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 available.)

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 proTeXt for Windows. You can join TUG or another user group and
have physical discs sent to you, or you can purchase the distributions without joining. These
distributions are (almost entirely) free software, so you can also download the big ISO images
and burn your own discs; see the distribution home pages for details.

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):

 LaTeX Documentation Pointers has references to documentation for many common

LaTeX tasks (by Jim Hefferon).
  A First LaTeX Document takes you through writing a small document with text and math
for the first time (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: TeX by Topic, A TeXnician's Reference, by Victor Eijkhout.

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

General help: see below; first place to look is the FAQ.

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.
 A Guide to LaTeX2e, by Helmut Kopka and Patrick Daly (Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-
321-17385-6, fourth edition, 2003). Covers core LaTeX from the ground up, and
discusses commonly used packages for graphics, web integration, and more.
 The LaTeX Companion, by Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams,
David Carlisle, and Chris Rowley (Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-36299-6, second
edition, 2004). Also 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

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

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!