13.10.3 LaTeX header and sectioning structure

The LaTeX export back-end converts the first three of Org’s outline levels into LaTeX headlines. The remaining Org levels are exported as lists. To change this globally for the cut-off point between levels and lists, (see Export Settings).

By default, the LaTeX export back-end uses the article class.

To change the default class globally, edit org-latex-default-class. To change the default class locally in an Org file, add option lines ‘#+LATEX_CLASS: myclass’. To change the default class for just a part of the Org file, set a sub-tree property, ‘EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS’. The class name entered here must be valid member of org-latex-classes. This variable defines a header template for each class into which the exporter splices the values of org-latex-default-packages-alist and org-latex-packages-alist. Use the same three variables to define custom sectioning or custom classes.

The LaTeX export back-end sends the ‘LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’ keyword and ‘EXPORT_LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS’ property as options to the LaTeX \documentclass macro. The options and the syntax for specifying them, including enclosing them in square brackets, follow LaTeX conventions.

#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [a4paper,11pt,twoside,twocolumn]

The LaTeX export back-end appends values from ‘LATEX_HEADER’ and ‘LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’ keywords to the LaTeX header. The docstring for org-latex-classes explains in more detail. Also note that LaTeX export back-end does not append ‘LATEX_HEADER_EXTRA’ to the header when previewing LaTeX snippets (see Previewing LaTeX fragments).

A sample Org file with the above headers:

#+LATEX_CLASS: article
#+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [a4paper]
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xyz}

* Headline 1
  some text
* Headline 2
  some more text