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LaTeX
Also known as latex-project.org, The LaTeX Project, LᴬTᴇX
LaTeX ( or , to rhyme with "blech"), often stylized as '''''', is a software system for typesetting documents, based on the TeX typesetting system. LaTeX provides a high-level, descriptive markup language to use TeX more easily: TeX handles the document layout, while LaTeX handles the content side for document processing. Because the plain TeX formatting commands are elementary, it provides authors with ready-made commands for formatting and layout requirements such as chapter headings, footnotes, cross-references and bibliographies.
AI overview
LaTeX is a software system that makes it easier to create professionally formatted documents by letting you focus on writing content while the system handles the layout and design. It's particularly valuable because it provides built-in commands for common document elements like chapter headings, footnotes, and bibliographies, which would otherwise require complex formatting instructions.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Software.logo
- LaTeX project logo bird.svg
- Software.logo caption
- The LaTeX Project logo
- Software.author
- Leslie Lamport
- Software.genre
- Typesetting
- Software.license
- LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL)
- File format.extension
- .tex
- File format.mime
- application/x-latex
- File format.latest_release_version
- LaTeX2e
- File format.genre
- Document file format
via Wikipedia infobox
Source code
The normal way to obtain LaTeX is therefore not to get it from this repository, but through the packaged version available from and automatically distributed as part of major TeX distributions such as TeXLive, MacTeX or MiKTeX. Note that Babel moved to its own repository in 2019: GitHub; any issues related to Babel should be reported there. From 2020 onwards LaTeX includes the L3 programming layer as part of the format. The code for this layer is hosted in its own repository: GitHub; any issues directly related to commands from that layer should preferably be reported there. The LaTeX version is defined in the file ltvers.dtx in the two commands fmtversion (the main version) and patch@level (the patch level). A negative patch level indicates a pretest version. Each component of the core distribution contains a README file which is tagged with the appropriate release string prior to upload to CTAN. Please look at the report generated from latexbug and if it indicates that you are using packages not maintained by the LaTeX Project check if your problem is still present after removing them. If so contact the maintainers of these third-party packages and file a bug report with them. More details on creating issue reports for the core LaTeX distribution are given in our CONTRIBUTING guide. We are unable to provide advice/support here: community sites such as TeX-LaTeX StackExchange and The LaTeX Community are available for general help. See also the help pages on our website for further suggestions.
~13 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- History
- Typesetting system
- Pronunciation and typography
- Example
- Related software
- Compatibility and converters
- Licensing
- Versions
- Adoption
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
LaTeX ( or , to rhyme with "blech"), often stylized as '''''', is a software system for typesetting documents, based on the TeX typesetting system. LaTeX provides a high-level, descriptive markup language to use TeX more easily: TeX handles the document layout, while LaTeX handles the content side for document processing. Because the plain TeX formatting commands are elementary, it provides authors with ready-made commands for formatting and layout requirements such as chapter headings, footnotes, cross-references and bibliographies.
LaTeX was originally written in the early 1980s by Leslie Lamport at SRI International. The current version is LaTeX2e, first released in 1994 and incrementally updated since 2015. This update policy replaced earlier plans for a separate release of LaTeX3, which had been in development since 1989. LaTeX is free software and is distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL).