Setup

To get started, you need the Oicana CLI and an editor for Typst. Both is only necessary on machines used for Oicana template development. An end-user machine, running software that uses an Oicana integration, does not require any additional installations.

Install a prebuild binary from GitHub.

The CLI can test and package Oicana templates. See the CLI section for more information.

You can edit Typst files in any text editor, but syntax highlighting and live previews make development significantly easier. Here are some suggestions:

• Several IDEs have Typst plugins with live previews and syntax highlighting.

  • Visual Studio Code: Tinymist offers a complete experience with life preview, syntax/error highlighting and more.
  • JetBrains IDEs: Kvasir is in Beta and lags behind Tinymist feature-wise.

• Official Typst editor in the browser.

  • This editor has a significant free tier and a pro tier for 8$ per month. It is maintained by the Typst company.
  • Web based; No installation required.
  • You can work on the same document with multiple people and sync your templates to GitHub or GitLab.

In the following sections, you will create a basic Oicana template and set up an ASP.NET service. The service will use the Oicana C# integration to compile the template to PDF when requested by a user.

Using the C# integration requires a working .NET setup (preferably .NET 8). If you want to follow along, but don't have that installed, please refer to the official Microsoft guide for installation instructions.