It would be really nice if an article series on LaTeX were published. Especially for those of us interested in large scale projects and how to combine LaTeX with notes and the various different LaTeX implementations, their pros and cons.
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Yes, I would support that.
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And once in a while a review of a LaTeX package or two would also be nice.
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Maybe click on āvoteā?
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Can we start with a guide as to what is latex, and why I should know or use it. For me its a type of Rubber glue, but I know nothing.
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One could not easily write a review of Latex on the forum .
Discourse supports Latex math expressions, but not the other parts of Latex like headings and tables and figures and document style.
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How many screenshots are possible per post? Perhaps a screenshot of the final result below an example would do?
There is a limit of number of bytes (total including pictures). I cant remember exactly how much.
This post
did not reach the limit.
It would be possible to do a Latex topic with screenshots mixed with code boxes.
Itās pronounced Laytech. Itās definitively not a type of rubber glue.
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Because the X is actually the Greek letter Chi
Te\Chi was chosen by Donald Knuth as the name of his famous TeX software which conquered the world of typesetting. It is an absolutely fantastic piece of programming and has been referred to as " a triumph of logic over convention"
LaTe\Chi is built on top of Te\Chi
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Ok when I did the google search I got
Cannot wait for the results, could be quite an eye opening !
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You might be interested in this. Itās not about a substance :")
EDIT:
Sorry, I didnāt mean to insult anyone.
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That is a well written introduction to Latex
There is also the classic Leslie Lamport book.
āLatex. A Document Preparation System. Users Guide and Reference Manualā
Addison Wesley 1986
ISBN 0-201-15790-X
What do you think we might write in addition to those?
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Thing is, these arenāt exactly quick finds on the internet. When people start looking for latex, they get the rubbery substance, sometimes even porn.
Telling people what latex is and how to get started using it might be very helpful.
I found this on latex itself. Quite a lot and pretty complete, except on the installation part, which it basically glosses over.
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OK, I think we should use these references rather than repeat material.
Maybe show some example jobs?
Maybe an FAQ?
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I used to be a regular user of LaTeX before retiring. Beside Xanderās post about the wikibooks site there are plenty of other online resources, for example
One source - 44 Best LaTeX Books of All Time (Updated for 2025)
Also, this site is an excellent resource for individual questions - https://tex.stackexchange.com/
A simpe google (or web search engine of your choice) will show a lot of online references.
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One thing Iām especially struggling to understand is how to get LaTeX to accept unicode sources and how to have it create unicode documents.
Iāve understood itās possible to make LaTeX understand and talk unicode, but how?
Another thing which puzzles me is how to use truetype fonts, especially those already installed on the system.
Finally, how can I make it create documents with a paragraph font size of 14? I understand thereās font sizes of 10pt, 11pt, and 12pt, but not 14pt.
Iām Dutch and my native language uses non-ASCII symbols from time to time. There are words with ĆŖ, Ć«, ĆØ, and Ć© (to name but a few), and those words need not be that exotic either.
Another thing which is non-trivial is installation. Sure, youāll need some form of a text editor and a LaTeX distribution. Whatās not clear is what is exactly installed with these distributions; what additions you might be needed; and how to use them, once installed.
The wikibook book isnāt quite as clear on these topics. These are among the topics Iād especially appreciate receiving answers.
All these issues are showstoppers for me. That being said, Iām willing to learn. However, the documentation Iāve found isnāt quite helpful.
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Wellā¦ errrā¦ some of these can be categorized as porn. Others can be categorized as science fiction. Are you sure all of these are about the typesetting system LaTeX, instead of the material latex?
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IIRC, I was using something like this:
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
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I think the range of font sizes that are available depends on the font family that is selected.
The Latex declarations for changing the type size are
\tiny
\scriptsize
\ footnotesize
\ small
\ normalsize
\ large
\ Large
\ LARGE
\ huge
\ Huge
I f you dont declare anything you get normalsize
If you issue one of the above ( eg small) everything thereafter is small, up to the next declaration.
So you can change typesize dynamically mid-document
I think you have to get used to the idea that in Latex you dont specify point sizes , except for the initial default which can be 10, 11, or 12 pt. Everyghing else is relative to thatā¦ ie what \small does depends on whether you start with 10, 11, or 12pt.
You can certainly get a 14pt document by starting with one of the defaults and using one of the modifiers.
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