LaTeX

What is LaTeX
• LaTeX is a software for typesetting documents.
In other words, it's a document preparation
system.
• LaTeX is not a word processor, but is used as a
document markup language.
• LaTeX is a free, open source software.
• It was originally written by Leslie Lamport and
is based on the TeX typesetting engine by
Donald Knuth.
 Features
• LaTeX is especially well-suited for scientific and
technical documents.
• superior typesetting of mathematical
formulas.
• cross-referencing capabilities, automatic
numbering and generation of lists of contents,
figures and tables, indexes, glossaries, and
bibliographies.
• multilingual with language-specific features,
and it is able to use PostScript and PDF
features.
• LaTeX is incredibly flexible—there are
templates for letters, presentations, bills,
philosophy books, law texts, music scores, and
even for chess game notations.
• LaTeX is available for nearly every operating
system, like Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and
many more.
• Its file format is plain text—readable and
editable, on all operating systems. LaTeX will
produce the same output on all systems.
• LaTeX generates PDF output—printable and readable.
• Besides PDF, it supports DVI, PostScript, and HTML
output, preparing the ground for distribution both in
print and online, on screen, electronic book readers, or
smart phones
• Latex is safe from viruses as LaTeX code is written in
plain text.
• While LaTeX encourages structured writing, other
word processors may compel you to work
inconsistently.
• They might hide the real formatting structure and
encrypt your document in some proprietary file
format.
• Compatibility is a big problem, even between versions
of the same software.
 Example
\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\title{Example 2}
\author{My name}
\date{January 5, 2011}
\maketitle
\section{What's this?}
This is our second document. It contains a title and a
section with text.
% Here's a comment.
\end{document}
 Document Structure
• A LaTeX document is based on a versatile
template.
• Such a fundamental template is called a class.
It provides customizable features, usually
built for a certain purpose.
• There are classes for books, for journal
articles, for letters, for presentations, for
posters, and many more; hundreds of reliable
classes can be found in Internet archives.
• The first line starts with \documentclass.
• This word begins with a backslash; such a
word is called a command.
• commands is used to specify the class and to
state document properties: title, author, and
date.
• This first part of the document is called the
preamble of the document.
• This is where we choose the class, specify
properties, and in general, make
document-wide definitions.
• \begin{document} marks the end of the
preamble and the beginning of the actual
document.
• \end{document} marks the end of it.
• Everything that follows would be ignored by
LaTeX.
• Such a piece of code, framed by a \begin …
\end command pair, is called an environment.
• the command \maketitle that prints the title,
author, and date in a nicely formatted manner.
By the \section command a heading, bigger and
bolder than normal text is produced.
 LaTeX Commands
• LaTeX commands begin with a backslash,
followed by big or small letters.
• Commands may have arguments, given in
curly braces or in square brackets.
• Calling a command looks like the following:
\command
Or:
\command{argument}
Or:
\command[optional argument]{argument}