DIYEFI.org Forumhttp://forum.diyefi.org/ LaTeX Installation How-Tohttp://forum.diyefi.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1624 Page 1 of 1

 Author: ToxicGumbo [ Mon Mar 05, 2012 8:40 am ] Post subject: LaTeX Installation How-To LaTeX is a typesetting markup language (based on Donald Knuth's TeX system) which allows an author to generate publish-ready documents for journals and books. LaTeX is especially popular in research and industrial environments for its ability to represent complex equations and scientific notation, embed a variety of image formats, and manage dynamic updates for section numbering, pagination, and works cited. Additional packages (ie. TikZ, Beamer) may also be installed to expand the capabilities of LaTeX and, much like other markup langages, formatting can be controlled through the use of standardized--or customized--style files.Documents are generated by undergoing the following series of conversions:LaTeX markup (.tex) -> Compiled binary (.dvi) -> Postcript (.ps) -> Archive (.pdf)In most cases, an editor will facilitate the conversion directly from .tex to .pdf without manually stepping through these processes. Though LaTeX editors exist which resemble popular desktop publishing suites, the use of such programs is highly discouraged. One of the primary principles behind LaTeX is that a document's code should remain readable, portable, and available for collaborative editing and revising. WYSIWYG editors, on the other hand, are known to introduce proprietary formatting and redundant code which can restrict the document's ability to be read and processed by others. If you plan to use LaTeX, plan to learn the language.A LaTeX installation generally consists of the following:An editorThe LaTeX engineSupport applicationsInstallation instructions can be found below and are broken up into three parts: Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.For an overview of the LaTeX markup language, visit http://www.latex-project.orgComments or criticism should be posted here: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1625