Article Abstracts

< From LaTeX to ConTeXt | Document Titles >

TODO: This is sort of a stub article which I sketched out to remind myself what I wanted to write later. If anyone else wants to work on it, feel free! (See: To-Do List)

LaTeX

Much as with Document Titles, the standard LaTeX article and report classes define an abstract environment to typeset an abstract in a way that distinguishes it from the rest of the text. In a single-column article, it is set somewhat narrower than the main text, with the word "Abstract" centered above it.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
  \begin{abstract}
    This is the abstract of the paper.
  \end{abstract}
\end{document}

ConTeXt: A simple solution

The simplest way of producing an abstract in a ConTeXt document is to specify the formatting directly. The code from LaTeX's classes.dtx is nearly trivial, and is quite easy to replicate in ConTeXt idioms.

\starttext
\midaligned{\bf Abstract}
\startnarrower[2*middle]
This is the document's abstract.  It contains enough text for two lines, but no more.
\stopnarrower
\blank[big]

This is the main text of the document.  Like the abstract, it contains enough text
for two lines, to show the margins.
\stoptext

In the two-column document classes, LaTeX's abstract environment does nothing beyond putting a \section*{Abstract} in front of the abstract's text. This can be easily replicated in ConTeXt with \subject{Abstract}. (See Unnumbered Sections.)

ConTeXt: A more reusable solution

TODO: Write this whole section, along the lines of the parallel section in Document Titles. (See: To-Do List)