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Recipes

Adding a New Module

  1. Create a new file, for example profile_en/volunteering.typ
  2. Add your imports and your content (sections, entries, and more)
  3. In cv.typ, add "volunteering" to the import-modules call

Switching Profiles at Compile Time

typst compile cv.typ --input profile=fr

The profile input selects the profile_<name>/ directory to load. For a non-Latin script (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, and more), configure the typography explicitly. Set the font fallback chain in [layout.fonts], the title highlight in [layout.section], and the name in [personal] display_name. For a complete example, see template/profile_zh/metadata.toml.

Adding a New Profile

Each profile is self-contained. One profile_<name>/metadata.toml holds the complete CV configuration for that variant. To add a new profile, for example a Swedish CV, do these steps:

  1. Copy an existing profile directory: 
    cp -r template/profile_en template/profile_swe
  2. Edit profile_swe/metadata.toml. Change header_quote, cv_footer, letter_footer, and each other field that is different from English.
  3. Edit the .typ modules under profile_swe/ for Swedish content.
  4. Compile with typst compile cv.typ --input profile=swe.

v4 has no shared root metadata and no merge mechanism. One profile is one complete CV configuration. To start a new profile, copy an existing one.

Profile ≠ language

The profile name is only a directory suffix. It has no meaning for the package. For example, you can keep profile_us/ and profile_uk/ next to profile_zh/. The first two hold English text with different locations, phone numbers, and layouts. The third holds Chinese text with Heiti SC.

The metadata.toml of each profile is complete on its own. Select the directory names that are correct for your variants.

Sharing configuration across profiles

The package has no merge mechanism for shared fields, such as a GitHub username or the layout colors. If you keep many profiles, these options are available to you:

  • A small Python or shell preprocessor. It reads a canonical base and the overrides of each profile, then writes the profile metadata.toml files at build time.
  • typstyle-friendly manual edits. For 2 or 3 profiles, manual synchronization is usually sufficient.
  • Symlinks or git rerere to keep the selected fields synchronized.

The package keeps one profile in one file, so you can select your own tools.

Skills with Inline Separators

Use #h-bar() to separate the skill items in cv-skill:

#cv-skill(
  type: [Tech Stack],
  info: [Python #h-bar() SQL #h-bar() Tableau #h-bar() AWS],
)

cv-honor is compact. It has date, title, issuer, url, and location, but it has no free-form description field. Select the component that shows the data you need.

For a clickable verification link only, pass the verification URL as url. The title becomes a link. Put short status text in location:

#cv-honor(
  date: [2025],
  title: [AWS Certified Solutions Architect],
  issuer: [Amazon Web Services],
  url: "https://www.credly.com/badges/<your-badge-id>",
  location: [Verified],
)

For a credential ID, an expiry date, or more than one link, use cv-entry. Its description field accepts any content. This component uses more space on the page, but it gives you full control of the format:

#cv-entry(
  title: [AWS Certified Solutions Architect],
  society: [Amazon Web Services],
  date: [2025 -- 2028],
  location: [Verified],
  description: list(
    [Credential ID: ABC-123-XYZ],
    [#link("https://verify.example.com")[Verify online]],
  ),
)

You can use the two components together in one Certificates section. For each entry, select cv-honor for the compact one-line layout, or cv-entry for the larger description block.

Adding a Profile Photo

You pass the profile photo as an argument to cv() in your cv.typ. You do not set it in metadata.toml:

#show: cv.with(
  metadata,
  profile-photo: image("assets/avatar.png"),
)

Control the shape with profile_photo_radius in [layout.header]:

  • "50%" — circle (default)
  • "0%" — square
  • "10%" — rounded corners

To hide the photo, set display_profile_photo = false in [layout.header].

Custom Contact Icon with Image

To add a custom contact entry with an image icon in place of a Font Awesome icon, do these steps:

  1. Define the entry in metadata.toml with an awesomeIcon fallback:

    [personal.info.custom-1]
awesomeIcon = "graduation-cap"
text = "PhD in Data Science"
link = "https://example.com"

  2. Pass the image in cv.typ with the custom-icons parameter. The key must agree with custom-1:

    #show: cv.with(
  metadata,
  profile-photo: image("assets/avatar.png"),
  custom-icons: (
    "custom-1": image("assets/my-icon.png"),
  ),
)

If you give a custom-icons entry, it has priority over the awesomeIcon value from the TOML file.

Custom Header Info

The default header makes a linked contact item from each [personal.info] entry. It adds the icons and puts h-bar() between the items automatically. You can also control the separators, the line breaks, and the accent color of each span. To do this, pass your own content in header-info:

#import "@preview/brilliant-cv:4.1.0": cv, h-bar

#let info = metadata.personal.info

#show: cv.with(
  metadata,
  profile-photo: image("assets/avatar.png"),
  header-info: [
    #link("mailto:" + info.email)[#info.email]
    #h-bar()
    #text(fill: black)[Berlin, Germany]
    #linebreak()
    #text(fill: rgb("#2E7D32"))[Available for remote work]
  ],
)

Your content inherits the default font size and accent color of the header info. To override these defaults, style each span explicitly. Your content also replaces the automatic rendering of [personal.info]. Add the icons and the links that you want directly in the content. custom-icons applies only to the default auto renderer.

You can use a function to make your template clearer. Call the function first, then pass its result. The API accepts content, not a renderer callback:

#let render-info(info) = [#info.email #h-bar() #info.location]

#show: cv.with(
  metadata,
  header-info: render-info(metadata.personal.info),
)

To remove the contact row, pass header-info: none. The name, the optional quote, the photo, and the rest of the layout do not change.

Color Customization

Preset Colors

Set awesome_color in [layout] to one of these presets:

Name Hex
skyblue #0395DE
red #DC3522
nephritis #27AE60
concrete #95A5A6
darknight #131A28 
[layout]
awesome_color = "nephritis"

Custom Hex Color

You can also set any hex color string directly:

[layout]
awesome_color = "#1E90FF"

Cover Letter with Signature

Create a cover letter with a signature image at the bottom:

#import "@preview/brilliant-cv:4.1.0": letter

#let metadata = toml("metadata.toml")

#show: letter.with(
  metadata,
  sender-address: "123 Main Street, City, State 12345",
  recipient-name: "ABC Company",
  recipient-address: "456 Business Ave, City, State 67890",
  date: datetime.today().display(),
  subject: "Application for Data Analyst Position",
  signature: image("assets/signature.png"),
)

Dear Hiring Manager,

// Your letter content here...

Sincerely,

To omit the signature image, leave signature as "". This is the default value.

CI/CD with GitHub Actions

This is a minimal workflow that compiles your CV on each push:

name: Build CV

on: [push]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Setup Typst
        uses: typst-community/setup-typst@v4

      - name: Compile CV
        run: typst compile cv.typ cv.pdf

      - name: Upload PDF
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: cv
          path: cv.pdf

Tip

If your CV uses custom fonts, add a step that installs them before the compile step. For font problems, see the Troubleshooting page.