briefutil

Small Qt Quick app I use to turn short letter drafts into nicely formatted PDFs via LaTeX. It’s a personal tool built around my own workflow, shared here in case someone happens to find it useful.

Project layout

.
|- briefutil/         # Application sources, templates, and build files
|- example.png        # Screenshot used in the README
|- LICENSE.txt
\- README.md

The briefutil directory contains both the original qmake project (briefutil.pro) and a modern CMake build system.

Build & run

Requirements:

• CMake 3.16 or newer
• A C++17 compiler with std::filesystem
• Qt 5.15+ or Qt 6 with the Core, Gui, Qml, and Quick modules
• PowerShell (Windows) to unpack the MiKTeX bootstrap archive

Configure & build:

cmake -S briefutil -B build -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.9.1/msvc2022_64"
cmake --build build --config Release

Optional: bundle a portable MiKTeX runtime (downloads ~200 MB the first time):

cmake --build build --target portable_miktex --config Release

Skip that step, or pass -DBRIEFUTIL_BUNDLE_MIKTEX=OFF during configuration, if you prefer to rely on a system-wide MiKTeX installation.

Install / package:

cmake --install build --config Release --prefix C:/apps/briefutil
cpack -C Release --config build/CPackConfig.cmake   # optional NSIS installer

Templates & data

On first launch the application creates ~/briefutil/templates/ with anonymised "Max Mustermann" stationery and a synthetic signature image. Replace them with your own assets as required. Output is written under ~/briefutil/output/ by default; override via output_dir.conf if you prefer a different location.

Runtime dependency

At runtime the program locates texify.exe from the bundled portable MiKTeX tree (<install>/miktex/texmfs/install/miktex/bin/x64/texify.exe) and falls back to whatever is available on PATH otherwise. Keep MiKTeX reasonably up to date if you use the bundled copy.

License

Source code is provided under the Simplified BSD License (see LICENSE.txt). The included templates and signature rely on generic "Max Mustermann" placeholder data so that nothing personal is shipped with the repository.

Feel free to tailor everything to your own letterhead.