Typstit

A LaTeXit-style snippet renderer for Typst

Type a Typst snippet. Hit ⌘T. Drag the result into Pages, Keynote, Word, or any app that accepts PDF.

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What it does

Typstit is a small native macOS app that compiles Typst snippets on demand and lets you drag the output — as a real, vector PDF — into other applications. It works exactly like LaTeXit, but for Typst instead of LaTeX.

The page is auto-sized to fit the content tightly, so what you drag is just the rendered snippet with no surrounding whitespace — ready to drop into a slide or document at any size without quality loss.

Features

• Instant compilation — press ⌘T (or enable Auto mode) to render your snippet
• Drag to anywhere — the preview is a live drag source; drop it into Pages, Keynote, Word, Finder, Mail, or any PDF-accepting app
• Source round-trip — copy a Typstit PDF from Keynote back into your clipboard, then press ⌘⇧V to recover the original Typst source
• History — every compiled snippet is saved with a thumbnail and timestamp; click any entry to restore it (⌘H)
• Syntax highlighting — headings, math, commands, strings, and comments are highlighted in the editor
• Font, size & colour controls — choose any installed system font (plus Typst's bundled fonts), set the point size, and pick a text colour from a standard colour picker
• Workspace directory — Typst runs with ~/Library/Application Support/Typstit/workspace/ as its working directory, so your snippets can reference local CSV files, images, and other assets with plain relative paths

Requirements

• macOS 13 Ventura or later
• The typst CLI on your machine

Install Typst with Homebrew:

brew install typst

Installation

Download

Download Typstit.zip from the Releases page, unzip it, and drag Typstit.app to /Applications/. Typstit is unsigned because this is a hobby project and I don't want to pay for an Apple Developer license. If MacOS rejects opening the app, go to System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Security and click on "Open Anyway".

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/alexanderkoller/typstit
cd typstit
bash build-app.sh

This produces Typstit.app in the current directory. Copy it to /Applications/ or run it in place.

Requirements for building: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

Usage

Action	How
Compile snippet	⌘T
Toggle auto-compile	⌘⇧T, or the Auto checkbox in the toolbar
Open history	⌘Y
Restore source from clipboard PDF	⌘⇧V
Drag output to another app	Click and drag the preview panel

Using local files in snippets

Place CSV files, images, or other assets in:

~/Library/Application Support/Typstit/workspace/

Then reference them in your snippet with a relative path:

#let data = csv("sales.csv")

How the source round-trip works

Typstit embeds your Typst source invisibly in every PDF it produces (as transparent zero-size text in the content stream). This survives being pasted into Keynote and copied back out. Press ⌘⇧V with such a PDF on the clipboard to recover the source into the editor.

License

MIT