# latex-templates is a directory of thesis templates with a machine readable index > hantang/latex-templates collects LaTeX thesis, Beamer, report, slide and resume templates, mostly for Chinese universities but also for Cambridge and for generic use, and publishes both a browsable site and two JSON files. It is MIT licensed, was last updated on 2026-10-14, and its entries are individually dated so staleness is visible. **hantang/latex-templates** — A collection of awesome LaTeX Thesis/Dissertation templates and beyond! //（LaTeX / Word / Typst / Markdown 格式的学位论文、演示文稿、报告、项目申请书、简历、书籍等模板收藏） - Repository: https://github.com/hantang/latex-templates - Website: http://hantang.github.io/latex-templates/awesome/ - Stars: 844 · Forks: 39 - Language: Unknown - License: MIT - Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/hantang-latex-templates ## A directory, not a distribution of templates latex-templates is a curated list. The repository does not contain thesis templates to download; it contains a table of links to them, organised by institution and by kind of document. The project describes itself as a collection of LaTeX thesis and dissertation templates and beyond, and the Chinese and English READMEs spell out the scope. The main focus is LaTeX degree thesis templates and Beamer presentations, and it also covers papers and conference submissions, presentations, and resume templates, in several formats. The topic list on the repository names the formats directly, with LaTeX, Beamer, Typst, Markdown, resume templates and thesis templates among them. The title of the English README, Beyond LaTeX Templates, is a fair description of the second half of the list. The table of contents in the README groups the entries into degree thesis templates in LaTeX, degree thesis templates not in LaTeX, presentations and slides in LaTeX, resume templates, and report style templates. That last group matters for the practical reason that a lot of people asking this question do not want LaTeX. The non-LaTeX section is where Word, Typst and Markdown entries live, and the repository description says so explicitly, listing 论文、演示文稿、报告、项目申请书、简历、书籍 among the kinds of document covered. For a reader who is choosing a starting point, the value is in the table rather than in the repository, and the repository is the thing that gets updated. ## Each entry carries a date, which is the field that matters The tables are formatted with four columns: the school or institution, the GitHub repository, a statistics cell, and a description. The statistics cell is where the design decision shows. It holds the star count, the fork count and the date of the last commit, each rendered from a badge. For every entry in the popular templates table, the last commit date is right there next to the repository name. That is a deliberate choice, and it changes what the list is for. A directory of links is only as useful as its links, and a thesis template that was last touched in 2023 will very likely break against a current TeX distribution, or lag behind a change in the university's formatting rules. The reader can see that before clicking, rather than after spending an afternoon on a failed build. The same information is mirrored in the JSON files, so a script can read the index and check dates programmatically, or filter the entries down to the ones that are still moving. A second status marker appears in the table as well. One entry in the visible portion of the list carries an archived marker alongside its description, and the last commit date next to it is from 2023. The directory keeps dead entries rather than removing them, which is a defensible choice: a template for an archived or discontinued course may still be the only one that exists, and the marker tells you what you are looking at. ## templates.json and templates-resume.json are the real interface The README points to three things under a note about template resources. The first is the website, hosted on GitHub Pages at hantang.github.io/latex-templates/awesome. The second is a JSON file called templates.json, and the third is a separate JSON file for resume templates called templates-resume.json. So the project publishes the same catalogue in two forms, one for people and one for programs. A human browses the site, which renders the tables with the badges, and a script reads the JSON. That split is what makes the repository more than a link dump. Because the entries are data rather than prose, the same list can feed something else: a script that suggests a template based on your university, a check that flags entries whose repository has gone quiet, or a small tool that renders a subset. The README does not document the JSON schema in the pages shown, so anyone building on the files should look at the structure in templates.json directly rather than assume a contract. The repository layout supports this view of the project. There is a data/ directory, a snapshots/ directory holding the image used in the README, a wiki/ directory, and the two JSON files at the root. The wiki is where per-template notes and guidance live, and the data directory is where the entries that feed the site are kept. ## The generic templates cover the cases a university never shipped A good fraction of the popular templates table is not tied to a single institution, and those entries are often the more useful ones for a reader outside the system the list is weighted toward. The visible entries include a Russian PhD dissertation template, latex-mimosis, described as a minimal and modern template for bachelor, master or doctoral theses, novathesis for academic monographs, which the README says serves both beginners and proficient LaTeX users, Clean Thesis, described as a clean, simple and elegant style, and Dissertate. There is also a Cambridge University Engineering Department PhD template that covers LaTeX, XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX. That last detail is worth pausing on. The list of engine options in one line tells you something the type system does not: whether a template needs a Unicode-capable engine, which matters if your document contains CJK text, maths in a different font, or citations with non-Latin characters. Most of the Chinese university templates will assume a Chinese-capable toolchain, and the international generic ones tend to assume pdfLaTeX or a specific engine, and neither assumption is written down in the index. The generic entries also tend to be the ones that are still moving. In the visible table, most general purpose templates carry last commit dates in 2026, though Clean Thesis and Dissertate are older, while several university entries carry dates from 2023 and 2024. That is expected, because a working university template has a defined end of life when the format rules change, while a general purpose template is a living project. ## Building the site is a single dependency The site is built with the Material for MkDocs theme, and the requirements file for the project lists a single package, the Material for MkDocs distribution. That is the whole dependency list in the repository, which tells you the project is documentation rather than software. There is no package to install, no API to call and no service to run. The site is published from the main branch through GitHub Pages, given the address in the README, and the site link in the note about template resources is the canonical entry point for the catalogue. The English README and the Chinese README are the two faces of the same table, and the repository carries a last commit badge in the README header, which is how a visitor can tell whether the list itself is being maintained even when a given template is not. The date at the top of the Chinese README is a generated marker, with a start and end comment around it and the value 2026-10-14 inside, alongside a note that says recently updated. So the list carries its own freshness signal, independent of the per-entry dates. There is no build script in the repository, no Makefile and no CI configuration beyond the .github directory, so if you want to run the site locally you would install the MkDocs packages and point MkDocs at the configuration used for the published pages. ## What the directory cannot tell you There are three limits worth being clear about, because the format invites a level of trust the data does not support. The first is that the index says nothing about quality. It records the repository, a description, and dates. Whether a template produces good typography, whether its bibliography handling matches your department's rules, whether it builds with a current TeX Live, none of that is in the table. The star and fork numbers in the statistics cell are popularity counters, not an assessment of whether the template compiles or whether it matches the current rules. The second is coverage. The list is weighted heavily towards Chinese universities, and the institution column is dominated by them. There is one clearly international entry in the visible portion, the Cambridge Engineering template, and a set of generic ones. If your institution is in Europe outside the UK, in North America outside the handful of listed places, or anywhere in Latin America, Africa or South Asia, the honest answer from this directory is that it probably does not list your school, and the generic templates become the starting point. The third is that the directory's licence does not travel with the templates. The repository itself is MIT, which covers the list, the data files and the site. Each template it points at is a separate project with its own licence, and in practice those range from permissive to institutional, with some universities requiring endorsement for official use. The README even flags one entry as an unofficial collection, which is a reminder that a community template and an official one are not the same thing. ## Conclusion latex-templates is worth using when you are starting a thesis or a slide deck and do not know which template ecosystem exists for your institution, since the index covers dozens of university specific templates plus general purpose ones and tells you when each was last touched. It is not a template itself, so it will not get you a finished document on its own, and its coverage is weighted towards Chinese universities, with some entries marked archived or last updated years ago. Before you commit to one of the listed templates, check the last commit date in the table, clone the template repository and build it locally, and read the licence of the template you pick, since the directory's own MIT licence does not cover the templates it points at. ## FAQ ### What does the latex-templates project contain? It is a curated directory rather than a set of templates. It lists LaTeX, Beamer, Word, Typst and Markdown templates for degree theses, conference papers, presentations, reports and resumes, mostly for Chinese universities, with links to the template repositories. ### How can I use the template list programmatically? The repository publishes the catalogue as JSON data files at the root, templates.json for the main list and templates-resume.json for resume templates, alongside the browsable site. The README does not document the schema, so the file structure is the reference. ### How do I tell whether a listed template is still maintained? Every entry in the tables shows the date of the last commit of the template repository next to its name, and entries that are no longer maintained are marked. The README also carries a generated last updated date for the list itself, 2026-10-14 in the version shown. ### Does the latex-templates licence cover the templates it lists? No. The directory itself is MIT licensed, which covers the list, the JSON data files and the site. Each listed template is a separate project with its own licence, and some entries are explicitly unofficial, so check the licence of the template you choose. ### Are there templates for universities outside China? The list is weighted towards Chinese universities but does include international and general purpose entries, such as a PhD template for the Cambridge University Engineering Department covering LaTeX, XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX, and generic ones including latex-mimosis, novathesis, Clean Thesis and Dissertate. ## Sources - [hantang/latex-templates on GitHub](https://github.com/hantang/latex-templates) - [Issues](https://github.com/hantang/latex-templates/issues) - [License: MIT](https://github.com/hantang/latex-templates/blob/main/LICENSE) - [Project website](http://hantang.github.io/latex-templates/awesome/) - [README](https://github.com/hantang/latex-templates/blob/main/README.md) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/hantang-latex-templates