# LaTeX A document preparation system for high-quality typesetting, built on top of [[Donald Knuth]]'s TeX engine. Source files (`.tex`) are compiled into PDF (or DVI/PostScript) through `pdflatex`, `xelatex`, or `lualatex`. The de facto standard for academic papers, theses, and technical books in mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering. Originally written by Leslie Lamport in 1984. Free, open-source, LPPL-licensed. ## What it does - Mathematical typesetting that almost nothing else matches - Automatic numbering, cross-references, tables of contents, indexes - Bibliography management via BibTeX / BibLaTeX + thousands of citation styles - Huge package ecosystem (CTAN) for diagrams (TikZ), music, chemistry, linguistics, fonts, etc. - Deterministic, reproducible output across platforms ## Why people complain about it - Cryptic syntax (`\begin{equation}…\end{equation}`, `\textbf{}`, `\\`, escaping hell) - Slow recompiles, especially on large documents - Confusing error messages - Heavy toolchain (TeX Live distribution is multi-GB) - Dependency conflicts between packages - These are the pains [[Typst]] is built to solve ## Common distributions - **TeX Live** — cross-platform, the de facto distribution - **MiKTeX** — Windows-focused - **MacTeX** — macOS bundle of TeX Live ## Common workflows - **Local** — TeX Live + a code editor (VS Code with LaTeX Workshop, TeXstudio, Emacs AUCTeX) - **Cloud** — [Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com), the dominant collaborative LaTeX web editor - **From Markdown** — author in [[Markdown]], convert via [[Pandoc]] or [[Quarto]] ## References - LaTeX Project: https://www.latex-project.org - CTAN (package archive): https://ctan.org - TeX Live: https://www.tug.org/texlive - Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com - Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Learn_LaTeX_in_30_minutes - The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX: https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf - TeX @ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX - LaTeX @ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX ## Related - [[Typst]] - [[Markdown]] - [[Pandoc]] - [[Quarto]]