Getting started with TeX, LaTeX, and friends

This page is for the benefit of new TeX system users. As such, it tries to be short and simple. An even shorter getting-started document is also available, with a different perspective.

What's going on here?

TeX is a typesetting language. Instead of visually formatting your text, you enter your manuscript text intertwined with TeX commands in a plain text file. You then run TeX to produce formatted output, such as a PDF file. Thus, in contrast to standard word processors, your document is a separate file that does not pretend to be a representation of the final typeset output, and so can be easily edited and manipulated.

Here are a couple of links with further background:

• The levels of TeX web page explains some of the most common components and terms used throughout TeX.
• The Wikipedia encyclopedia article on TeX gives a more detailed overview.

Installing TeX and LaTeX

If you are looking to install a complete system, we recommend TeX Live for Unix/GNU/Linux, MacTeX for MacOSX, and MiKTeX for Windows (though both TeX Live and MiKTeX support all common platforms). These distributions are (almost entirely) free software and can be downloaded and installed at no charge. See their home pages.

If you want physical discs, you can join TUG or another user group and have the TeX Collection DVD, including all the above, sent to you, or you can purchase the DVD without joining.

There are many other TeX implementations, some free software, some shareware, some proprietary/commercial.

Online (La)TeX documentation

Here is just a little of the principal TeX documentation available on the web. A more complete list of documentation links is available.

LaTeX (CTAN topic):

• LearnLaTeX.org, focused lessons on learning LaTeX, with online execution of examples.
• A First LaTeX Document takes you through writing a small document with text and math for the first time. Then A First Set of LaTeX Resources recommends packages for common tasks (both documents by Jim Hefferon).
• Getting Started with LaTeX, a primer for text, math, and basic formatting (by David Wilkins).
• Online LaTeX tutorials, a graduated series (by Andy Roberts).
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e is a more comprehensive manual on writing LaTeX (by Tobias Oetiker et al., translated into many languages).
• LaTeX Cheat Sheet, a two-page quick reference (by Winston Chang).

Plain TeX (more on plain TeX): TeX by Topic, by Victor Eijkhout.

Fonts: a discussion of the fonts available for use with TeX is available separately.

General help: see below.

Books to buy

Since TeX predates the Internet, let alone the web, it has a long tradition of documentation being available in book form. (Not to mention being a typesetting program!) Here are the books we recommend most highly.

• The TeXbook, by Donald E. Knuth (Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-13448-9, 1984). The basis of everything, covering plain TeX.
• The LaTeX Companion, by Frank Mittelbach with Ulrike Fischer (Addison-Wesley, third edition, 2023). Covers core LaTeX, plus a vast array of additional packages.
• Learning LaTeX, by David Griffiths and Desmond Higham (SIAM, ISBN 978-1-611974-41-6, 2016, 103pp). A short example-based book covering core LaTeX and some commonly-needed packages.

See these additional documentation links for many more books and other references.

Sample LaTeX documents

If you have TeX installed and just want to get started, you can peruse and process this introductory LaTeX document (small2e). When you've mastered that, move on to this more complex example (sample2e).

The basic procedure is to create plain text files in any editor or GUI front end (TeXworks, TeXShop, GNU Emacs, etc.), and then run pdflatex myfile.tex from a command line to get PDF output. Or run latex to get DVI output, instead of PDF.

Help using TeX

• texhax@tug.org, a public (and publicly-archived) support mailing list.
• latex.org, a community forum.
• tex.stackexchange.com, a collaboratively edited question and answer site.
• reddit, a conversation site.
• The TeX FAQ answers many questions on TeX, LaTeX, and friends.

Finding software and/or packages:

• The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) is the primary repository for TeX-related software on the Internet.
• The TeX Catalogue has descriptions for most TeX packages, and can help you find what you need, along with the topic cloud.
• The texdoc.net site provides online lookup of package documentation, based on the texdoc command-line program.

More help resources.

If you've tried everything and are still stuck, feel free to email the public support list.

Happy typesetting!