Quarto
What is Quarto?
Quarto is a document authoring tool that allows you to create documents using markdown. Quarto is open source (MIT License) software developed and maintained by Posit. It is a powerful tool that allows you to create documents with a variety of formats such as HTML websites, PDF, PowerPoint, Word, and more. Quarto is a great tool for creating documents that are easy to read and share.
The following video provides a quick introduction to Quarto:
How to install Quarto?
| Platform | Commands |
|---|---|
| Windows | winget install Posit.Quarto |
| MacOS | brew install --cask quarto |
| Linux | See https://quarto.org/docs/get-started/ |
Using Quarto
We recommend using the Quarto Extension for Visual Studio Code. You can install the extension by searching for “Quarto” in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X). Alternatively, you can install the extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.
If you use Jupyter Lab or RStudio, Quarto works directly with those tools as well.
The best place to start for learning how to use Quarto is Quarto’s tutorial, Hello, Quarto.
As an example, this repository uses Quarto to build the handbook.
In the root of the git repository, there is a _quarto.yml file that contains the metadata used to compile the handbook. Components of the handbook are written in Markdown, either standard Markdown (.md) or Quarto Markdown (.qmd). The benefit of standard markdown is that it is more portable and works with standard Markdown editors (e.g. GitHub), while Quarto markdown allows for computations that are embedded in the document. If you want more advanced formatting or computations, .qmd may be a preferable choice. The Quarto Documentation provides helpful guides on how to use Markdown as well as the added features that Quarto Markdown offers.
For an example of how to use Quarto within common academic and research workflows, see: