How to Write Typst on Android with Live Preview

By Laxmi SolutionsUpdated October 13, 20263 min read

Typst is light enough to run on a phone, and Kern puts the official Typst compiler on Android. The preview updates as you type, with no connection, account or server. This guide takes you from installing Kern to exporting a finished PDF.

Set up

Install Kern from Google Play. It runs on phones, tablets and Chromebooks with Android 8.0 or newer and a 64-bit processor.
Tap + and choose a blank document, a template, or import a .typ file, a folder or a .zip. You can also clone a Git repository.
Start typing. The preview follows each keystroke; on a tablet or in landscape the source and preview sit side by side.

In Settings → Compiler you can also run full compiles on every save or only when you tap Compile. The live preview keeps working either way.

Typing Typst on a touch keyboard

The row above the keyboard has #, $, =, *, _ and brackets, plus your own quick-insert commands.
Autocomplete comes from the Typst compiler itself, so it knows every function, parameter and symbol in the bundled version, and your own #let definitions.
Explain at cursor (in the editor menu) shows Typst's documentation for the function or symbol under the cursor.
Go to definition jumps to where a function or variable is defined, even in another file of the project.
Tap anywhere in the preview to jump to the source that produced it.

Packages from Typst Universe

Open Insert → Packages to search Typst Universe and add an import in one tap. Kern offers the newest version that its bundled compiler supports. A package downloads the first time a document compiles with it, with progress shown in the editor, and then works offline.

Fonts

Typst's default fonts are built in. To use others, either keep the font files in the project (for example in a fonts folder, as on typst.app), or add them in Settings → Fonts to use them in every project. Then refer to the family name:

#set text(font: "Inter")

Snap math: formulas from photos and handwriting

With Kern Pro, tap Snap math on the bar above the keyboard to photograph a printed formula, pick an image or write it with your finger, and get editable Typst math with a live preview. Recognition happens on the phone. The model (about 40 MB) downloads once from Google Play.

Export and share

Export… in the editor menu offers every format the Typst compiler supports:

Export formats in Kern
Format	Options
PDF	Standard; PDF/A-2b for archiving; PDF/UA-1 for screen readers; page ranges such as `1-3, 5`
PNG	One image per page, at 150, 300 or 600 ppi
SVG	One vector image per page
HTML	A web page of the document (Typst's HTML export is experimental)

PDF/UA asks for a document title: add #set document(title: [My report]) at the top of the main file.

Sync and back up

Projects stay on the phone, in the app's storage or in a folder you choose. From Share & sync you can connect a project to Git (GitHub, GitLab or any host) to commit, push and pull, or to Google Drive. If a pull finds the same file changed on both sides, nothing is overwritten: you choose per file which version to keep.

New to Typst? Start with what is Typst and keep the Typst math cheat sheet open.