Yes i think better or clearer documentation for latex styling would be nice and
some examples.
Here is a question on the sphinx mailing list, which is about about using packages.
sphinx has its own latex documentclass in a file called sphinxmanual.cls or
sphinxhowto.cls, if i remember correctly its a report documentclass that is used as base.
then there is 2 style files, which are the packages, it is those files contents
that are called on when you write \usepackage{mylatexstilefile}
Question about using latex packages
http://groups.google.com/group/sphinx-dev/browse_thread/thread/890dab5e53fff004
Here is my conf.py.
preamb_old = ur'''
%\documentclass{memoir}
\makeatletter
\fancypagestyle{normal}{
\fancyhf{}
\fancyfoot[LE,RO]{{\py@HeaderFamily\thepage}}
\fancyfoot[LO]{{\py@HeaderFamily\nouppercase{\rightmark}}}
\fancyfoot[RE]{{\py@HeaderFamily\nouppercase{\leftmark}}}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{{\py@HeaderFamily \@title}} % here's the change
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt}
\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0.4pt}
}
\makeatother
%\color {blue}
%\normalcolor {dark blue}
\pagecolor [RGB]{255, 247, 226}
\definecolor{VerbatimColor}{rgb}{0.95,0.85,0.65}
\definecolor{VerbatimBorderColor}{rgb}{0.5,0.95,0.1}
'''
f = open('graph/static/latexstyling.tex', 'r+')
PREAMBLE = f.read();
latex_elements = {
'papersize':'a4paper',
'pointsize':'11pt',
'classoptions': ',openany',
'babel': '\\usepackage[english]{babel}',
'preamble': PREAMBLE
}
i don't use preamble_old anymore, but it is an example of changes directly in
conf.py, to your latex preamble.
Check out latex_elements and latex_additional_files in the sphinx docs as
a starting point.