Best way to make biblatex's \printbibliography compatible with scrlttr2

Question

I am trying to use biblatex together with the scrllttr2 class. The following MWE

\documentclass{scrlttr2}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{A2012,
author = {Author, A},
title = {An interesting paper},
journal = {Journal},
year = {2012},
volume = {2},
pages = {70--76},
}

\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{XXX
}


\opening{To whom it may concern,}

\cite{A2012}

\closing{Kind regards
}

\end{letter}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

fails, because the \printbibliography command triggers the use of \section, which is not defined for letter classes. I can make the file work by using \printbibliography[heading=none], but this also kills the default heading. What is the best way to make the code run while still getting the default (language-specific) heading?

Define a new (unnumbered) level, \section, for the letter class, via the titlesec package? — Bernard, Mar 22 '15 at 11:00
You could define a new bibliography heading \defbibheading{letterbib}[\refname]{#1} or \defbibheading{letterbib}[\bibname]{#1} (the difference being the title: in English it is either "Bibliography" or "References") and use that via \printbibliography[heading=letterbib]. Where you can replace the part in {#1} by any formatting scrlttr2 allows for. So you could go for \defbibheading{letterbib}[\refname]{\textbf{#1}}. — moewe, Mar 22 '15 at 11:02
NOOOOOO, don't use titlesec!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — Johannes_B, Mar 22 '15 at 11:03
@moewe Yours is the most obvious and simplest solution. Please make that an answer :-) — Johannes_B, Mar 22 '15 at 11:15
@Johannes_B why the titlesec comment? is that a generic comment against the use of titlesec or just in this case? care to elaborate? — ArTourter, Mar 22 '15 at 19:37
@ArTourter titlesec is incompatible with KOMA and breaks several functionalities. When using, you get a huge warning in the log, but more and more users ignore warnings. — Johannes_B, Mar 23 '15 at 07:19

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 22 '15 at 11:22

The trouble is that scrlttr2 does not provide a \section command (which biblatex uses by default for the bibliography heading).

We can define our own heading though via

\defbibheading{letterbib}[\refname]{#1}

We can change \refname for \bibname here - \refname prints "References" while \bibname prints "Bibliography". You can let your imagination run wild in the #1 part and use any formatting you like, for example \defbibheading{letterbib}[\refname]{\textbf{#1}}.

We then use this new heading in \printbibliography like so

\printbibliography[heading=letterbib]

Johannes_B · Answer 2 · 2015-03-22T11:21:23.367

3

Use the classes and packages, that do the job. ;-)

You can also load personalised lco files using \LoadLetterOptions, you just cannot do it globally.

jpfeiferLcoScrletterBib

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.lco}
    \setkomavar{fromname}{j pfeifer}
    \setkomavar{fromaddress}{duckburg}
\end{filecontents}
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{scrletter}
\LoadLetterOptions{\jobname}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@article{A2012,
author = {Author, A},
title = {An interesting paper},
journal = {Journal},
year = {2012},
volume = {2},
pages = {70--76},
}

\end{filecontents}

%\defbibheading{jpfeifer}{\large\bfseries\noindent MY BIB TITLE}
\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\begin{document}

\begin{letter}{XXX}

\opening{To whom it may concern,}
\cite{A2012}

\closing{Kind regards}

\printbibliography%[heading=jpfeifer]
\end{letter}
\end{document}

edited Mar 22 '15 at 11:21

answered Mar 22 '15 at 11:05

Johannes_B

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Unfortunately, this is only an option if you are not having your own personalized .lco file that requires scrlttr2. Otherwise, switching classes is problematic – jpfeifer Mar 22 '15 at 11:15
@SoundsOfSilence Still a valid solution, you should keep it. I waited with my upvote though ;-) – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 11:18
@jpfeifer updated – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 11:21
@Johannes_B: Nope... I am more and more unhappy with the KOMA classes and the scarce documentation – Mar 22 '15 at 11:22
@Johannes_B Your suggestion works in general, but personalised lco files are not 100% compatible between scrletter and scrlttr2. Thus, I prefer @moewe solution. – jpfeifer Mar 22 '15 at 11:32
@jpfeifer The solution provided by moewe is the simplest. But i am interested where incompatibilities are. Can we discuss this in the chat? – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 11:33
@Johannes_B I don't have the necessary reputation for the chat. But I am essentially trying to use https://github.com/momu/xetex-briefvorlage-internetmarke – jpfeifer Mar 22 '15 at 11:49
@jpfeifer you will soon have ;-) Let me take a look at the project. – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 11:52
@jpfeifer If i load package scrletter the thing works like a charm. You have to take a look at Customizing the letterhead using 'firsthead' in scrlttr2 (vertical positioning issues). But you need to do that anyway. – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 11:59
@Johannes_B Strange. I keep getting ! Undefined control sequence. \KV@KOMAarg.definelayer@background ...teProcessed \scrlayer@testunexpectedar... l.1520 \newpairofpagestyles{scrheadings}{} – jpfeifer Mar 22 '15 at 12:13
I bet you don't have an up to date KOMA version. I forked and updated https://github.com/johannesbottcher/xetex-briefvorlage-internetmarke – Johannes_B Mar 22 '15 at 12:14
@Johannes_B You were right, I had installed the most recent version of KOMA, but Windows had cached an old version in AppData\Roaming\Miktex. After deleting it, it works. – jpfeifer Mar 22 '15 at 13:48

Best way to make biblatex's \printbibliography compatible with scrlttr2

2 Answers2