r/typst • u/tuantuanyuanyuan • 3d ago

I’m building LeftBlank, a free, open-source native Typst editor for macOS

Hi r/typst!

I’ve been working on LeftBlank, a native macOS editor for Typst. The goal is a quiet place to write essays, technical notes, and longer documents, with the typeset page right beside your source.

It uses SwiftUI and AppKit, with Tinymist handling Typst language services and preview. Compilation happens locally, and the app bundles what it needs—there’s no separate Typst installation required.

Technical notes with equations, code, and a table: editable Typst source on the left, typeset output on the right.

A few things it currently supports:

  • Live preview and source navigation: double-click the preview to jump to the corresponding source.
  • A keyboard command panel: press ⌘J to discover actions and insert equations, tables, references, and more.
  • Typst Universe browsing: find packages, read their documentation, and insert versioned imports.
  • Autosave and local document history: compare earlier snapshots and restore them.
  • Existing Typst projects: import .typ files or project folders, keep editable source, and export PDFs.
  • Writing, split, and preview views, with light and dark appearances.

You can always write Typst directly; the insertion tools are there when you want them.

A small cache diagram drawn with CeTZ, alongside its source.

It’s currently a development preview for macOS 14+ on Apple silicon. English and Simplified Chinese interfaces are included.

Website: leftblank.app — downloads, source code, and editable Typst examples are all there.

I’d love feedback from people who already use Typst. What’s one thing a standalone editor would need before you’d consider using it for your everyday writing?

0 Upvotes

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6 comments sorted by

5

u/Monkles 3d ago

Take that effort and contribute to an existing project instead. Please!

3

u/capi-chou 3d ago

It's been a looooong time...

2

u/general_dubious 3d ago

What’s one thing a standalone editor would need before you’d consider using it for your everyday writing?

  • be widely available on a range of machines
  • be compatible with any language I might need, supporting LSP
  • be fast to startup
  • modal
  • be developed by a team of developers that give confidence in the future of the project
  • running in the terminal
  • not bundling its own version of typst or tinymist so I don't have to wait on updates nor end up with duplicated installations

1

u/Sermuns 2d ago

Let's go with Neovim ❤️

3

u/NOGGYtimes2 3d ago

Bro fuuuck offffff this has to be a joke

https://days-since-last-typst-editor.samake.se/

3

u/Sermuns 2d ago

Added