Guide — LexTyp

Why LexTyp?

Legal writing has a specific problem: you need beautiful PDFs, precise citations that follow strict formatting rules, and an editor that doesn't fight you. Most tools make you choose between ease-of-use and correctness. LexTyp doesn't.

✎

Edit-focused

A clean WYSIWYG editor. No markup syntax to learn. Just write like you think — headings, bold, lists, citations flow naturally.

📚

Citation-format free

Import your .bib file, insert /citation, and pick a style. OSCOLA, Harvard, APA, Chicago, IEEE — switch with one click. The formatting is handled for you.

📄

Instant PDF output

Typst compiles your document to a publication-ready PDF in real time. See every change reflected in the live preview — no separate build step.

Quick Start

From zero to a working paper in four steps.

Download & open

Grab the installer for your OS from the Releases page. Open the app — that's it. The Typst engine is bundled into LexTyp itself, so there's no separate runtime to install.

Create a workspace & document

Click Open Folder in the sidebar to choose (or create) a folder for your project. Then hit + New Document. LexTyp saves everything as .lextyp project files inside that folder.

Import references & start writing

Drag a .bib file into the sidebar's References panel (or click Import). Start typing in the editor — the PDF preview updates live on the right.

Export your PDF

Click the Download button in the PDF preview toolbar. Done — a publication-ready PDF on your disk.

Want a worked example first? With a workspace open, click Open the example template on the empty editor screen. LexTyp drops a complete tutorial document — cover page, every block type, a working bibliography, and explanatory copy — into your workspace as Welcome to LexTyp.lextyp. Edit it freely, or delete it once you've found your way around.

Workspace

LexTyp organises your files in a workspace — just a regular folder on your computer. Inside it you can create documents and sub-folders. Each document is a self-contained .lextyp file (a ZIP archive containing the editor state, Typst source, and bibliography).

my-thesis/
  📁 chapter-1/
    📄 introduction.lextyp
    📄 literature-review.lextyp
  📁 chapter-2/
    📄 methodology.lextyp
  📄 abstract.lextyp

Right-click items in the sidebar to rename, delete, or create new folders. Changes auto-save every 2 seconds.

The Editor

The editor is a block-based rich-text area (powered by BlockNote). Everything you'd expect works:

Formatting

Ctrl + B Bold
Ctrl + I Italic
Ctrl + U Underline
Ctrl + E Inline code

Block types

Type # for headings (## for H2, etc.)
Type - for bullet lists
Type 1. for numbered lists
Type / for the slash menu

The slash menu is your power tool. Type / anywhere to pick a block:

/cover — title page with author, date & word count
/title, /section, /subsection — headings H1–H4
/paragraph, /bullet, /numbered — text & lists
/citation — insert a reference from your .bib
/include — pull in another .lextyp (each include starts a new page)
/contents — auto-generated table of contents from your headings

Cover Pages

Most academic submissions need a title page — title, author, supervisor, institution, date, sometimes a candidate number or module code. Type /cover at the top of your document and LexTyp inserts a cover-page block with all of those fields ready to fill in.

The block in the editor is a clickable preview. Click it to open a dedicated editor with a live preview, three layout choices, and "Auto" toggles for date and word count — both update on every compile so you never need to remember to refresh them. Empty fields are dropped from the printed PDF, so the same block fits a sparse "title + author" cover and a full LSE-style title page.

Auto date

When the chip is on, the cover prints today's month + year (or 2026 年 5 月 in Chinese mode) — ideal for drafts. Type a specific date into the field to override it; click the chip again to revert.

Auto word count

Live count drawn from the body, including any /include sub-documents. Optionally enter a target like 3000 and the cover prints 2940 / 3000 — useful when you're writing to a strict limit.

Three layouts

Classic places the title near the top and the date at the bottom of the page. Centered keeps everything in the vertical middle. Minimal sits compactly at the top — no full-page sandwich. Pick one from the dialog; the inline preview updates instantly.

Additional lines

A free-form textarea for school-specific lines — candidate numbers, module codes, declaration text. One line per row; each renders centred under the rest of the metadata.

Citations

This is where LexTyp really shines. The citation workflow is designed to be as frictionless as possible:

Import your .bib file

Click Import BibTeX in the sidebar's References section. All entries appear instantly, searchable by author, title, or key. New to BibTeX? See What is a .bib file? below for where to get one and how to write one by hand.

Insert a citation

Type /citation in the editor. A picker appears — search and click the entry. An @key tag is inserted inline.

Switch style anytime

Use the style dropdown in the sidebar. All citations re-render instantly — OSCOLA footnotes become Harvard author-date references, or vice versa. No manual changes needed.

What you see in the editor

The modern law of negligence originates from the foundational case establishing the neighbour principle. @donoghue1932

↓ Compiled output (OSCOLA)

The modern law of negligence originates from the foundational case establishing the neighbour principle.¹

1. Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562

What is a .bib file?

A .bib file (also called a BibTeX file) is a plain-text database of your references — books, journal articles, cases, statutes, websites, anything you might cite. Each entry has a unique key like @hartLaw1961 that you reference inside your paper. LexTyp turns those keys into properly formatted footnotes or in-text citations, in whichever style you've selected, automatically.

A typical entry looks like this

@book{hartLaw1961,
  author    = {Hart, H. L. A.},
  title     = {The Concept of Law},
  publisher = {Oxford University Press},
  address   = {Oxford},
  year      = {1961},
}

@book — the entry type. Common types: @article, @inproceedings, @phdthesis, @misc, @incollection, @inbook.
hartLaw1961 — the citation key. You'll use this when inserting citations. Make it short and unique (a typical convention is authorYear).
author / title / publisher / year — fields. Different entry types accept different fields; the basics shown here are universal.

Where to get one

You usually don't write a .bib file by hand. Most academic databases and reference managers can export BibTeX directly — look for a Cite or Export button near each search result.

DB Academic databases

From the article or search-result page:

Google Scholar — quote icon → BibTeX
JSTOR — Cite this Item → Export → BibTeX
IEEE Xplore — Cite This → BibTeX
Westlaw / LexisNexis — Email/Download → BibTeX
SSRN — Download Citation → BibTeX
arXiv — Bibtex link in the right-hand sidebar

RM Reference managers

If you keep references in a manager, export the whole library or a folder as BibTeX:

Zotero — File → Export Library → BibTeX
Mendeley — File → Export → BibTeX
JabRef — its native format is BibTeX
EndNote — Export with the BibTeX style

How to add it to LexTyp

Open a document in LexTyp (each document has its own bibliography).
Switch to the References panel in the sidebar.
Click Import .bib and select your file. Every entry appears in the panel, ready to insert with /citation.
You can also add or edit individual entries from the same panel — useful when a database doesn't have what you need and you want to add a single book or case by hand.

Bibliography is per-document. LexTyp stores your .bib entries inside the .lextyp archive, so each paper carries its own references. You can keep one master .bib in your workspace folder and re-import it whenever you start a new paper.

Writing one by hand

If your source isn't on any database (a personal letter, a draft chapter, a UK statute that databases don't index nicely), it's faster to type the entry directly in LexTyp's + Add reference form. The fields you'll need depend on the entry type:

Type	For	Required fields
`@book`	Books, monographs	`author`, `title`, `publisher`, `year`
`@article`	Journal articles	`author`, `title`, `journal`, `year`
`@incollection`	Chapter in an edited book	`author`, `title`, `booktitle`, `editor`, `publisher`, `year`
`@inproceedings`	Conference papers	`author`, `title`, `booktitle`, `year`
`@phdthesis`	Theses / dissertations	`author`, `title`, `school`, `year`
`@misc`	Cases, websites, anything else	`author`, `title`, `year` (more as needed)

Word Count

The status bar (bottom-right) shows two numbers: the words from the start of the document up to your cursor, and the total words in the document — including any /include sub-documents. Citations and the /contents block don't count, so what you see is what an examiner counting your prose would tally.

Cursor / total

2,940 / 3,142 words means the cursor sits at the 2,940-word mark of a 3,142-word document. The cursor figure updates as you click around or use the arrow keys — handy for checking how much you've written before a particular section break.

On the cover page

Open the cover-page block, turn the Word count chip on, and optionally type a target like 3000. The cover then prints 2940 / 3000 on the title page — both numbers update on every compile.

PDF Preview & Export

The right panel shows a live PDF preview that updates as you type (with a 400ms debounce so it doesn't flicker). It's not a simulation — it's the real compiled PDF.

Navigate

Double-click on the PDF to jump to that line in the editor
Ctrl + Scroll to zoom in/out
Click & drag to pan when zoomed in

Export

Click the Download button in the preview toolbar
Choose where to save the .pdf file
You can also export raw Typst source from the sidebar menu

Citation Styles

LexTyp supports 6 citation styles. Each handles books, articles, cases, legislation, chapters, theses, and conference papers. Switch between them with one click — your citations re-render instantly.

OSCOLA Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities

The UK standard for law journals, dissertations, and legal scholarship. Uses footnotes, not in-text citations.

Book: Author, Title (Publisher Year)
Article: Author, 'Title' (Year) Volume Journal First Page
Case: Party A v Party B [Year] Report Number
Legislation: Short Title Year (no italics, always full form)
Chapter: Author, 'Title' in Editor (ed), Book (Publisher Year)
Thesis: Author, 'Title' (PhD thesis, University Year)

Special rules: OSCOLA uses ibid when the same source is cited consecutively, and short-form Author (n X) for subsequent citations of the same source. LexTyp handles both automatically.

Harvard Author-Date System

An author-date system widely used in social sciences and humanities.

Book: Author (Year) Title. Place: Publisher.
Article: Author (Year) 'Title', Journal, vol. X, pp. X–Y.
Book titles and journal names are italicised; article titles use single quotes.

APA American Psychological Association

Author-date style common in psychology, education, and interdisciplinary legal research. Similar to Harvard but with APA-specific punctuation rules.

Chicago Chicago Manual of Style

Footnote-based style popular in history, the arts, and some legal contexts. Uses full and short-form citations in footnotes.

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Numbered citation style for technical law, technology policy papers, and cross-disciplinary tech/legal work.

Plain Simple Format

A minimal, no-frills format. Useful for drafts or when your institution doesn't have a specific style requirement.

Example Project

A short paper on legal positivism, shipped with the repo, that demonstrates the citation format-free workflow end-to-end — nine references across seven BibTeX types (book, article, case, legislation, chapter, thesis, conference paper), inline citations in the prose, and an auto-generated table of contents. Open it in LexTyp and flip the style dropdown to watch every citation re-render.

Download citation-demo.lextyp View sources on GitHub

Compiled PDF (OSCOLA) Download PDF

This PDF was compiled from examples/citation-demo using the OSCOLA citation style — the same file renders equally well in Harvard, APA, Chicago, or IEEE.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Bold	`Ctrl` + `B`
Italic	`Ctrl` + `I`
Underline	`Ctrl` + `U`
Slash menu	`/`
Jump to source	Double-click on PDF

Tips & Tricks

Let the outline generate itself. Type /contents anywhere in the document and LexTyp drops in an #outline() block that compiles into a table of contents built from your headings — no manual listing, no stale page numbers.

Split long work across files, not one giant document. Use /include to reference other .lextyp files. Each included document starts on a new page and picks up its own bibliography, so a thesis can live as chapter-1.lextyp, chapter-2.lextyp, etc. with one root file that pulls them together.

Switch citation styles on the fly. Writing for a journal that uses Harvard but your supervisor wants OSCOLA? Just flip the dropdown. All your citations re-render. Zero manual work.

Double-click the PDF to find source. Lost track of which paragraph generated a specific section? Double-click it in the preview and the editor scrolls right to it.

Collapse panels for focus mode. Click the arrow icons to collapse the sidebar and/or PDF preview. When you're deep in writing, give yourself the full screen.

Use the floating outline. The bottom-left outline button shows a clickable table of contents generated from your headings. Great for navigating long documents.

Dark mode for late-night sessions. Toggle the theme from the sidebar settings. Your preference is saved automatically.

Open the example template if you get stuck. From the empty editor screen with a workspace open, click Open the example template. It drops a complete tutorial document into your workspace — cover page, every block type, working citations — that you can read, edit, or copy-paste from. Delete it once it's served its purpose.

Ready to write?

Download LexTyp and start your paper today.

Download LexTyp

Write once. Cite any style. Export PDF.