definitely-reviewed.css · Technical Report DR-001
A Responsive Scholarly Theme for Markdown-Derived Documents
Department of Suspiciously Formal Web Typography
1. Introduction
Technical writing on the Web is commonly presented as a single flowing column. This is comfortable, but insufficiently intimidating. The present work investigates whether modern CSS can provide a more scholarly visual language without requiring authors to abandon Markdown.
The design goal is deliberately conservative: content should remain useful if the stylesheet is removed. Layout therefore lives in CSS while prose, headings, figures, tables, equations, and code remain ordinary HTML.
2. Utility Model
We define the utility of a scholarly theme by the entirely rigorous and dimensionally questionable expression
where \(M\) denotes Markdown simplicity, \(L\) legibility, \(F\) perceived formality, and \(W\) author effort. The preferred operating point maximizes formality without asking the author to become a TeX package maintainer.
3. Multi-column Layout
The layout does not explicitly switch between a mobile and desktop mode. Instead, it specifies a preferred column width and lets the browser choose the feasible number of columns.
.dr-body {
columns: 28rem 2;
column-gap: 3rem;
}
.dr-body h2 {
break-after: avoid-column;
}
At narrow widths the article naturally becomes one column. At wider widths, it becomes two columns while maintaining an approximately readable line measure.
4. Architecture
5. Wide Material and Fragmentation
Multi-column layout introduces fragmentation boundaries. A naïve full-width figure can therefore leave its heading stranded at the bottom of the preceding column. The theme addresses this without wrapping every section in a special container.
.dr-wide {
column-span: all;
}
.dr-body :is(h1, h2, h3, h4):has(+ .dr-wide) {
column-span: all;
break-after: avoid;
}
6. Evaluation
| Configuration | Formality | Effort | Definitely reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain Markdown | 0.31 | 1.00 | 0.12 |
| Generic blog CSS | 0.54 | 1.03 | 0.37 |
| definitely-reviewed | 0.97 | 1.04 | 1.00 |
7. Usage
Minimal integration requires one stylesheet and a small set of semantic classes.
<link rel="stylesheet"
href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/definitely-reviewed@1.0.0/definitely-reviewed.css">
<article class="dr-paper">
<header class="dr-header">…</header>
<div class="dr-body">…</div>
</article>
Mathematics and diagrams are renderer-independent. Authors may use KaTeX, MathJax, Mermaid, or pre-rendered SVG. The theme merely provides the surrounding typography.
8. Administrative Markings
For documents requiring additional authority, decorative stamps are provided as an opt-in feature.
Confidential Rejected Accepted
9. Threats to Validity
The primary threat to validity is that no peer review was conducted.
Reviewer 2: The visual appearance of rigor should not be confused with methodological rigor.
10. Conclusion
Modern CSS is sufficiently expressive to reproduce useful scholarly conventions while remaining responsive and compatible with Markdown-first authoring workflows.
Markdown in. Academia out.
References
- W3C CSS Working Group, CSS Multi-column Layout Module Level 1 , 2024.
- W3C CSS Working Group, CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3 .
- KaTeX Contributors, KaTeX Documentation .
- Mermaid Contributors, Mermaid Documentation .
- Akane, M. F., definitely-reviewed, GitHub repository , 2026.