LaTeX source code listing like in professional books

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How should a latex source code listing look like to produce an output like in known books, for example one for the Spring Framework? I've tried with the latex listings package but wasn't able to produce something that looked as nice as the one below. So I'm primarely interested in the formatting instructions to produce something like the sample below (from Manning's sample chapter for Spring in Action):

From Manning's Spring in Action

EDIT With the help especially of Tormod Fjeldskår here's the complete snippet to produce the desired look:

\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{courier}
\lstset{
    basicstyle=\footnotesize\ttfamily, % Default font
    % numbers=left,              % Location of line numbers
    numberstyle=\tiny,          % Style of line numbers
    % stepnumber=2,              % Margin between line numbers
    numbersep=5pt,              % Margin between line numbers and text
    tabsize=2,                  % Size of tabs
    extendedchars=true,
    breaklines=true,            % Lines will be wrapped
    keywordstyle=\color{red},
    frame=b,
    % keywordstyle=[1]\textbf,
    % keywordstyle=[2]\textbf,
    % keywordstyle=[3]\textbf,
    % keywordstyle=[4]\textbf,   \sqrt{\sqrt{}}
    stringstyle=\color{white}\ttfamily, % Color of strings
    showspaces=false,
    showtabs=false,
    xleftmargin=17pt,
    framexleftmargin=17pt,
    framexrightmargin=5pt,
    framexbottommargin=4pt,
    % backgroundcolor=\color{lightgray},
    showstringspaces=false
}
\lstloadlanguages{ % Check documentation for further languages ...
     % [Visual]Basic,
     % Pascal,
     % C,
     % C++,
     % XML,
     % HTML,
     Java
}
% \DeclareCaptionFont{blue}{\color{blue}} 

% \captionsetup[lstlisting]{singlelinecheck=false, labelfont={blue}, textfont={blue}}
\usepackage{caption}
\DeclareCaptionFont{white}{\color{white}}
\DeclareCaptionFormat{listing}{\colorbox[cmyk]{0.43, 0.35, 0.35,0.01}{\parbox{\textwidth}{\hspace{15pt}#1#2#3}}}
\captionsetup[lstlisting]{format=listing,labelfont=white,textfont=white, singlelinecheck=false, margin=0pt, font={bf,footnotesize}}

Use it with this in your document:

\lstinputlisting[label=samplecode, caption=A sample]{sourceCode/HelloWorld.java}
8 Answers

It seems to me that what you really want, is to customize the look of the captions. This is most easily done using the caption package. For instructions how to use this package, see the manual (PDF). You would probably need to create your own custom caption format, as described in chapter 4 in the manual.

Edit: Tested with MikTex:

\documentclass{report}

\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{listings}

\usepackage{caption}
\DeclareCaptionFont{white}{\color{white}}
\DeclareCaptionFormat{listing}{\colorbox{gray}{\parbox{\textwidth}{#1#2#3}}}
\captionsetup[lstlisting]{format=listing,labelfont=white,textfont=white}

% This concludes the preamble

\begin{document}

\begin{lstlisting}[label=some-code,caption=Some Code]
public void here() {
    goes().the().code()
}
\end{lstlisting}

\end{document}

Result:

Preview

I am happy with the listings package:

Listing example

Here is how I configure it:

\lstset{
language=C,
basicstyle=\small\sffamily,
numbers=left,
numberstyle=\tiny,
frame=tb,
columns=fullflexible,
showstringspaces=false
}

I use it like this:

\begin{lstlisting}[caption=Caption example.,
  label=a_label,
  float=t]
// Insert the code here
\end{lstlisting}

And please, whatever you do, configure the listings package to use fixed-width font (as in your example; you'll find the option in the documentation). Default setting uses proportional font typeset on a grid, which is, IMHO, incredibly ugly and unreadable, as can be seen from the other answers with pictures. I am personally very irritated when I must read some code typeset in a proportional font.

Try setting fixed-width font with this:

\lstset{basicstyle=\ttfamily}

Have a try on the listings package. Here is an example of what I used some time ago to have a coloured Java listing:

\usepackage{listings}

[...]

\lstset{language=Java,captionpos=b,tabsize=3,frame=lines,keywordstyle=\color{blue},commentstyle=\color{darkgreen},stringstyle=\color{red},numbers=left,numberstyle=\tiny,numbersep=5pt,breaklines=true,showstringspaces=false,basicstyle=\footnotesize,emph={label}}

[...]

\begin{lstlisting}
public void here() {
    goes().the().code()
}

[...]

\end{lstlisting}

You may want to customize that. There are several references of the listings package. Just google them.

Take a look at algorithms package, especially the algorithm environment.

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