headline-card

LWT-Style Headline Cards for Typst Presentations

Creates "Last Week Tonight"-style headline cards: dark cards with a red date badge, publication logo (SVG), bold headline, and an italic pull quote. Data-driven from JSON so cards stay decoupled from slide markup.

Architecture

presentation/
├── templates/theme.typ        ← headline-card() function lives here
├── data/headlines.json        ← card data (venue, date, headline, quote, logo)
├── assets/logos/*-white.svg   ← white-on-transparent SVG logos
└── slides.typ                 ← loops over JSON to emit one slide per card

The Typst function (headline-card) already exists in theme.typ. This skill is about adding new cards correctly — getting the JSON right, preparing logos, and avoiding the path/sizing pitfalls that cost hours of iteration.

Step 1: Prepare the JSON Entry

Add an object to data/headlines.json:

{
  "venue": "Publication Name",
  "date": "Month Day, Year",
  "headline": "The headline text exactly as published",
  "quote": "A vivid, punchy pull quote — not a summary",
  "logo": "../assets/logos/publication-white.svg"
}

What makes a good quote

The quote should be vivid and specific — something that makes the audience react. Source quotes from the actual article, executive statements, or analyst commentary. Avoid generic descriptions like "discusses the impact of proxy advisors." Use Readwise, Consensus, or WebSearch to find the exact language.

Good: "Anyone who gives them money — shame on you. They should be gone and dead and done with." Bad: "JPMorgan CEO criticizes proxy advisory industry practices."

Widow check

Headlines and quotes are displayed at large font sizes on a centered card — a single orphaned word on the last line is highly visible and looks sloppy. After writing the headline and quote text, check for widows:

1. Compile the presentation and visually inspect each headline card
2. Run the widow detector if available:

   DETECT_WIDOWS=$(command ls -d ~/.claude/plugins/cache/tinymist-plugin/tinymist/*/skills/typst-widow-orphan/scripts/detect_widows.py 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1) && uv run python3 "$DETECT_WIDOWS" presentation.pdf
   

3. Fix widows in the JSON text (not in Typst source):
   • Tighten wording — cut redundant words so the last line has 2+ words
   • Use \u00a0 (non-breaking space, JSON-safe) between the last 2-3 words: "proxy\u00a0advisors." keeps "proxy advisors." together
   • Shorten the quote — trim from the beginning or end to shift the line break
   • Never pad with filler words just to fix a widow

Before (widow)	After (fixed)
"...should be gone and dead and done\nwith."	"...should be gone and dead and done\u00a0with."
"...the impact on shareholder\nvalue"	"...the impact on shareholder value" (tightened)

Path resolution rule

Logo paths in JSON are resolved relative to templates/theme.typ, not relative to slides.typ or the project root. Since theme.typ lives in templates/, use ../assets/logos/ to reach the assets directory.

theme.typ location	Logo location	Correct JSON path
templates/theme.typ	assets/logos/foo.svg	../assets/logos/foo.svg

This is because Typst's image() function resolves relative to the file containing the function definition, not the file that calls it.

Step 2: Prepare the SVG Logo

Headline cards have a dark background (#12121e). Logos need to be white on transparent to be visible.

IRON LAW: Real Vector Logos Only

Text-based SVG placeholders are NOT logos. If you catch yourself creating an SVG with <text> elements spelling out the publication name — STOP. That is a fake placeholder, not a real logo.

• Logos MUST contain real vector paths (<path>, <polygon>, <rect>, etc.) from the publication's actual branding
• Logos must be DOWNLOADED from authoritative sources: Wikimedia Commons SVGs, official brand/press pages, or GitHub logo repos
• Never generate a text-based SVG as a "temporary" logo — there is no temporary; it ships

Verification step — after downloading, check that it's real:

# If this finds matches, it's a fake placeholder, not a real logo
grep '<text' assets/logos/publication-white.svg && echo "FAKE — contains <text> elements, download a real logo"

Excuse	Reality
"I'll use a text placeholder for now"	There is no "for now" — the placeholder ships and looks unprofessional
"I can't find an SVG"	Wikimedia Commons has SVGs for virtually every major publication. Search harder.
"The text version looks fine"	It doesn't — it has the wrong font, wrong weight, wrong spacing. Real logos are designed.

Creating a white variant

1. Download the publication's SVG logo (Wikimedia Commons is a good source)
2. Identify dark fill colors in the SVG (#000000, #1F1D1A, #222222, #292526, etc.)
3. Replace them with white:

# Replace all dark fills with white
sed -i '' 's/fill="#000000"/fill="#ffffff"/g; s/fill="#1F1D1A"/fill="#ffffff"/g' assets/logos/publication-white.svg

4. Verify the result by compiling the presentation — some SVGs have multiple fill values or use style attributes instead of fill.

Common gotcha: Some SVGs use CSS style="fill:#000" instead of fill="#000". Check both:

grep -i 'fill' assets/logos/publication-white.svg

Logo sizing

The headline-card function constrains logos with box(width: 60%, height: 4.5em, image(fit: "contain")). This handles both wide wordmarks (like Semafor) and square icons (like a seal) without overflow. You should not need to adjust sizing per-logo — the contain fit mode preserves aspect ratio within the bounding box.

If a logo appears too small despite the 60% width, it's likely that the SVG has excessive whitespace/padding in its viewBox. Crop the viewBox or edit the SVG to remove padding.

Step 3: Render in slides.typ

Cards are rendered by looping over the JSON. This pattern should already exist in slides.typ:

#{
  let cards = json("data/headlines.json")
  for card in cards {
    slide[
      #headline-card(
        venue: card.venue,
        date: card.date,
        headline: card.headline,
        quote: card.at("quote", default: none),
        logo: card.at("logo", default: none),
      )
    ]
  }
}

One card per slide. Grid layouts (2x2, etc.) were tried and don't work — quotes and headlines get truncated, logos shrink too small to be recognizable, and the visual impact is lost. The LWT style depends on each card filling the screen.

No === heading on headline slides. The slide heading bar eats vertical space. Headline cards use block(height: 1fr) to fill the available space, but an === heading reduces that space significantly. If you need a section header, put it on the slide before the card loop.

Red Flags — STOP If You See These

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Logo doesn't appear (blank space)	Path in JSON is relative to slides.typ, not theme.typ	Change to ../assets/logos/...
Logo is invisible (dark on dark)	SVG has dark fills on dark card background	Create a -white.svg variant
Logo clips over the date badge	SVG is very wide and box width is too large	The 60%/4.5em constraint should prevent this; check SVG viewBox for excessive width
Card doesn't fill vertical space	Using height: 100% instead of 1fr, or === heading is present	Use block(height: 1fr) and remove === from the slide
Quote is generic/boring	Summarized instead of quoted	Find the actual vivid quote from the source
Typst error: "file not found"	Logo SVG doesn't exist at the resolved path	Check that the file exists at templates/../assets/logos/...
Logo SVG contains <text> elements	You created a text placeholder instead of downloading a real logo	grep '<text' logo.svg — if it matches, delete it and download the real SVG from Wikimedia Commons or the brand's press page
Single word on last line of headline or quote	Widow — large centered text makes this very visible	Use \u00a0 between last 2-3 words in JSON, or tighten wording

Modifying the headline-card Function

The function lives in presentation/templates/theme.typ (search for #let headline-card). Key design decisions baked in:

• place(top + left) for the date badge — floats it over the card without affecting content flow
• align(center + horizon) — vertically and horizontally centers the logo/headline/quote stack
• block(height: 1fr) — stretches to fill available slide space
• Curly quotes via \u{201c} and \u{201d} — typographically correct
• Divider lines at 50% width between logo, headline, and quote sections

If you need to adjust text sizes, the current values are: headline 22pt bold, quote 18pt italic, date badge 14pt bold, fallback venue name 24pt bold.