (e.g. letterpaper, a4paper)
\documentclass[11pt, letterpaper]{letter} 

%----------------------------------------------------------------------
%	PACKAGES AND OTHER DOCUMENT CONFIGURATIONS
%----------------------------------------------------------------------

\usepackage{graphicx} % Required for including pictures
\usepackage{fancyhdr} % Allows the use of fancy headers and footers

\usepackage{microtype} % For typography improvement

\usepackage{url} % Allows the use of hyperlinks
\urlstyle{same} % Allows hyperlink fonts to be the same as the mainfont
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref} % Allows the use of hyperlinks and 
% removes the blue boxes around the link

\pagestyle{empty} % Removes headers and footers

\usepackage{setspace} % Allows the use of double spacing in the letter body

\setlength\parindent{1cm} % Paragraph indentation

% Create a new command for the horizontal rule in the document which allows 
% thickness specification
\makeatletter
  \def\@texttop{} % force the address to start above
\renewcommand*{\opening}[1]{\ifx\@empty\fromaddress
  \thispagestyle{firstpage}%
    {\raggedleft\@date\par}%
  \else  % home address
    \thispagestyle{empty}%
    {\raggedleft\begin{tabular}{l@{}}\ignorespaces
      \fromaddress \\*[2\parskip]%
      \@date \end{tabular}\par}%
  \fi
  %\vspace{2\parskip}%                        <-- Removed
  %{\raggedright \toname \\ \toaddress \par}% <-- Removed
  %\vspace{2\parskip}%                        <-- Removed
  #1\par\nobreak}
\let\ps@empty\ps@plain
\let\ps@firstpage\ps@plain
\makeatother

%--------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	FONTS
%--------------------------------------------------------------------------

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % Output font encoding for international characters
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % Required for inputting international characters
\usepackage[quiet]{fontspec} % Allows the use of fontspec
\usepackage{txfonts} % Allows the use of Lato fonts

% Selecting Google's Lato font-family, as it is free to use

% Bold and italic were not working, so I defined them for the main font
% manually as follows:

\defaultfontfeatures{Mapping=tex-text}
\setmainfont[Mapping=tex-text, Color=textcolor,
BoldFont=Lato-Bold.ttf,
ItalicFont=Lato-LightItalic.ttf,
BoldItalicFont=Lato-BoldItalic.ttf
]
{Lato-Regular.ttf}

\newfontfamily\bodyfont
[BoldFont=Lato-Bold.ttf,
ItalicFont=Lato-LightItalic.ttf,
BoldItalicFont=Lato-BoldItalic.ttf]
{Lato-Regular.ttf}

\newfontfamily\thinfont[]{Lato-Light.ttf}

%----------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	DOCUMENT MARGINS
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------

\usepackage{geometry} % Required for adjusting page dimensions

\geometry{
    headheight = 0.8in, % Header height
	top=1.5in, % Top margin
	bottom=1.5cm, % Bottom margin
	left=3cm, % Left margin
	right=3cm, % Right margin
	% showframe, % Uncomment to show how the type block is set on the page
}

%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	AUTHOR AND RECIPIENTS NEW COMMANDS AND DETAILS STRUCTURE
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

\newcommand{\authordetails}[1]{\renewcommand{\authordetails}{#1}}
\newcommand{\recipientdetails}[1]{\renewcommand{\recipientdetails}{#1}}

%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	HEADER STRUCTURE
%-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

\address{
 % Include the author's details on the right side of the page under the line
	\raggedleft{
		\footnotesize{ % Use a smaller font size
		$author$\\ % Author name
		\authordetails\\
       \hspace{1mm}
       }
	}
	\vspace{-0.05\textheight} % Move the date and letter content up
}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	COMPOSE THE ENTIRE HEADER
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\renewcommand{\opening}[1]{
	{\fromaddress
    \vspace{0.05\textheight}\\ % Print the sender's address here and add some whitespace to allow the printing of the date
    \raggedleft{$date$} % Include the date, aligned to the right
    \par % par
    }
	{\raggedright 
    \toname\\ 
    \toaddress 
    \par} % Print the recipient's name and adress
	\vspace{0.25cm} % White vertical space after recipient's address
	\noindent #1 % Following this, insert the opening info
}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	SIGNATURE STRUCTURE
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% The signature is a combination of the author's name, title and institution
\signature{$author$, $from_professional_title$\\
           $from_institution$} 

% I will later combine the option of inserting a signature within it
           
\renewcommand{\closing}[1]{
	\vspace{2.5mm} % Some whitespace after the letter content and before the signature
	\noindent % Stop paragraph indentation
	\hspace*{\longindentation} % Move the signature right to the value of \longindentation
	\parbox{\indentedwidth}{
		\raggedright
		#1 % Print the signature text
		\vskip 1.65cm % Whitespace between the closing text and author's name for a physical signature
		\fromsig % Prints the value of \signature{}, i.e. author name and title
	}
}

%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	AUTHOR'S INFORMATION
%-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\authordetails{
    $from_position$\\
	\thinfont{$from_department$\\ % Sender's department/institution
    $from_institution$\\
    $from_address$\\ % Sender's address
	$from_city$, $from_state_province$\\ % Sender's city, state or province,
    $from_postalcode$\\ % postal code
    $from_country$}
}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	RECIPIENT'S INFORMATION
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\recipientdetails{
$to_professional_title$ $to_name$\\
    \thinfont{
    $if(to_department)$
$to_department$\\
$endif$
    $if(to_institution)$
$to_institution$\\
$endif$
    $if(to_address)$
$to_address$\\
$endif$
    $to_city$, $to_state_province$\\    
    $if(to_postal_code)$
$to_postal_code$\\
$endif$
    $if(to_country)$
$to_country$
$endif$}
    $if(subject)$
    \\~\\
\bodyfont{Subject: $subject$}
$endif$
}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	HEADER CONTENTS
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\fancypagestyle{firstpage}{
    \fancyhf{}
        \fancyhead[L]{
            \includegraphics[height=0.6in, keepaspectratio=true]{$from_institution_logo$}
            }
        \fancyhead[R]{$author$\\
            \footnotesize{
              $from_email$\\ % Sender's email address
              $from_personal_website$ \\ % Sender's URL
              $from_phone$ % Sender's phone number
              }
            }
        }

\fancypagestyle{plain}{
    \fancyhf{}
        \fancyhead[L]{
            \includegraphics[height=0.6in, keepaspectratio=true]{$from_institution_logo$}
            }
        \fancyhead[R]{$author$\\
            \footnotesize{
              $from_email$\\ % Sender's email address
              $from_personal_website$ \\ % Sender's URL
              $from_phone$ % Sender's phone number
              }
            }
        }

\fancypagestyle{empty}{
    \fancyhf{}
        \fancyhead[L]{
            \includegraphics[height=0.6in, keepaspectratio=true]{$from_institution_logo$}
            }
        \fancyhead[R]{$author$\\
            \footnotesize{
              $from_email$\\ % Sender's email address
              $from_personal_website$ \\ % Sender's URL
              $from_phone$ % Sender's phone number
              }
            }
        }

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\pagestyle{plain}

\begin{document}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	TO ADDRESS
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\begin{letter}{\recipientdetails}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%	LETTER CONTENT
%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\opening{$opening_greeting$}
\begin{doublespacing}

$body$

\end{doublespacing}
\closing{$closing_greeting$}

%------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\end{letter}
\end{document}