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User Guide

This page provides everything you need to know about the usage of RenderCV.

Installation

RenderCV doesn't require a \LaTeX installation; it comes with it!

Install Python (3.10 or newer).
Run the command below to install RenderCV.

pip install rendercv

Getting started with the `new` command

To get started, navigate to the directory where you want to create your CV and run the command below to create the input files.

rendercv new "Your Full Name"

This command will create the following files:

A YAML input file called Your_Name_CV.yaml.

This file will contain all the content and design options of your CV.
A directory called classic.

This directory contains the \LaTeX source code of RenderCV's default built-in theme, classic. You can update its contents to tweak the appearance of the output PDF file.
A directory called markdown.

This directory contains the Markdown source code of RenderCV's default Markdown template. You can update its contents to tweak the Markdown and HTML output of the CV.

Please refer to the here for the complete list of CLI options available for the new command.

Structure of the YAML input file

The YAML input file contains all the content and design options of your CV. A detailed explanation of the structure of the YAML input file is provided here.

Rendering the CV with the `render` command

To render a YAML input file, run the command below.

rendercv render "Your_Name_CV.yaml"

This command will generate a directory called rendercv_output, which contains the following files:

The CV in PDF format, Your_Name_CV.pdf.
\LaTeX source code of the PDF file, Your_Name_CV.tex.
Images of each page of the PDF file in PNG format, Your_Name_CV_1.png, Your_Name_CV_page_2.png, etc.
The CV in Markdown format, Your_Name_CV.md.
The CV in HTML format, Your_Name_CV.html.
Some log and auxiliary files related to the \LaTeX compilation process.

If the theme and Markdown source files are found in the directory, they will override the default built-in theme and Markdown template. You don't need to provide all the source files; you can just provide the ones you want to override.

Please refer to the here for the complete list of CLI options available for the render command.

Creating custom themes with the `create-theme` command

RenderCV is a general \LaTeX CV framework. It allows you to use any \LaTeX code to generate your CVs. To begin developing a custom theme, run the command below.

rendercv create-theme "mycustomtheme"

This command will create a directory called mycustomtheme, which contains the following files:

├── mycustomtheme
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── Preamble.j2.tex
│   ├── Header.j2.tex
│   ├── EducationEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── ExperienceEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── NormalEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── OneLineEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── PublicationEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── TextEntry.j2.tex
│   ├── SectionBeginning.j2.tex
│   └── SectionEnding.j2.tex
└── Your_Full_Name_CV.yaml

The files are copied from the classic theme. You can update the contents of these files to create your custom theme.

Each of these *.j2.tex files is \LaTeX code with some Python in it. These files allow RenderCV to create your CV out of the YAML input.

The best way to understand how they work is to look at the source code of built-in themes:

For example, the content of ExperienceEntry.j2.tex for the moderncv theme is shown below:

\cventry{
    ((* if design.show_only_years *))
    <<entry.date_string_only_years>>
    ((* else *))
    <<entry.date_string>>
    ((* endif *))
}{
    <<entry.position>>
}{
    <<entry.company>>
}{
    <<entry.location>>
}{}{}
((* for item in entry.highlights *))
\cvline{}{\small <<item>>}
((* endfor *))

The values between << and >> are the names of Python variables, allowing you to write a \\LaTeX CV without writing any content. They will be replaced with the values found in the YAML input. Also, the values between ((* and *)) are Python blocks, allowing you to use loops and conditional statements.

The process of generating \\LaTeX files like this is called "templating," and it's achieved with a Python package called Jinja.

Also, the __init__.py file found in the theme directory is used to define the design options of the custom theme. You can define your custom design options in this file.

For example, an __init__.py file is shown below:

from typing import Literal

import pydantic

class YourcustomthemeThemeOptions(pydantic.BaseModel):
    theme: Literal["yourcustomtheme"]
    option1: str
    option2: str
    option3: int
    option4: bool

Then, RenderCV will parse your custom design options from the YAML input, and you can use these variables inside your *.j2.tex files as shown below:

<<design.option1>>
<<design.option2>>
((* if design.option4 *))
    <<design.option3>>
((* endif *))

Please refer to the here for the complete list of CLI options available for the create-theme command.

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