Achieving Corporate Design Consistency in Reports with Indiedown

An R Markdown Solution

Angelica Becerra

Why PDF?

• Offline access
• Cross-Platform Consistency
• Facilitate distribution
• Long-Term Storage
• Non-Editable Format

Image by vectorjuice on Freepik

• Offline access

PDFs can be accessed and read offline, making them convenient for users without continuous internet access.

• Cross-Platform Consistency

PDFs appear the same on all devices and systems, ensuring that everyone sees the same content.

• Facilitate distribution

electronically and in printed form, and they can be compressed without compromising quality.

• Long-Term Storage

The stability of the PDF format over time ensures that documents remain accessible and readable.

• Non-Editable Format

PDFs are more difficult to alter than other document types, ensuring that the data presented remains unchanged from its original submission. This is critical in regulatory environments where data integrity is paramount.

Image by vectorjuice on Freepik, modified by the author

and think about the time to deal with logos, positioning, colors schemes, …

Top left image by by storyset on Freepik

Top left image by by storyset on Freepik

Bottom left image by pch.vector on Freepik, modified by the author

How can we include these elements using Rmarkdown?

Background image by pch.vector on Freepik, modified by the author

How can we include these elements using Rmarkdown?

Background image by pch.vector on Freepik, modified by the author

Logo

---
title: "Document with logo"
header-includes: 
   \usepackage{graphicx}
   \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   \pagestyle{fancy}
   \setlength\headheight{28pt}
   \fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width=10cm]{logo.png}}
   \fancyfoot[LE,RO]{GPIM}
output: pdf_document
---

Logo in the first page

---
title: "Document with logo"
header-includes: 
   \usepackage{graphicx}
   \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   \pagestyle{fancy}
   \setlength\headheight{28pt}
   \fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width=10cm]{logo.png}}
   \fancyfoot[LE,RO]{GPIM}
output: pdf_document
---

\addtolength{\headheight}{1.0cm} 
\fancypagestyle{plain}{} the first page
\thispagestyle{fancy} 
\fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width = 100pt]{logo.png}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

Logo in the first page

---
title: "Document with logo"
header-includes: 
   \usepackage{graphicx}
   \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   \pagestyle{fancy}
   \setlength\headheight{28pt}
   \fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width=10cm]{logo.png}}
   \fancyfoot[LE,RO]{GPIM}
output: pdf_document
---

\addtolength{\headheight}{1.0cm} 
\fancypagestyle{plain}{} the first page
\thispagestyle{fancy} 
\fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width = 100pt]{logo.png}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

Header and Footer

---
title: "Document with logo"
header-includes: 
   - \usepackage{graphicx}
   - \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   - \pagestyle{fancy}
   - \setlength\headheight{28pt}
   - \fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width=5cm]{cynkra-logo.png}}
   - \fancyfoot[LE,RO]{GPIM}
   - \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   - \pagestyle{fancy}
   - \fancyhead[CO,CE]{This is fancy header}
   - \fancyfoot[CO,CE]{And this is a fancy footer}
   - \fancyfoot[LE,RO]{\thepage}
output: pdf_document
---

\addtolength{\headheight}{1.0cm} 
\fancypagestyle{plain}{} the first page
\thispagestyle{fancy} 
\fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width = 100pt]{cynkra-logo.png}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}

After setting up the colors, fonts, table of content…

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

Image by storyset on Freepik

Templates

• Create R Markdown templates in 3 steps from Chapter 13 in rstudio4edu

1. use_rmarkdown_template()
2. Create your template
3. Confirm that your template is accessible

Some issues

• no idea about the errors
• no idea about Latex
• Some elements missing

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

Image by pch.vector on Freepik

Indiedown

Your package is like a director, helping users seamlessly integrate detailed scripts (LaTeX code) into scenes (R chunks) to create impressive films (rmarkdown documents).

Indiedown

Your package is like a director, helping users seamlessly integrate detailed scripts (LaTeX code) into scenes (R chunks) to create impressive films (rmarkdown documents).

Source: www.tg.ch

Indiedown

• Keep all corporate design elements as code

• indiedown does not modify the default .tex. Extends Pandoc .tex

Indiedown - First steps

Installation

install.packages("indiedown")

Create your own package

indiedown::create_indiedown_package("templateuser2024")

Build your package using Build and Reload in RStudio or with:

devtools::install("templateuser2024")

You have created the first template

Image by jcomp on Freepik

You have created the first template

After the new package is built and installed, you will have available the new template (after restart)

How to customize the new template?

Image by vectorjuice on Freepik

Customization points

• fonts
• geometry
• linestretch
• papersize
• check all pandoc options

Customization points

• Latex packages \usepackage{glossaries-extra}
• Latex packages used by R packages; like \usepackage{longtable}
• Advanced: Define new Latex environments

Customization points

• Dynamically modify pandoc options, using R.
  • Different geometry (margins) if twocolumn is true.
  • Different linestretch when landscape is used.

Customization points

• Include corporate design elements with functions
• uses indiedown_glue() to wrap literal LaTeX code in R.
• Expressions enclosed by ⁠<<⁠ and ⁠>>⁠ will be evaluated as R code.

Customization points

cd_header <- function(header_text_right = "",
                      header_text_left = "") {
  indiedown_glue(
   r"(
   \newcommand\hcrule[3][black]{\textcolor{#1}{\rule[-2mm]{#2}{#3}}}
   \thispagestyle{fancy}
   \fancyhead[LE]{\thepage \hcrule[dunkelorange]{.5mm}{7mm} <<header_text_right>>}
   \fancyhead[RO]{<<header_text_left>> \hcrule[dunkelorange]{.5mm}{7mm} \thepage}
   )")}

Customization points

cd_header(header_text_right = "Statistische Mitteilung 2/2022",
          header_text_left = "Wohnbevölkerung der Politischen Gemeinden 2023")

Customization points

• Rmd template to final user.
• Shown in Rstudio when ’New R Markdown Document’ is selected and then ‘from Template’.
• You can also use usethis::use_rmarkdown_template() to add a new template.

Customization points

Main customization point

Convert this Rmd template

---
title: "Document with logo"
header-includes: 
   - \usepackage{graphicx}
   - \usepackage{fancyhdr}
   - \pagestyle{fancy}
   - \setlength\headheight{28pt}
   - \fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width=10cm]{logo_here.png}}
   - \vspace*{2cm}
output: pdf_document
---

\addtolength{\headheight}{1.0cm}
\fancypagestyle{plain}{} 
\thispagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics[width = 100pt]{logo_here.png}}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\vspace*{2cm}
\clearpage

To this template using indiedown

---
title: "Document with logo"
output: templateuser2024::templateuser2024
---

```{r}
library(templateuser2024)
cd_knit_chunk_opts()
```

```{r}
cd_page_title()
cd_footer()
```

With indiedown

• The template is friendly to the final user.
• Customization in R functions.
• All corporate design elements are in the package.

Publications created with indiedown

Source: www.tg.ch

• Select the image and logos for the first page.
• Choose different layouts for each page.
• Choose boxes based on their needs.

Publications created with indiedown

Source: www.stadt-zuerich.ch: report on top, report on bottom

Quarto and Typst?

Image by storyset on Freepik

Thanks!