# Make a preprint

A preprint is your paper as you post it on arXiv: the authors named, the acknowledgements in, no page limit, the appendix included. In VersoFold it is not a copy of the paper. It is an **edition** built from the same LaTeX as the submission, so a typo fixed once is fixed in both, and only the few passages that differ are marked. You can make it at any phase; most people do around submission.

A preprint is not a phase. The phase says where the paper is in its life (Submission, Rebuttal, Camera-ready…) and there is one at a time; the preprint is one of the forms the paper takes, alongside the submission. See [Phases and editions](paper-phases.md#phases-and-editions).

Some venues limit preprints or publicity during review. Check your venue's policy before you post.

## 1. Create it

1. Click the button next to the phase, under the paper's title (it says **Paper ▾** or **Submission ▾**). With only the paper so far, it offers **Preprint** or **Supplementary material**: choose **Preprint**. (Also in **Publish → Preprint & editions**, and in the phase menu from Submission on.)
2. Set the options:
   - **The venue style's preprint mode** (on by default): the preprint loads the style as the venue asks for preprints, such as `\usepackage[preprint]{neurips_2026}`; the submission keeps the review mode.
   - **Authors**: when the paper's author block is anonymous, write the named one here. When the block already names you and the style hides it for review, nothing needs to change; with a style that prints it as it is, the submission gets "Anonymous" in its place.
   - **Acknowledgements**: printed only once the authors are named.
   - **Links**: anonymised links (such as `anonymous.4open.science`) are listed so you can give their real addresses.
3. **Preview the changes** shows every change to your LaTeX, before and after, with its file and line. Nothing is written yet. **Create** makes exactly that. A saved version is taken first, so you can go back.

VersoFold adds a short block of switches at the top of the main file and a two-line `main-preprint.tex` beside it. Your paper still builds on its own, on Overleaf too.

## 2. Look at it

Choose **Preprint** in the same button:

- **The PDF** shows the preprint, built for you; it is rebuilt after your edits while **Auto** is on.
- **The LaTeX** shows the preprint's text. It is the same file as before: what only the submission prints folds into a one-line placeholder (click to see it), and the markers step aside. Editing here edits the shared source, so your change reaches the submission too, unless the text is marked.

**Colour the differences** in the button's menu tints what the preprint adds: the names, the acknowledgements, the appendix. **Compare side by side** puts the submission's PDF and the preprint's next to each other, with what each one has that the other does not in colour. **Paper** takes you back.

## 3. Mark what differs

Select text in the LaTeX and choose **Edition** in the toolbar over the selection:

- **Only in the preprint**: a longer discussion, an extra experiment, the link to your code.
- **Not in the preprint**: text only the anonymous submission needs.
- **Anonymous wording…**: one phrase in two versions, such as "Anonymous et al. (2025)" in the submission and "Smith et al. (2025)" in the preprint.

The marks are plain LaTeX (`\ifpreprint … \fi`, `\anon{…}{…}`). Click a mark's label to remove it. See [How the source is marked](editions.md#how-the-source-is-marked).

## 4. Check it

**Run the checks** in **Preprint & editions** reads the PDFs as last built: the submission names no author (no names, affiliations, e-mail domains or links that only the preprint has), the preprint names its authors, and every mark is closed. Failed checks come first, with the page where a name was found.

## 5. Post it, then update it

- **arXiv package** on the preprint's card builds the source arXiv asks for, from the preprint: text marked for other editions is left out of the package, so nothing hidden becomes public. See [Prepare an arXiv source package](submission.md#prepare-an-arxiv-source-package).
- Once it is online, **Mark as posted on arXiv…** records the version (v1), with its arXiv identifier.
- After the reviews and your revisions, **What changed since v1** lists the sections that changed, and **Draft the arXiv comment with the agent** writes the comment for v2.
- In **Camera-ready**, the checklist names the authors in every edition in one click and reminds you to update the preprint with the final version.

For the supplementary material and a journal version, and every detail of the marks, see [Preprint & editions](editions.md).

Related: [paper phases](paper-phases.md), [submission rehearsal](submission.md), [rebuttals](deadlines-rebuttal.md).