Founders Historical Narrative

Inspired by 1776-era historical trade book design

Built from a close visual study of a classic historical paperback. Garamond Libre, genuine small capitals, and calligraphic numerals give this template a restrained literary character. Includes a complete fictional specimen, automatic source notes and index, and a navy, gold, and red wraparound cover. All fonts and artwork are bundled for a local XeLaTeX build.

Single Template License $29

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Includes personal and client commercial use. Adjust the cover to your printer’s paper and final page count; review a print proof.

Typography & Format Specs

Body Typeface: Garamond Libre (bundled)

Display Typeface: Garamond small caps & Jim Nightshade

Paper Standard: Both

Page Count Range: Complete specimen; expandable manuscript

Agent-Native Workflow

1-Click Ingestion Prompt for Founders Historical Narrative

Hand this prompt to Claude Code, Cursor, or OpenCode with your draft manuscript.

Typeset my manuscript using the Founders Historical Narrative template in this folder.

Read README.md, SKILL.md, book-config.tex, historybook.sty, and main.tex. Preserve my manuscript's wording and structure. Replace all specimen prose, fictional metadata, reviews, imprint details, bibliography entries, and demonstration index terms with my supplied material; flag missing publication details instead of inventing them.

Split chapters into content/ files and assemble them in main.tex. Use \bookchapter[Short contents title]{Display title}{Epigraph}, \bookdropcap{L}{remaining opening words}, \booksection{Heading}, the historyquote environment, \booknote{Note text}, and \index{Entry!Subentry} where appropriate. Chapter and part numbers are automatic. Update frontmatter/ and backmatter/ as needed. Escape LaTeX special characters while preserving paragraph breaks.

Run ./build.sh --render. Inspect chapter openings, normal facing pages, contents, notes, index, copyright, and the cover. Resolve compilation errors, overflow, missing glyphs, unresolved references, awkward page endings, and collisions. Confirm that fonts are embedded and the cover spine follows the compiled page count. Repeat after changes. Return the PDFs and a brief report of any publication details or proofing issues that still need the author's attention.

Design & Typography Features

Outlined A–Z drop caps with automatic three-line text wrapping
Calligraphic part openings with replaceable historical artwork
Centered contents and automatically numbered chapters
Alternating author and title running heads with outer folios
Source notes, hanging bibliography entries, and a generated two-column index
Complete front matter, portrait frontispiece, illustration plates, and publisher advertisement
Bundled fonts and licenses; no system-font installation required
One-command build for interior, index, calculated cover, and every-page PNG previews

What's in the Package

historybook.sty + historyfonts.sty — Layout and bundled typography
book-config.tex + main.tex — Metadata, dimensions, and modular assembly
frontmatter/, content/, backmatter/ — Complete fictional specimen
cover/cover.tex — Wraparound cover with automatic spine calculation
fonts/ + assets/ — Licensed fonts, historical artwork, and vector initials
build.sh + scripts/build.py — Local build and render pipeline
README.md + AGENT_PROMPT.md + SKILL.md — Author and agent instructions
ASSET_CREDITS.md + DESIGN_REVIEW.md + LICENSE.txt — Credits, validation, and license
main.pdf + cover.pdf — Compiled specimen PDFs