A Documentation Guide

Much of the documentation is in the form of dvi and PostScript files which should display using xdvi or ghostscript front ends such as ghostview or gv from a properly configured web browser. Alternatively you may download and print them. The original LaTeX sources can be found in the documentation tree which is rooted at $TEXMFMAIN/doc. The command texdoc [package-name] will attempt to display documentation for that package from the shell command line.

What's New in teT_EX 1.0

• New TeX-like programs, e-tex, omega, pdftex and their LaTeX variants.
• New format ConTeXt
• Computer Modern fonts in Adobe Postscript Type 1 form (courtesy of Blue Sky Research.) See the entry for dvips.
• Based on Web2C 7.3. This allows the size of TeX's tables to be set in the configuration file texmf.cnf and easily adjusted.
• Updated release of LaTeX and many of its packages. See the release notes.
• Xdvi is now hypertext-capable when. Especially useful in conjunction with the new hyperref package.
• Many new packages including bm, colortbl, fancyvrb, hyperref, picins, sidecap, footmisc, and the MDW tools.
• T2 font encoding, support for Cyrillic and LH fonts.
• Better support for installing new fonts

Guides to TeX and LaTeX

LaTeX2e is the recommended version of LaTeX, and the older version LaTeX 2.09 is obsolete. If you know LaTeX2.09 read about LaTeX2e vs LaTeX2.09 and why you should switch. There is one manual describing the LaTeX language itself, which may at a pinch substitute for a book, the "not so short" Introduction to LaTeX2e. There is also a full reference manual of LaTeX2e commands -- ideal for looking up a particular piece of formatting while writing a document (also available in dvi format) and a table of available mathematical symbols.

Useful information in a questions and answers format is provided by the UK TeX users group Frequently Asked Questions list.

Most LaTeX books refer to a local guide to describe operating-system and implementation-dependent aspects, notably the commands to invoke LaTeX and how to preview and print documents. The document Running LaTeX and utilities on a Unix system (also in PostScript form) is a good introduction to most of these topics.

There are errata lists available for two well-known books, the LaTeX Book and the LaTeX Companion. (A complete revision of Chapter 8 of The LaTeX Companion is also available from CTAN courtesy of the publisher, Addison-Wesley.)

Graphics and Colour

A very common requirement is to include some kind of graphics as an external file (usually PostScript) into a LaTeX document. The definitive manual on how to do this is Keith Reckdahl's excellent Using EPS graphics in LaTeX2e. The document Packages in the graphics bundle  is the documentation on the recommended LaTeX2e graphics package, which includes information on how to use colours in the output.

A very powerful additional capability is provided by the psfrag system. This allows you to import PostScript figures from any other package, but use LaTeX's power for all of the mathematical and textual annotations. (But note that xfig(1) allows you to do this anyway).

Graph and Diagram Drawing

eepic

A macro package for a much enhanced LaTeX "picture mode". Requires driver support for tpic \specials. Some drawing programs such as xfig can write their output as eepic macros.

curves

An enhancement of LaTeX's picture mode to improve curve drawing.

xypic

there is also a reference manual.

texdraw

There are examples in the directory generic/texdraw/.

pspicture

Extend LaTeX picture drawing environment using PostScript \specials.

Pstricks

a set of macros for performing fancy twiddles using PostScript, such as drawing of geometrical objects, diagrams, fancy boxes, grayscales etc. There is a User Guide ( part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4), and a quick reference card.

METAPOST

a development of Donald Knuth's METAFONT program which produces PostScript rendition of fonts, diagrams etc rather than bitmapped versions. Documentation includes a manual and a guide to plotting graphs using METAPOST.

trees

Macros for drawing "tree" diagrams.

overpic

This package defines the overpic environment for overlaying a picture environment on top of an included graphic defined by an includegraphics command. Examples in opic-abs.tex and opic-rel.tex.

LaTeX Packages

These packages control the visual appearance and formatting of LaTeX documents. Many of them are described in the book The LaTeX Companion and they are grouped here in accordance with the headings defined there.

This installation contains the packages listed below. Many more have been written to provide additional capabilities and are available for download from the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network server, abbreviated to CTAN. Here is the Catalogue of packages available from CTAN. LaTeX itself and most of these packages are released under the LaTeX Project Public License.

Document Structure

xr

Page references to external documents.

varioref

"Intelligent" page references.

lastpage

Reference the number of pages in your LaTeX document (as in a page footer that says: Page N of M)

hyperref 

Create hypertext documents in dvi, postscript or PDF form. Contents listings, references, bibliographic citations and URLs are converted to hyperlinks.

dinbrief

The dinbrief document class (in German).

german

The german and ngerman document classes.

ntgclass

Dutch document classes.

minitoc

Package to add a mini-"table of contents" to each chapter. Example 1, example 2.

titlesec

Customize the sectioning format of a document.

sectsty

Macros to customize sectional headings (section, chapter etc)

tocloft

Customize the table of contents or lists of figures or tables.

tocbibind

Add document elements such as a bibliography or index to the table of contents.

Formatting Tools

bm 

The right way to make bold mathematical symbols.

xspace

Define commands that don't eat spaces.

verbatim 

A more robust implementation of the verbatim environment.

moreverb

An extension to the verbatim package that can handle TAB expansion, can number lines in an included file, can produce boxed verbatims, etc.

fancyvrb 

A comprehensive and customizable re-implementation of the verbatim environment. Allows specification of fonts, colours etc., line numbering, framing, TAB handling and conditional processing.

fvrb-ex

An extension to fancyvrb.

enumerate

Adds an optional argument to the enumerate environment which determines the style in which the counter is printed.

comma

\usepackage{comma} defines the command \commaform{number} which typesets number with a comma every third digit. If you want something other than a comma, for instance a thin space, or a full word space, redefine \commaformtoken for instance \renewcommand\commaformtoken{\,}.

indentfirst

Indent first paragraph after section header.

program

This package is for typesetting computer programs and algorithms. There is an example in program-demo.tex.

textfit

Package to support fitting of text to a given width of height by scaling the font.

typehtml

Typeset HTML (i.e., World Wide Web documents) directly from LaTeX.

plain

Allows the inclusion of plain tex markup in a LaTeX document. It defines the LaTeX environment plain which is used to enclose the plain tex to be included.

natbib 

Customizable citations. Can do almost any variant of numerical or author-date style citations. There's also a quick reference

bibentry

Insert formatted bibliographic references inline in the text.

paralist

Typeset lists within paragraphs.

MDW tools 

A collection of packages written by Mark Wooding

at.sty

Allows you to use `@' as a sort of `command-introducing' character, a bit like `\' is already.

cmtt.sty

Provides an `mTT' encoding for the Computer Modern Typewriter font, which solves lots of messy problems.

doafter.sty

Provides a TeX programmer's utility \doafter <token> <group> which does the <token> after the group is complete, including any \aftergroup things.

mathenv.sty

A collection of mathematical environments with a theme of aligning things in columns.

mdwmath.sty

Contains a few trivial definitions for mathematical things. The main thing is that the \sqrt command for doing square roots has been improved

mdwlist.sty

Various list related environments. There's a more versatile `description' environment, and some stuff for making `compacted' lists (with no extra space between items).

mdwtab.sty

A complete ground-up rewrite of LaTeX's `tabular' and `array' environments. Has lots of advantages over the standard version, and over the version in `array.sty'.

footnote.sty

Provides commands for saving executing footnotes.

sverb.sty

A bunch of macros for doing verbatim things.

syntax.sty

A load of commands for describing syntax. There's an environment for typesetting BNF grammars.

acronym

Make sure all acronyms used are spelt out at least once.

hyphenat

Improved control over hyphenation.

ragged2e

Provides commands and environments for setting ragged text which are easy to configure to allow hyphenation.

nomencl

Package for preparing tables of nomenclature or glossaries.

SIunits

Macros for typesetting SI units.

units

Typesetting of physical/metric units.

soul

Typeset text in a spaced-out or underlined fashion.

Page Layout

geometry 

Customize page layout (page sizes) using an easy and flexible user interface. Example sample.tex generates a testpage.

fancyheadings

This package has been renamed to fancyhdr.

fancyhdr 

Support for sophisticated control of page headers and footers in LaTeX2e. It supercedes fancyheadings.

footmisc 

Customize footnote numbering, style and presentation.

footnpag

Allows footnotes on individual pages to be numbered from 1, rather than being numbered sequentially through the document.

nopageno

\usepackage{nopageno} suppresses all page numbering including that on title and frontmatter pages.

chappg

The chappg package causes pages to be numbered in the style chapter-pagenumber. So the pages of chapter 3 will be numbered 3-1, 3-2, ..., and the pages of appendix B will be numbered B-1, B-2, ...

layout

Generate a test page showing the page layout.

layouts

Draw display of page layout parameters.

a4

Mostly superceded by LaTeX2e support for a4 paper but defines the extra option of widemargins. The geometry package is much more flexible.

scale

Rescales an entire document by 1.414 for photographic reduction.

anysize

Another package to set page sizes. Superceded by geometry.

fix2col

Improves some deficiencies in LaTeX's built-in two column output.

multicol

LaTeX package to mix single and multiple columns. Allows you to shift between two and one columns anywhere.

multitoc.dvi

Typeset tables of contents and lists of figures and tables in multi-column mode.

ftnright

Customize placement of footnotes in two column documents.

picinpar

Insert pictures into paragraphs. (NOTE: Piet van Oostrum does not recommend this package. Picins is recommended instead.

picins 

Insert pictures into paragraphs.

rotating 

Environment to rotate text, figures etc. There are examples, as LaTeX source and dvi or PostScript output.

eso-pic

This package makes it easy to add some picture commands to every page.

Modifying document appearance

showkeys

Print label, ref, cite and bib keys.

showlabels

Print \label arguments or equation numbers in margin at point of definition.

changebar

Add "change bars" in a document margin using dvi \specials.

crop

Print crop marks.

draftcopy

Overprint DRAFT on each page of document to indicate draft copy. The directory latex/draftcopy/ has a number of examples.

count1to

Sets some new counters for section selection.

prelim2e.dvi

Allows marking of preliminary versions of a document in the output.

thumbpdf

Support of thumbnails with pdfTeX, plain/LaTeX formats.

Tables

array

An extended implementation of the array and tabular environments which implements options to format columns.

longtable

Support for tables longer than a page

delarray

Add delimiters (parentheses etc.) around arrays.

supertabular

A multi-page tables package.

dcolumn

Align on the decimal point of numbers in tabulars.

hhline

Better horizontal lines in tabulars and arrays.

tabularx

Tabulars that widen automatically.

ltxtable

Longtable combined with tabularx.

colortbl 

Add colour to LaTeX tables.

booktabs

A package to lay out tables in high-quality (according to the author's opinion) book form.

slashbox

Typeset a box with a diagonal divider for table headings.

Floats

afterpage

Implements a command that causes the commands specified in its argument to be expanded after the current page is output. Useful to flush floats, for example

float 

Improves the interface for defining floating objects such as figures and tables. Introduces the boxed float and the ruled float.

subfigure

Figures divided into subfigures.

endfloat

Place all figures on pages by themselves at the end of the document.

placeins

Keeps floats `in their place', preventing them from floating past a \FloatBarrier command into another section.

caption2 and caption

Extend caption capabilities for figures and tables, such as the caption width, style, font.

sidecap 

Defines new LaTeX environments called SCfigure and SCtable (analogous to figure and table), to typeset captions sideways. leftcaption and rightcaption.

floatflt

Float text around figures and tables which do not span the full width of a page. This is an improved version of floatfig. Examples, latex source,precursor package floatfig.

rotfloat

Combines rotating package with enhanced float facilities of float. Examples: LaTeX source and output.

Fonts and Supporting Packages

ae

A set of virtual fonts designed to be a close approximation to a T1-encoded set based on the CM fonts. This should make it possible to use the existing Type1 versions of the CM fonts to produce PDF files even when one needs hyphenation patterns other than English. See also aecompl

fontsmpl

Print a sample of a font.

rawfonts

Emulation of LaTeX 2.09 low-level font commands, eg \tenrm.

beton 

Typeset a LaTeX2e document with the Concrete fonts designed by Don Knuth and used in his book ``Concrete Mathematics''.

ccfonts

LaTeX font definition files for the Concrete fonts and a LaTeX package for typesetting documents using Concrete as the default font family.

cmbright

Use the "Computer Modern bright" font family.

mathtime

Package to support the mathtime fonts, a mathematical font set complementary to Times-Roman. N.B. These fonts are not included in teTeX.

lucidabr

Package to use the Lucidea Bright font set from Y & Y. N.B. The fonts are not part of teTeX and must be purchased separately.

LY1

This font encoding package supports the `texnansi' encoding as used by default in the Y&Y TeX system. There is also an option to support the `ansinew' encoding that is the default encoding in Microsoft Windows.

dsfont

Double-stroke maths fonts. Declares the macro \mathds{} to use double-stroke roman fonts. Package option sans uses sans-serif version.

dotlessj

This package declares the macros \j and \jmath to insert a dotless j in text and math mode.

mflogo

LaTeX package and font definition file to access the Knuthian `logo' fonts described in `The MetaFontbook' and the MetaFont and logos in LaTeX documents.

Concrete Math fonts

A set of math fonts for use with Donald Knuth's concrete text fonts.

concrete

This package simply includes the beton and euler packages for an approximation of the style in Concrete Mathematics.

mathcomp

A package for using the Text Companion fonts in math mode. (For example to get an upright "mu".)

type1cm

Allows the use of Computer Modern fonts at arbitrary type sizes instead of the usual discrete magsteps.

pandora

The Pandora fonts.

yfonts

A LaTeX interface to the old-german fonts designed by Yannis Haralambous.

oldgerm

German handwriting fonts.

wasysym

This package defines LaTeX commands to insert the symbols in the wasysym font set.

stmaryrd

The "St Mary's Road" symbol fonts.

marvodoc

The martin Vogel symbol fonts.

AMS Maths

amsmath

User guide for AMS-LaTeX as implemented in the amsmath package.
Also see the frequently-asked-questions list , various Tex and LaTeX examples in the directory latex/amsmath/.

theorem

Enhancements to the theorem environments, giving more choice in theorem layout.

bbm

Blackboard variant fonts for Computer Modern, with LaTeX support . Font sample

euler 

Provides a setup for using the AMS Euler family of fonts for math in LaTeX documents.

eufrak

Use the Euler Fraktur symbols.

euscript

Substitute the usual math calligraphic characters with Euler script equivalents.

mathrsfs

This package defines the command \mathscr{ABC} which typesets symbols such as Hamiltonians using the Ralph Smith Formal Script (rsfs) calligraphic fonts.

amsguide

User guide for AMS-TeX (the original plain TeX maths package).

joyerr.tex

Errata for The Joy of TeX.

AMS Fonts

Documentation for the AMS mathematical font set. See also the package documentation, the bug list and the frequently-asked questions list.

Multilingual LaTeX

babel

This package supports multilingual documents in many language.

inputenc

Allows use of 8-bit character sets in source documents.

tb1202, tb1401, tb1604

Some articles on Babel which appeared in tugboat.

cyrillic 

Package for using cyrillic fonts.

T2

Another font encoding for Cyrillic.

MLTeX

MLTeX is a modification of TeX version that allows the hyphenation of words with accented letters using ordinary Computer Modern (CM) fonts. There are instructions on how to use MLTeX's \charsubdef extension with LaTeX .

Additional or alternative "document" types

seminar 

A LaTeX style for overhead transparencies and notes. Example 1, Example 2. List of frequently asked questions. List of known bugs.

examdoc

Style for preparing examination papers.

labels

A package for making sticky labels in LaTeX.

textmerg

Package for creating "text merges" (like wordprocessor mail merge letters) in LaTeX. The directory latex/textmerg contains examples.

eplain

Extended plain text format.

Programming and Package Authoring

ifthen

Defines if/then/else macros for conditional text.

calc

Package for infix arithmetic notation in LaTeX.

fp

Fixed-point arithmetic package forTeX and LaTeX

keyval

Provides support for writing keyword-style arguments to packages. Used by graphics.

somedefs

A "programmer's toolkit" for package writers.

fileerr

Implementation of an error handler for "file-not-found" errors.

localloc

Enhanced register-allocation macros.

doc

Literate Programming for package writers -- The combined LaTeX package-code/documentation suite.

docstrip

Package to build stripped-down version of package files for speed.

everysel

This package provides hooks into the NFSS command \selectfont called \EverySelectfont and \AtNextSelectfont analogous to \AtBeginDocument.

everyshi

This package defines a new command \EveryShipout analogous to \AtBeginDocument.

stdclsdv

Macros to interact with sectional divisions of standard LaTeX classes.

Web2C implementation

Ancillary Programs

Bibtex

The latter document, Designing BibTeX Styles is a guide to customizing the format of the reference list. The non-expert may find it more useful to use the ancillary program makebst which semi-automates the design of a new bibliography style.

natbib is a LaTeX package which allows customization of the citation style in the text (rather than the format of the reference list). It works with almost all bibliography styles, even those which define their own citation macros.

Makeindex

Dvips

To use the new Type I versions of the computer-modern fonts, use dvips with the extra argument -Pcmz or (-Pcm which does not download the fonts in the PostScript output.) Mathematical documents will probably also require -Pamz (or -Pams) for the AMS math fonts. eg

dvips -Pcmz -Pamz -P myprinter mydoc.dvi

Xdvi

Texinfo

TeX and LaTeX Variants

pdftex and pdflatex

Han the Thanth's variant which can generate output in Adobe PDF format as well as the usual DVI. Documentation is in the PDFTeX manual and there is a list of frequently-asked questions.

omega and lambda

The Omega system extends TeX for mixed multi-lingual typesetting using unicode. See the omega home page.

etex and elatex

e-TeX adds several extensions to TeX notably right-to-left typesetting.

ConTeXt

A new macro package for TeX. See also the full list of commands.

Local Additions

Other sources of Information

• The teT_EX home page.
• The TeX user's group.
• Cambridge university's Text Processing using LaTeX site. This contains a mine of useful information.
• The LaTeX Navigator.