Paid help wanted — complex Hebrew sefer layout in Typst

General
, ,
1

I’m looking for paid help from someone strong in Typst layout internals.

I’m building an automated typesetting pipeline for a Hebrew sefer project, replacing a Tag Software-style manual workflow. The current prototype already generates a Typst PDF from structured JSON, but the hardest part still needs tuning.

Hard requirements

  • RTL Hebrew, 170×240mm page
  • Running headers with Hebrew gematria folio numbers
  • Chapter opener / cartouche and vowelized title
  • Body text with bracketed Hebrew note callouts
  • Two note streams (labeled separately)
  • Notes must stay pinned to the page where the reference appears
  • Two-column note block with full-width spillover below
  • Output should match a provided reference PDF as closely as possible

Public repo: GitHub - Abe1018776/chezky-kohn-shefa-yoel-auto-design · GitHub

Relevant Typst packages / ideas may include meander, wrap-it, custom show: footnote.entry, layout/measure, metadata/state-based notes, or a hybrid preprocessor.

I’m looking for a paid diagnostic/prototype sprint first: review the current template and implement or propose a robust approach for one representative hard page. Please reply or DM if you have deep Typst layout/package experience and are open to paid work. Examples of related work would be helpful.

Thanks,
Chezky

2

Hi, welcome to the forum!

I can’t read Hebrew, but someone once said that there’s a Typst Hebrew channel. Perhaps you’ll find help there more quickly.

2 Likes
3

I am working on a similar app and I am running into some of the same problems. I have been running a research sprint on this topic, which is how I bumped into this post. Check out GitHub - SYKhayyat/ksav: A Hebrew-first typesetting and writing system built on the real Typst engine — a Word-like editor where every Hebrew command is a genuine Typst function, so documents are laid out by a real compiler. · GitHub, where I should have up my best effort by tomorrow.
I would love to collaborate with you, or for you to help by sponsoring a Claude subscription, which would help me make ksav much better.
Kol tuv!

4

Happy to help

5

Hey, it looks cool :)

Just FYI that I’m working on TyX which is also pretty similar.

Could definitely use a lot of help here, currently working on it as a hobby :slightly_smiling_face:

6

There is also Katvan which is less of a WYSIWYG but probably more stable :slightly_smiling_face:

7

Nice! I had found Katvan, though not your Lyx. Ksav is much more focused on writing seforim, which is my usecase. (I put a lot of effort into footnotes and lists and much less on mathematical equations.)

I built it with Claude, since I had free access over the summer. Now that I lost that subscription, it is basically just me and whatever models I can find for free (Ox alpha was helpful), so development will definitely slow. If you want to contribute, that would be awesome.

I also did not notice a live preview in TyX (I just tried the website). That was my main reason for using typst without even considering LaTex. is that something you have implemented or will implement?

Thanks for the references, and good luck! Typst is awesome!

8

You can have a compilation server, but it’s not as smooth and instant as “raw Typst” solutions