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LaTeX
Typesetting system

LaTeX is a software system widely used for typesetting documents, especially in academia due to its robust support for complex mathematical notation and multilingual content such as Arabic and Greek. Unlike WYSIWYG word processors like Microsoft Word, LaTeX uses descriptive markup to define document structure, style, and citations. It relies on a TeX distribution such as TeX Live for producing print-ready formats like PDF. Created by Leslie Lamport in the 1980s, LaTeX is free software distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License. It supports advanced document automation including numbering, cross-referencing, and bibliographies.

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History

LaTeX was created in the early 1980s by Leslie Lamport when he was working at Stanford Research Institute (SRI). He needed to write TeX macros for his own use and thought that with a little extra effort, he could make a general package usable by others. Peter Gordon, an editor at Addison-Wesley, convinced him to write a LaTeX user's manual for publication (Lamport was initially skeptical that anyone would pay money for it);13 it came out in 198614 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.15 Meanwhile, Lamport released versions of his LaTeX macros in 1984 and 1985. On 21 August 1989, at a TeX Users Group (TUG) meeting at Stanford, Lamport agreed to turn over maintenance and development of LaTeX to Frank Mittelbach. Mittelbach, along with Chris Rowley and Rainer Schöpf, formed the LaTeX3 team; in 1994, they released LaTeX2e, the current standard version. LaTeX3 has since been discontinued as a separate format and has become a programming layer within LaTeX2e since 2018.16

Typesetting system

LaTeX attempts to follow the design philosophy of separating presentation from content, so that authors can focus on the content of what they are writing without attending simultaneously to its visual appearance. In preparing a LaTeX document, the author specifies the logical structure using simple, familiar concepts such as chapter, section, table, figure, etc., and lets the LaTeX system handle the formatting and layout of these structures. As a result, it encourages the separation of the layout from the content — while still allowing manual typesetting adjustments whenever needed. This concept is similar to the mechanism by which many word processors allow styles to be defined globally for an entire document, or the use of Cascading Style Sheets in styling HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents.

The LaTeX system is a markup language that handles typesetting and rendering,17 and can be arbitrarily extended by using the underlying macro language to develop custom macros such as new environments and commands. Such macros are often collected into packages, which could then be made available to address some specific typesetting needs such as the formatting of complex mathematical expressions or graphics (e.g., the use of the align environment provided by the amsmath package to produce aligned equations).

To create a document in LaTeX, a user first creates a file, such as document.tex, typically using a text editor.18 The user then gives their document.tex file as input to the TeX program (with the LaTeX macros loaded), which prompts TeX to write out a file suitable for onscreen viewing or printing.19 This write-format-preview cycle is one of the chief ways in which working with LaTeX differs from the What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) style of document editing. It is similar to the code-compile-execute cycle known to computer programmers. Today, many LaTeX-aware editing programs make this cycle a simple matter through the pressing of a single key while showing the output preview on the screen beside the input window. Some online LaTeX editors even automatically refresh the preview,202122 while other online tools provide incremental editing in-place, mixed in with the preview in a single window.23

Example

The example below shows the input to LaTeX and the corresponding output from the system:

InputOutput
\documentclass{article} % Starts an article\usepackage{amsmath} % Imports amsmath\title{\LaTeX} % Title\begin{document} % Begins a document \maketitle \LaTeX{} is a document preparation system for the \TeX{} typesetting program. It offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies, and much more. \LaTeX{} was originally written in 1984 by Leslie Lamport and has become the dominant method for using \TeX; few people write in plain \TeX{} anymore. The current version is \LaTeXe. % This is a comment, not shown in final output. % The following shows typesetting power of LaTeX: \begin{align} E_0 &= mc^2 \\ E &= \frac{mc^2}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} \end{align} \end{document}

Pronouncing and writing "LaTeX"

See also: TeX § Pronunciation and spelling

The characters 'T', 'E', and 'X' in the name come from the Greek capital letters tau, epsilon, and chi, as the name of TeX derives from the Ancient Greek: τέχνη ('skill', 'art', 'technique'); for this reason, TeX's creator Donald Knuth promotes its pronunciation as /tɛx/ (tekh)24 (that is, with a voiceless velar fricative as in Modern Greek, similar to the ch in loch). Lamport remarks that "TeX is usually pronounced tech, making lah-tech, lah-tech, and lay-tech the logical choices; but language is not always logical, so lay-tecks is also possible."25

The name is printed in running text with a typographical logo: LaTeX. In media where the logo cannot be precisely reproduced in running text, the word is typically given the unique capitalization LaTeX. Alternatively, the TeX, LaTeX,26 and XeTeX27 logos can also be rendered via pure CSS and XHTML for use in graphical web browsers — by following the specifications of the internal \LaTeX macro.28

As a macro package, LaTeX provides a set of macros for TeX to interpret. There are many other macro packages for TeX, including Plain TeX, GNU Texinfo, AMSTeX, and ConTeXt.

When TeX "compiles" a document, it follows (from the user's point of view) the following processing sequence: Macros → TeX → Driver → Output. Different implementations of each of these steps are typically available in TeX distributions. Traditional TeX will output a DVI file, which is usually converted to a PostScript file. In 2000, Hàn Thế Thành and others wrote an implementation of TeX called pdfTeX, which also outputs to PDF and takes advantage of features available in that format.29 The XeTeX engine developed by Jonathan Kew, on the other hand, merges modern font technologies and Unicode with TeX.30 LuaTeX is an extended version of pdfTeX using Lua as an embedded scripting language.31

Compatibility and converters

LaTeX documents (*.tex) can be opened with any text editor. They consist of plain text and contain no hidden formatting codes or binary information. TeX documents can also be shared by rendering the LaTeX file to other formats such as OpenDocument, XML, or class (*.cls) files. LaTeX can also (and commonly is) rendered to PDF files using the LaTeX extension pdfLaTeX. LaTeX files containing Unicode text can be processed into PDFs with the inputenc package, or by the TeX extensions XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX.

  • TeX4ht is a converter that can translate TeX and LaTeX documents to HTML and certain XML formats. It is now included preconfigured with all TeX distributions.
  • HeVeA is a converter written in OCaml that converts LaTeX documents to HTML5. This way, documents such as scientific papers, primarily typeset for printing, can be placed on the World Wide Web for online viewing. It is licensed under the Q Public License.32
  • LaTeX2HTML is a converter written in Perl that converts LaTeX documents to HTML. It is licensed under GPL v2.33 The latest updates are available from Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN).34
  • LaTeX2RTF is a converter written in C that converts LaTeX documents to RTF. It is licensed under GPL v2 or later.35
  • LaTeXML is a converter written in Perl that converts LaTeX documents into a variety of XML-based formats, including HTML5 (with MathML), ePub ebooks, JATS, and TEI. It was developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology by US Federal Government employees and is therefore in the public domain. It is available for free.36
  • Pandoc is a "universal document converter" able to transform LaTeX (as well as other formats) into many different file formats, including HTML5, ePub, OpenDocument (*.odt), Microsoft Office Open XML (*.docx), and even text with MediaWiki markup as used in Wikipedia. It is licensed under GPL v2.37

LaTeX has become the de facto standard to typeset mathematical expression in scientific documents.3839 Hence, there are several conversion tools focusing on mathematical LaTeX expressions, such as converters to MathML or Computer Algebra System.

  • MathJax is a JavaScript library for converting LaTeX to MathML, picture formats including SVG and PNG, or HTML for embedding within a webpage.
  • KaTeX is a JavaScript library for converting LaTeX to HTML and MathML. It is developed by Khan Academy, and is among the fastest LaTeX to HTML converters.41

Licensing

LaTeX is typically distributed along with plain TeX under a free software licence: the LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL).42 The LPPL is not compatible with the GNU General Public License, as it requires that modified files must be clearly differentiable from their originals (usually by changing the filename); this was done to ensure that files that depend on other files will produce the expected behavior and avoid dependency hell. The LPPL is Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) compliant as of version 1.3. As free software, LaTeX is available on most operating systems, which include Unix (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX), BSD (FreeBSD, macOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD), Linux (Red Hat, Debian, Arch, Gentoo), Windows, DOS, RISC OS, AmigaOS, and Plan 9.

Versions

LaTeX2e is the current version of LaTeX, since it replaced LaTeX 2.09 in 1994.43 As of 2020, LaTeX3, which started in the early 1990s, is under a long-term development project.44 Planned features include improved syntax (separation of content from styling), hyperlink support, a new user interface, access to arbitrary fonts and a new documentation.45 Some LaTeX3 features are available in LaTeX2e using packages,46 and by 2020 many features have been enabled in LaTeX2e by default for a gradual transition.47

There are many commercial implementations of the entire TeX system. System vendors may add extra features like added typefaces and telephone support. LyX is a free software, WYSIWYM visual document processor that uses LaTeX for a back-end.48 TeXmacs is a free, WYSIWYG editor with similar functionalities as LaTeX, but with a different typesetting engine.49 Other WYSIWYG editors that produce LaTeX include Scientific Word on Windows and macOS.

Many community-supported TeX distributions are available.

See also

  • LyX - GUI front-end for LaTeX
  • Free and open-source software portal

Notes

Further reading

  • Flynn, Peter (2017) [2002]. Formatting Information: A Beginner's Guide to LaTeX (7th online ed.). Cork: Silmaril. p. 193.
  • Griffiths, David F.; Highman, David S. (1997). Learning LaTeX. Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. ISBN 0-89871-383-8.
  • Kopka, Helmut; Daly, Patrick W. (2003). Guide to LaTeX (4th ed.). Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 0-321-17385-6.
  • Lamport, Leslie (1994). LaTeX: A document preparation system: User's guide and reference. illustrations by Duane Bibby (2nd ed.). Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 0-201-52983-1.
  • Mittelbach, Frank; Fischer, Ulrike (2023). The LaTeX Companion (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-13-465894-0. Vol II: Mittelbach, Frank; Fischer, Ulrike (2023). The LaTeX Companion (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-36300-5.

References

  1. "An introduction to LaTeX". LaTeX project. Retrieved 18 April 2016. //latex-project.org/intro.html ↩

  2. Also pronounced /ˈlɑːtɛx/ LAH-tekh or /ˈleɪtɛx/ LAY-tekh or /ˈleɪtɛks/ LAY-tex. /wiki/Help:IPA/English ↩

  3. Lamport, Leslie (1986). LATEX: a document preparation system. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 0-201-15790-X. OCLC 12550262. 0-201-15790-X ↩

  4. "What are TeX, LaTeX and friends?". //www.ctan.org/what_is_tex.html ↩

  5. Alexia Gaudeul (June 2007). "Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study". Review of Network Economics. 6 (2). doi:10.2202/1446-9022.1119. S2CID 201097782. https://doi.org/10.2202%2F1446-9022.1119 ↩

  6. Markin, Pablo (1 November 2017). "LaTeX, Open Source Software, Facilitates the Adoption of Open Access by Authors, Repositories and Journals". OpenScience. Retrieved 5 November 2017. http://openscience.com/latex-open-source-software-facilitates-the-adoption-of-open-access-by-authors-repositories-and-journals/ ↩

  7. "Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec". Retrieved 2022-04-09. https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Multilingual_typesetting_on_Overleaf_using_babel_and_fontspec ↩

  8. "Babel: The multilingual framework to localize LaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX". Retrieved 2024-11-09. https://latex3.github.io/babel/ ↩

  9. "Chinese". www.overleaf.com. Retrieved 2020-12-30. https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Chinese ↩

  10. Leslie Lamport (April 23, 2007). "The Writings of Leslie Lamport: LaTeX: A Document Preparation System". Leslie Lamport's Home Page. Retrieved 2007-04-27. //research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#latex ↩

  11. "Quo vadis LaTeX(3) Team — A look back and at the upcoming years" (PDF). www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2023-06-09. https://www.latex-project.org/publications/2020-FMi-TUB-tb128mitt-quovadis.pdf ↩

  12. "LaTeX - A document preparation system". www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20. https://www.latex-project.org/ ↩

  13. Lamport, Leslie (2024-04-29). "My Writings" (PDF). pp. 48–49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved 2024-06-09. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.pdf ↩

  14. Lamport, Leslie (1986). LATEX: a document preparation system. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 0-201-15790-X. OCLC 12550262. 0-201-15790-X ↩

  15. Lamport, Leslie (2024-04-29). "My Writings" (PDF). pp. 48–49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved 2024-06-09. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.pdf ↩

  16. "Quo vadis LaTeX(3) Team — A look back and at the upcoming years" (PDF). www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2023-06-09. https://www.latex-project.org/publications/2020-FMi-TUB-tb128mitt-quovadis.pdf ↩

  17. The design of LaTeX owes something to earlier markup systems such as Scribe. /wiki/Scribe_(markup_language) ↩

  18. Van Dyke, Jackson. "Getting started with LaTeX and Vim" (PDF). Retrieved 21 February 2024. https://web.ma.utexas.edu/users/vandyke/notes/getting_started_latex_vim/getting_started.pdf ↩

  19. PDF output is common, but TeX can output other formats such as DVI ("Device independent" format). ↩

  20. "Overleaf". //www.overleaf.com ↩

  21. "Seeveeze". //www.seeveeze.com/ ↩

  22. "LaTeX Base". //latexbase.com ↩

  23. "Authorea". //www.authorea.com/ ↩

  24. Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison–Wesley, Boston, 1986, p. 1. ↩

  25. Lamport (1994), p 5 ↩

  26. O'Connor, Edward. "TeX and LaTeX logo POSHlets". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2008-04-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20071011230511/http://edward.oconnor.cx/2007/08/tex-poshlet ↩

  27. Taraborelli, Dario. "CSS-driven TeX logos". Archived from the original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved 2008-04-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20170901040149/http://nitens.org/taraborelli/texlogo ↩

  28. Walden, David (2005-07-15). "Travels in TeX Land: A Macro, Three Software Packages, and the Trouble with TeX". The PracTeX Journal (3). Retrieved 2008-04-21. //www.tug.org/pracjourn/2005-3/walden-travels/ ↩

  29. "pdfTeX - TeX Users Group". www.tug.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20. https://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/ ↩

  30. "XeTeX - TeX Users Group". www.tug.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20. http://www.tug.org/xetex/ ↩

  31. "LuaTeX". Retrieved 2023-07-18. https://www.luatex.org/ ↩

  32. Website http://hevea.inria.fr/ http://hevea.inria.fr/ ↩

  33. According to LICENSE file in the source repository. https://github.com/latex2html/latex2html/ ↩

  34. "CTAN: Package latex2html". ctan.org. https://ctan.org/pkg/latex2html ↩

  35. "CTAN: /tex-archive/support/latex2rtf". ctan.org. https://ctan.org/tex-archive/support/latex2rtf ↩

  36. "LaTeXML A LaTeX to XML/HTML/MathML Converter". dlmf.nist.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-18. https://dlmf.nist.gov/LaTeXML/ ↩

  37. "Pandoc - About pandoc". pandoc.org. http://pandoc.org/ ↩

  38. Alexia Gaudeul (June 2007). "Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study". Review of Network Economics. 6 (2). doi:10.2202/1446-9022.1119. S2CID 201097782. https://doi.org/10.2202%2F1446-9022.1119 ↩

  39. Knauff, Markus; Nejasmic, Jelica (December 19, 2019). "An Efficiency Comparison of Document Preparation Systems Used in Academic Research and Development". PLOS ONE. 9 (12): e115069. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115069. PMC 4272305. PMID 25526083. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4272305 ↩

  40. Schubotz, Moritz; Wicke, Gabriel (2014). "Mathoid: Robust, Scalable, Fast and Accessible Math Rendering for Wikipedia". Intelligent Computer Mathematics – International Conference. CICM. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 8543. Springer. pp. 224–235. arXiv:1404.6179. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08434-3_17. ISBN 978-3-319-08433-6. 978-3-319-08433-6 ↩

  41. "KaTeX – The fastest math typesetting library for the web". katex.org. https://katex.org/ ↩

  42. "The LaTeX project public license". www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20. https://www.latex-project.org/lppl/ ↩

  43. Scavo, Tom. "TeX, LaTeX, and AMS-LaTeX". Archived from the original on 3 December 1998. Retrieved 6 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/19981203013048/http://web.syr.edu/~trscavo/latex/latex-history.html ↩

  44. "Quo vadis LaTeX(3) Team — A look back and at the upcoming years" (PDF). www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2023-06-09. https://www.latex-project.org/publications/2020-FMi-TUB-tb128mitt-quovadis.pdf ↩

  45. Frank Mittelbach, Chris Rowley (January 12, 1999). "The LaTeX3 Project" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-07-30. //www.latex-project.org/guides/ltx3info.pdf ↩

  46. Wright, Joseph. "Why is LaTeX3 taking so long to come out?". TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange. https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/986/ ↩

  47. "Quo vadis LaTeX(3) Team — A look back and at the upcoming years" (PDF). www.latex-project.org. Retrieved 2023-06-09. https://www.latex-project.org/publications/2020-FMi-TUB-tb128mitt-quovadis.pdf ↩

  48. "LyX: What is LyX?". www.lyx.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20. https://www.lyx.org/WhatIsLyX ↩

  49. "Welcome to GNU TeXmacs (FSF GNU project)". www.texmacs.org. https://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/home/welcome.en.html ↩