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From time to time there are requests for a list of "all" LaTex book classes. Is there a comprehensive list of all of them?

Here is a list of book classes:

  • book
  • bookest
  • extbook
  • memoir
  • scrbook
  • octavo
  • basque-book
  • serbian-book
  • bgteubner
  • suftesi
  • mwcls (mwbk)
  • tufte-latex
  • Mentis
  • NGT-class (book) (Dutch latex document class)
  • Jura (jurabook)
  • ctexbook (Chinese language)
  • NoStarch
  • amsbook
  • refman

Are there any more?

I don't think the question should be put on hold. 19 book classes have been identified; that is hardly a never-ending list. There are often requests made for this list which is why I asked the question in the first place--to find out if there are any lesser-known book classes that address different typesetting issues.

If this list (as amended by including book classes referred to in the comments below) is the answer, then re-open the question so that the list can be copied and pasted in Answer format. That's not possible at the moment (unless cookies are preventing me from doing so).

user26732
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    Don't forget amsbook. – Ari Brodsky Oct 30 '13 at 09:05
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    And now a small note on each what makes them relevant over the others :), I would upvote such an answer. – math Oct 30 '13 at 09:24
  • You can find a more or less complete list in CTAN. They are listed under two topics: Alternative LaTeX classes and preparing a book for publication. – Ignasi Oct 30 '13 at 09:39
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    Possibly Related with bigger scope of document classes What are the available “documentclass” types and their uses? – texenthusiast Oct 30 '13 at 10:31
  • i have checked the catalogue entries of the 10 that leo and added and topics where necessary; i've also added those topics to some not on leo's list; the changes should appear overnight... – wasteofspace Oct 30 '13 at 12:53
  • writing the catalogue topic list involved a considerable exercise of associative memory; i am always eager to learn of any failures in that process ;-) [contact ctan with any info] – wasteofspace Oct 30 '13 at 12:55
  • Ignasi: the list at CTAN is hardly complete. In many cases there is a reference to an alternative document class, you have to open up the reference only to find that there isn't a book typesetting document class at all. wasteofspace: are you referring to CTAN? Is there no comprehensive list of book classes anywhere? –  Oct 30 '13 at 15:15
  • This is not an answer. The link @Ignasi gave is good, but includes more than just 'book'; and @wasteofspace just promised an update to the list. And he asked for help if you know of other things aren't on the list, not for general criticism about shortcomings. FWIW, pick memoir or scrreprt/scrbook (from the KOMA-Script bundle) and be done with it since you could, technically, write a book even with the article class. – jon Oct 30 '13 at 15:26
  • This isn't an answer, it's a comment. – user26732 Oct 30 '13 at 15:27
  • jon--each of these classes has something special to offer. Komascript has special commands for front and back matter that work right out of the box with no need for tweaking. Perhaps other packages provide useful functionality that is not similarly available were book, memoir or scrbook selected. – user26732 Oct 31 '13 at 01:18
  • @user26732 -- That's why I said 'FWIW': the advice may not be worth that much to you. However, it is still a suitable comment to suggest that you are (in my opinion) unlikely to find better 'book' classes than those two. And I wrote this having still upvoted your question initially. – jon Oct 31 '13 at 04:03
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    @guest: there is a comprehensive list on ctan -- i worked on the xml sources yesterday, making sure everything had the relevant tags, but the processed catalogue list seems not to have caught up :-( – wasteofspace Oct 31 '13 at 09:05
  • @guest: i note you list refman class as a book class; doesn't look like that to me (i would think of it more as a report-like thing). it's difficult to construct a list, with edge cases like that around. does one consider the biblatex documentation a book? – wasteofspace Oct 31 '13 at 09:28
  • The refman class takes after Adobe technical manuals with extra-wide margins for adding notes, at least according to the package documentation. As to whether another package should be added, the whole point of my making this thread was to try to find a list, so feel free to add another package if you think it is appropriate in accordance with board rules. – user26732 Nov 01 '13 at 01:19
  • @wasteofspace: Do you mean this: http://www.ctan.org/topic/book-pub? – user26732 Nov 01 '13 at 01:20
  • @wasteofspace: because that list doesn't even contain all the classes mentioned in this thread or the question. – user26732 Nov 01 '13 at 01:22
  • I only see refman and NTG here not on the list, but these offer classes closer in spirit to the standard report class, which isn't listed here. (It, too, could be used to write a book.) extbook is listed twice. – jon Nov 01 '13 at 04:05
  • @jon second occurrence of extbook in the list removed. – user26732 Nov 01 '13 at 08:00
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    May I suggest that the "answer" (i.e. the list of classes) be put in an answer? Otherwise it looks as though this question doesn't have an answer. – Andrew Stacey Nov 01 '13 at 08:26
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    @AndrewStacey Well, for me the question is one of those that doesn't really belong to SE, moreover it's IMHO quite duplicate to the question linked below, which, I would say, need to get better organized if it has to serve any purpose at all (and the possible answer here could be just one answer there). – yo' Nov 01 '13 at 08:42
  • @tohecz Yes, it could go there (once it's been probably organised). I've no opinion on its eventual fate, but given that it has no votes to close and 11 up votes, then at the very least it should be in the "question" and "answer" form appropriate for this site. – Andrew Stacey Nov 01 '13 at 08:52
  • there are quite a few "derivative" classes, that is, .cls files that load an existing book class file and make modifications to produce a different appearance. (the ams has a number of these downloadable from www.ams.org/authors/monopackages.). it will be a tough job, i think, to compile a complete list of these, since not all publishers make them easy to find. – barbara beeton Nov 02 '13 at 12:22
  • This could be an almost never-ending list, and it's not even clear where the line is for a 'book'. – Joseph Wright Nov 02 '13 at 21:39
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    So far there are only 19 answers. That's hardly a "never-ending" list. If twice as many were identified-and they have not been--there would still be less than fifty. – user26732 Nov 03 '13 at 01:12
  • @user26732: No, there are zero answers thus far. Moreover, if I were to put down mybookclass.cls as a class, would that be considered "the most helpful answer"? I understand where you're coming from , but I also don't know whether there could be a "most useful answer" in this case. – Werner Nov 03 '13 at 02:53
  • There is one answer and it is incorrect. That is, the answer that claims that there is a comprehensive list on (at) CTAN which isn't comprehensive because there's some software issue preventing CTAN's list from being correct. The question as edited contains the nineteen book classes I've found. Why shouldn't your hypothetical mybookclass.cls be included? At this point, it's impossible to simply list the 19 found items as an Answer because the question is on hold. – user26732 Nov 03 '13 at 17:49
  • @user26732 there are lot's of comments but so far no answer (in the SE sense) has been posted so there are zero answers. The CTAN list lists all classes (23 as of today) that are on CTAN (the official source for LaTeX material) and are tagged book-pub. If you think it is incomplete with regard to the material available on CTAN you're of course free to go through the currently 4588 entries and suggest the tag where appropriate. – cgnieder Nov 03 '13 at 18:08
  • Because the question is on hold an answer<\i> can't be submitted. Because of this question the CTAN list was updated. The list doesn't contain @Werner's mybookclass.cls. If there is another book class hiding in the 4588 entries you reference, and someone knows of it, why not add it to the list rather than close the question? – user26732 Nov 04 '13 at 01:29

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