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Formatting Information
An introduction to typesetting with LATEX
Peter Flynn
Welcome to Formatting Information
This is the online version of Formatting Information, a book about how to use the LATEX document preparation system. LATEX takes over where wordprocessors and desktop publishing systems leave off, making it possible to automate your formatting consistently, accurately, and reusably, without the tedious and repetitive manual formatting required by other systems.
This book has helped thousands of users get started. It’s now in its eighth edition (2023), but this is also a production release: everything has been tested but some details had to be rewritten and this was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic until the release of of TEX Live (2023). The only things you need are a computer and a copy of LATEX...and a document that you want to typeset. LATEX works on almost any computer, and you can download it from the TUG web site, install it from the TUG DVD, or use one of the online in-browser versions like Overleaf.
In the web and eBook editions, this page doubles as the index, but in the print (PDF) edition, the index is at the end. If you haven’t done any typesetting before, I recommend that you start at the beginning. If you’re itching to get started, and you feel you know enough about computers and text-editing already, you can try the Quick Start instead.
Either way, welcome to LATEX. Take it gently for a while, and get used to being able to spend more time actually writing than formatting. If you find mistakes, please let me know so that I can correct them.
Some font conventions are used in the text and the index to distinguish between different meanings. These are listed in § 7 above. The entries in the index are all hyperlinked to their source. In the web and eBook editions, subsequent multiple occurrences give the section number or name. Page or section numbers in bold type indicate a canonical location where the entry is explained.
Index
" (Back)
\"e 1.9
' (Back)
\'\i{} 1.9
\'e 1.9
( (Back)
) (Back)
- (Back)
\- 1.10
. (Back)
.h1 Interest Rates Home
\.m 1.9
1 (Back)
10pt 2.1
11pt 2.1
: (Back)
:h1.Interest Rates Home
= (Back)
\=o 1.9
@ (Back)
@Heading[Interest Rates] Home
\@maketitle 7.2
A (Back)
\aa 1.9
\AA 1.9
\abstractname 2.4
abstracts 2.4
accents 1.9
\addbibresource 5.3
\addcontentsline 2.6
\addtocontents 2.6
\ae 1.9
\AE 1.9
American Association of Publishers (AAP) Home
American Mathematical Society (AMS) 1.11
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) D
American Psychological Association (see APA) 5.3
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (see ASCII) D
ampersand 1.7
APA 5.3
\arabic 7.6
argument 1.5
arguments 1.5
\arraybackslash 4.2
article 5.3
ASCII Home, Intro.4, 1.9, 1.11, 2.1, 4.4, 4.7, D, E.2
\author{your name} Home
B (Back)
\b o 1.9
babel 1.9, 1.10, 2.7, 4.2, 5.3
backslash 1.5
badness B.3
\bar n 1.11
Barbara Beeton 1.3
\baselineskip 4.2
baselinestretch 6.1
\begin{...} 2.2
\begin{abstract} 2.4
\begin{document} Home, 1.6, 2.2, 2.2, 2.4, 7.2, 8.1
\begin{itemize}[nosep] 4.1
Berry, Karl A
biber B.2
BIBINPUTS 5.3
biblatex Credits, 1.2, 3.3, Home, 5.3, 5.3, Home, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3
bibliographies 5.3
bibtex B.2
\bigskip 6.1
binary 1
BMP 4.4
Bob Wallace 4.2
boxes 4.6
bp (big points) 1.10
bundle 3.2
C (Back)
Chikrii, Kirill A 8.2
Chassell Bob Preface
Clea F Rees 5.3
\c C 1.9
\c c 1.9
caption 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.3
Cascading Style Sheets (see CSS) 8.2
cc (Ciceros) 1.10
CD A.1
cd B.2
center 1.5, 1.10, 4.2, 4.2, 6.2
\centering 1.10, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 6.2
\chapter 2.6, 2.6, 2.7, 5.1, 7.6
\chapter{Introduction} 1.6
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) A.1
Chocolate Stout Home
Christopher R Maden 1.10
\cite 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, Home, 5.3, 5.4
\cite{fg} Home
class 3
\cline 4.2
cm (centimeters) 1.10
CMYK 6.2
colour 6.2
columns 5.5
columnsep 5.5
Comma-Separated Values (CSV) 4.2
\command Home
Command-Line Interface (see CLI) Intro.1
commands 1.5
comment character 1.7
commercial distributions Intro.5
Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Intro.1
commutative 6.2
Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (see CTAN) 3.2
Computer Modern (CM) 6.2
ConTEXt Preface
Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support (CALS) 4.2
cross-references 5.3
CTAN Foreword, Preface, Intro.4, Intro.5, Intro.6, Intro.1, Home, 2.1, 3, 3.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.3, 3.3, 4.4, 5.3, 5.4, 6.2, 6.2, 6.3, 6.3, Home, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, A, A, A.1, A.3, A.4, A.5, C.2
Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (see CMYK) 6.2
D (Back)
Dorner, Fernando 8.2
DuBois Paul Home
\d s 1.9
DANTE C.1
\datesubmitted 2.3
\date{} 2.3
dd (Didot points) 1.10
DEB Intro.1
default 6.2
\definecolor 6.2
description 4.1
description* 4.1
desktop publishing (see DTP) Preface
DEST A.2
Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TEX (see DANTE) C.1, C.1
DeVice-Independent (see DVI) Preface
diagram 4.2
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Preface
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) 1
Digital Versatile Disc (see DVD) 8
dimension 2.7
dimensions 1.10
DOCTEX 3.2
document Intro.4, 1.5, Home, 2.2, 2.3
Document Object Model (DOM) 8.2
document class 2.1
Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL) 8.3
Document Type Description (see DTD) 7.6
\documentclass 1.5, Home, 2.1, 2.1, 2.4, 3.1, 6.2
\documentclass{article} 8.1
DOS 4.2
dots per inch (see DPI) Intro.1
double-spacing 6.1
\doublespacing 6.1
Doug McKenna 6.2
DPI Intro.4
draft 2.1
\dtae B.3
DTD Home, Intro.8, Home, 8.1, E.2
DTP Preface, 1.10, 1.10, 4.2, 6.2, 6.2
DVD Home, Intro.4, Intro.6, Intro.1, Intro.1, Intro.1, 3.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, A, A, A.2, A.2, A.2, A.2, A.2, A.2, A.5, A.5, Home
DVI Preface, 1.2, 4.4, 8.2, A.2
DVIPS A.2
dvips -f testpage | lpr A.2
dvips -R0 ... dvifile 4.4
dvipsnames 6.2
E (Back)
ECDL Intro.2
\editversion 2.3
\EF 7.1
Electronic Publication (see EPUB) Home
em 1.10
em (relative measure) 1.10
\emph{ 8.1
empty 6.1
Encapsulated Postscript (see EPS) 4.4
\end{abstract} 2.4
\end{itemize} 1.5
\end{verbatim} 4.7
\enspace Home
enumerate 4.1
enumerate* 4.1
enumi Home
enumii Home
enumiii Home
enumitem 3.2, 4.1, 4.1, 4.1, 4.1, 4.2, 6.1, 6.1, 6.1
enumiv Home
EPUB Preface, 8, Home, 8.2, 8.2
equation 1.11
error B
Error messages B.3, B.3, B.3, B.3, B.3, B.3, B.3
Euro 1.7
European Computer Driving Licence (see ECDL) Intro.1
ex (relative measure) 1.10
example 4.1
eXPerience (XP) Home
eXperimental Computing Facility (XCF) E.2
eXtended DVi (XDV) 1.2
Extensible Stylesheet Language: Formatting Objects (XSLFO) 8.3
Extensible Markup Language (see XML) 8
Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 8.3
Extensible Stylesheet Language (see XSLT) 8
F (Back)
Fine, Jonathan Home
Fabrizio Musacchio 1.3
\fancyhead 6.1
figure* 5.5
figures 4.3
File Name Database (see FNDB) A.3
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 3.2
filenames B
\fnsymbol 5.1
font series 6.2
font shape 6.2
fonts 2.1, 6, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, A.4
\fontsize 6.2
fontspec 1.5, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 8.2
\footcite{fg} Home
footnotes 5.1
\footnotesize Home
\footnote{...} Home
\footnote{Like this} 5.1
\foreignlanguage 1.10
\frac{ 1.11
Frequently-Asked Questions (see FAQ) 3.3
FTW Home
G (Back)
Gregorio, Enrico Home
Granzer, Andreas 8.2
GELLMU 8.2
Generalized Extensible LATEX-Like MarkUp (see GELLMU) 8.2
geometry 2.1, 2.1, 2.7, 3.1, 3.1, 3.1, 4.2, 5.2, 6.1, 6.1
GIF 4.4
\gls 5.4
\gls{esis} 5.4
GNU Home, Preface, Preface, Preface, Intro, Intro.4, Intro.6, Intro.1, Intro.2, Intro.8, 1.3, 1.3, 1.5, 1.9, 3.2, Home, 3.2, 3.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.2, Home, 8.2, 8.2, A, A.2, A.2, A.2, A.3, A.3, A.4, A.4, Home, A.4, A.5, B.1, E.1, E.11, E.13, E.13
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 4.4
Graphical User Interface (see GUI) 8.1
Graphics Interchange Format (see GIF) 4.4
\graphicspath 4.4
grep A.4
grouping 6.2
groups 6.2
Grupa Użytkowników Systemu TEX (see GUST) C.1
GUST C.1
GUT C.1
H (Back)
Hennings, Wilfried 8.2
Hagen, Hans 1.2
Hans, Hagen 1.2
Henkel, Hartmut 1.2
Hoekwater, Taco 1.2
\H o 1.9
Hagen Hans Preface
headings 6.1
help 3.3
HOME Home
\hrule 7.2
\hspace{1in} 6.1
HTML Home, Preface, Home, Intro.8, Home, 2.1, 2.2, 2.7, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 5.3, 6.2, Home, Home, Home, 8.1, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.3, E.2
\huge Home
\Huge Home
HyperText Markup Language (see HTML) 8
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 3.2
hyphen 4.7
I (Back)
\i 1.9
IEEE 5.3
illustrations 4.2
image 4.2
images 4.4
IMC Home
in (inches) 1.10
\includegraphics 4.3, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4
\includegraphics[width=3in]{myhouse} 4.7
indexes 5.4
\index{beer!lite!American} 5.4
\index{beer!lite} 5.4
\index{beer} 5.4
\index{Microbrew|see{beer}} 5.4
\index{Oregon Brewing Company@Rogue} 5.4
informal figures 4.2
informal tables 4.2
inline 4.1
\input{mygloss.tex} 5.4
Inria 8.2
Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique [originally Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique] (see Inria) 8.2
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (see IEEE) 5.3
International Organization for Standardization (see ISO) 2.1
International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) Intro.1
itemize* 4.1
J (Back)
Jørgensen, Palle 6.2
Jørgensen, Palle 6.3
Jan Tschichold 1.10
JavaScript Object Notation (see JSON) 8
Joint Photographic Experts Group (see JPG) 4.4
Jonathan Kew 6.2
Journal Article Tag Suite (see JATS) 8.2
JPG Home, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, E.2
JSON C.1
K (Back)
Kastrup, David Home
Kew, Jonathan 1.2
Knuth, Donald C
Knuth, Donald 7.4
Kay, Michael Intro.1
Kew, Jonathan Preface
Knuth, Donald Preface
Knuth, Donald Preface
Koch, Richard A
Kohm Markus 3
kpsewhich 3
L (Back)
Lamport, Leslie 7.4
Ludwichowski, Jerzy C.1
\l 1.9
\L 1.9
\label 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.3, 5.3, 5.3, 6.1
\labelitemi 7.6
\labelitemiv 7.6
Lamport, Leslie Preface
\large Home
\Large Home
latex 3.2
latex testpage A.2
latexmk B.2
layouts 6
\leftmark 6.1
Leila Singleton 1.10
letterspacing Home
Library of Congress (LoC) Preface
\linebreak 7.3
Linux A.2
lire sign 1.7
\listoffigures 2.6
\listoftables 2.6
Lotz, Manfred A
\lowerbox 7.6
lrbox 4.6
ls -R A.6
M (Back)
Maranget Luc 8.2
Malyshev, Basil K Intro.5
m 4.2
M-x eval-buffer RET 1.2
Mac OS X A.2
MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) Preface
\makeglossary 5.4
\maketitle 2.3, 2.3, 2.3, 2.3, 2.4, 2.4, 2.4, 2.7, 3.1, 7.2, 7.2, B.3
man makeindex 5.4
marginal notes 5.2
\marginal{Some text} 5.2
margins 6.1
\markboth 6.1
\markright 6.1
markup 1
Marta Materni 8.2
Massive Multiauthor Collaboration (see MMC) E.12
matchlowercase 6.2
math characters 1.11
measurements 1.10
\medskip 6.1
metacharacters 1.7
metadata 2.3
Michael Sperberg-McQueen 1.3
Microbrew Home
Microsoft Bitmap (see BMP) 4.4
MicroSoft Disc Operating System (see MS-DOS) B.1
Microsoft Windows A.2
Minimal [Non-]Working Example (MWE) 3.3
minipage 4.6, 4.6, 4.6, 4.6, 5.1, 7.5
mirror 4.4
mkdir -p fonts/source/public/whatever Home
MLA 5.3
mm (millimeters) 1.10
MMC E.12
MODE A.2
Modern Language Association (see MLA) 5.3
multicols 5.5
multicols* 5.5
\multicolumn{1}{c}{no data} 4.2
\multicolumn{3}{c}{The new heading} 4.2
myheadings 6.1
N (Back)
Nederlandstalige TEX Gebruikersgroep (see NTG) C.3
Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) 3.3
New Font Selection Scheme (NFSS) A.4
New Typesetting System (see NTS) Preface
\newcounter{example} 4.1
\newfontface 6.2
\newfontfamily 6.2
\newgeometry 6.1
\newglossaryentry 5.4
\noindent 4.5
normalem 6.2
\normalsize Home
NTG C.3
NTS 4.2
number sign 1.7
O (Back)
Otten, Ton 1.2
Ota, Takaaki 4.2
\o 1.9
\O 1.9
\oe 1.9
\OE 1.9
Office Document Text (ODT) Home
OFFSET A.2
\onehalfspacing 6.1
oneside 2.1
options 3.1
OS X A.2
OT Preface, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2
OTF 1.2
\ovalbox 4.6
P (Back)
Péter Szabó 4.4
p 4.2
\P 5.3
packages 2.1, 3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2
\pageref 5.3
panels 4.6
PAPER A.2
paper sizes 2.1
\parbox[t]{3in}{...} 4.6
\parencite 5.3
\parencite{keyname} Home
\part 2.6
\part* 2.6
pc (picas) 1.10
PDF Home, Home, Preface, Preface, Preface, Preface, Home, Intro.4, 1.2, 1.2, 1.4, 1.8, 1.10, 2.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.6, 4.7, 4.7, 5.3, 5.3, 6.1, 6.2, Home, Home, 8.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, A.1, A.2, Home, A.4, C.1, C.1, E.2
Personal TEX Folder (PTF) A.3
Personal Digital Assistant (see PDA) Intro.1
Personal TEX Directory (see PTD) A.3
\person{Don Knuth} 7.4
\person{Leslie Lamport} 7.4
pica 1.10
picas 1.10
picture 4.3
plain 6.1
plaintext 1
PNG Home, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, 4.4, E.2
point 1.10
points 1.10
polyglossia 1.9, 1.10, 2.7, 4.2, 5.3
Portable Graphics Format (PGF) 4.3
Portable Document Format (see PDF) 4.4
Portable Network Graphic (see PNG) 4.4
pound 1.7
Preamble Home
Printer Control Language (PCL) 4.4
\printglossaries 5.4
\printindex 5.4
printing B
pt (points) 1.10
Q (Back)
\qquad Home
quotation marks 1.8
R (Back)
Raggett Dave Home
\RaggedCenter 1.10
\raggedleft 1.10, 1.10, 4.2, 4.2
\RaggedLeft 1.10
\raggedright 1.10, 1.10, 1.10, 4.2, 4.2, 4.6
\RaggedRight 1.10
Rahtz, Sebastian A
\raisebox 7.6
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 3.3
RedHat Package Manager (see RPM) Intro.1
references 5.3
\ref{normalxref} Home
REHASH A.2
\renewcommand 2.4, 2.4, 2.6, 4.2, 7.2, 7.6
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5} 4.2
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.75} 6.1
\RequirePackage 6.2
Research Information Systems (see RIS) 5.3
RGB 6.2
Rich Text Format (see RTF) Home
\rightmark 6.1
RIS 5.3
Rogue Home
rotate 4.4
RPM Intro.1
S (Back)
Stephani, Philipp Home
Scarso, Luigi 1.2
Schenk, Christian A
Stallman Richard Preface
Sathyam Ujwal Home
\S 5.3
Scalable Vector Graphics (see SVG) 6.2
scale 4.4
Scale=MatchLowercase Home, 6.2
scaled 4.4
scheme-basic A.1
scheme-small A.1
scoped 6.2
Scott Pakin 6.2
\scriptstyle 6.2
section Home, 1.5, 2.6, 2.6, 2.7, 5.1, 6.1, 7.6
section numbering 2.6
sections 2.6
\section{Interest Rates} Home
\section{Introduction} 7.6
\selectfont 6.2
\selectlanguage 1.10
\sentinel 7.4
\setmonofont 6.2
\setsansfont 6.2
SGML Home, 2.1, 2.2, 8, 8.2, 8.3, E.2
sidebar 4.6
sidebars 4.6
\singlespacing 6.1
size (fonts) 6.2
\slshape Home
\smallskip 6.1
sp (scaled points) 1.10
space 6.1
spaceskip 1.10
spacing 6.1
\ss 1.9
Standard Generalized Markup Language (see SGML) 8.3
sterling 1.7
strut 4.2
style (fonts) 6.2
\subparagraph* 2.6
\subsubsection 2.6
sudo texconfig A.2
summaries 2.4
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) 6.2
SVG Home
svgnames 6.2
system fonts 6.2
T (Back)
t 4.6
\t oo 1.9
tabcolsep 4.2
table* 5.5
\tableofcontents 1.5, 2.6, 2.6, 2.6, B.3
tables 4.2
\tablesfont 6.2
tabular 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.2, 4.3, 4.6, 4.6
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) 4.4
TDS 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 3.2, 6.3, 6.3, Home, Home, Home, A.4
TEI Home, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, C.1
temporary directory 3.2
term Home
terminal B
TEX Directory Structure (see TDS) 3.2
texconfig A.2
texdoc 3.1
TEXMFSYSVAR Home
Text Encoding Initiative C.1
\text... 5.4
\textbackslash 1.7
\textbf{text} Home
\textbrokenbar 1.11
\textbullet 4.1
\textcite 5.3
\textcite{keyname} Home
\textcolor 6.2
\textcolor{red}{like this} 6.2
\textdegree 1.11
\texteuro 1.7
\textit{Star Trek} 1.6
\textit{text} Home
\textlangle 1.11
\textrangle 1.11
\textsc{text} Home
\textsf{text} Home
\textsl{text} Home
\textsterling 1.7
\textsuperscript 1.7
\texttrademark 7.3
\texttt{text} Home
textwidth Home
\the... 7.6
\thechapter 7.6
\theenumi Home
\theenumii Home
\theenumiii Home
\theenumiv Home
\theexample 4.1
\TheSbox 7.5
\thesection 7.6
\thispagestyle 6.1
Thành, Hàn Thế 1.2
Thành, Hàn Thế Preface
tilde 1.7
\tiny Home
\titlecite 5.3
titlepage 2.1
titles 2.3
\tmproduct 7.3
\tmproduct{Velcro} 7.3
tools 5
tracking Home
TT Preface, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2
TTF 1.2
\ttfamily Home
TUG Foreword, Preface, Preface, Intro.6, Home, Intro.1, Intro.5, 1.3, 3.2, 3.3, 4.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, 6.2, A, A, A.1, Home, B.3, C, C.2, C.3, C.4, Home
twocolumn 5.5
twoside 2.1
typographics 6
U (Back)
\u u 1.9
UKTUG C.3
\uline 6.2
unboxed 4.1
Unicode Transformation Format — 8-bit (see UTF-8) 1.2
Uniform Resource Locator (see URL) 4.7
Uniform Resource Identifier (see URI) 4.7
United Kingdom TEX User Group (see UKTUG) C.3
units 1.10
Universal Serial Bus (see USB) Home
Unix A.2
unscoped 6.2
Unternehmensberatung Rubow Weber (see URW) 6.2
\upshape Home
URI 1.5, 1.5, 2.1, 3.2, 4.7, 4.7, Home, Home, 4.7, A.5
url 1.5, 1.5, 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 5.1, 8.1
\UrlFont 4.7
URW 6.2
USB Home
\usepackage 1.5, 2.1, 3.1, A.4, A.4, B.3
\usepackage{graphicx} 4.4, 4.4
\usepackage{xcolor} 6.2
USERPROFILE Home
UTF-8 Credits, 1.2, 1.8, 2.2, Home, 5.3, A.2, D
V (Back)
\v n 1.9
\verb 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 5.1
verbatim text 4.7
\VerbatimFootnotes 5.1
viewer B
\vspace 6.1
\vspace*{19pt} 6.1
\vspace{18pt} 6.1
W (Back)
Wawrykiewicz, Staszek 4.4
What You See Is What You Mean (WYSIWYM) Intro.1
What You See Is What You Get (see WYSIWYG) Intro.1
white-space 1.10, 6.1, 6.1, 6.1, Home
Will Robertson 3.3
WYSIWYG Preface, Preface, Home, Home, Home, Intro.4, Home
X (Back)
xcolor Home, 3.1, 3.1, 3.1, 3.1, 3.1, Home, 4.6, 6.2, 7.2
XHTML 5.3, Home, Home, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2
XML Home, Home, Foreword, Preface, Preface, Intro.4, Intro.8, 1, Home, 1.6, 2.1, 2.2, 4.2, 4.7, 7.6, 8, 8, Home, Home, 8.1, 8.1, 8.1, 8.1, Home, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.2, 8.3, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, C.1, E.2
XML version of HTML (see XHTML) Home
XSLT Home, Home, Foreword, Intro.8, 8.1, Home, 8.1, 8.3, C.1
XƎTEX Preface
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[GNU] INFOrmation (INFO) Preface
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- Introduction: 1 Using your computer — essential skills
- Introduction: 2 Using software (programs) — useful skills
- Introduction: 3 Typographic notations used in this document
- 1.1 Default editors with different distributions of TEX
- 1.2 Special characters in LATEX
- 1.3 Symbolic notation for Latin-alphabet accents
- 1.4 Units in LATEX
- 2.1 LATEX’s sectioning commands
- 3.1 Where in your Personal TEX Directory to put files you install manually from packages
- 4.1 Types of list
- 4.2 Default numbering for nested numbered lists
- 4.3 Project expenditure to year-end 2022
- 5.1 Built-in biblatex style commands and formats
- 6.1 Header and footer locations in the fancyhdr package
- 6.2 Typeface styles, families, shapes, and series (unscoped)
- 6.3 Typeface styles, families, shapes, and series (scoped)
- 6.4 LATEX font step sizes
- 1.1 Some LATEX editors being configured to use XƎLATEX
- 1.2 Quick-start example document text
- 1.3 What to click on to typeset a document
- 1.4 Some parts of a piece of metal type
- 1.5 An M of type of different faces boxed at 1em
- 2.1 Titling information typeset on the title page
- 3.1 The CTAN page for a package (xcolor)
- 4.1 Table being edited in LYX’s tabular editor
- 4.2 Tables mode for Emacs
- 4.3 Total variable overhead variance (after Bull (1972, p 191))
- 4.4 The vector diagram shrunk and enlarged
- 5.1 JabRef displaying a file of references, ready to insert a citation of Fothergill’s book into a LATEX document being edited with TEXStudio
- 6.1 Layout of a font zip file downloaded from CTAN
- 7.1 Example of reprogrammed title layout
- 8.1 LATEX editing and processing on the Sharp Zaurus 5500 PDA
- 8.2 LATEX editing and processing on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4
- 8.3 Sample paragraph in AbiWord being converted to XML
- 8.4 The typeset paragraph and its generated source code
- 1.1 Plaintext and wordprocessor files
- 1.2 Clarity check
- 1.3 Set your LATEX and BIBTEX processors
- 1.4 Quick start
- 1.5 Braces or not
- 1.6 To space or not to space
- 2.1 Create a new document
- 2.2 Adding the document environment
- 2.3 Adding your metadata
- 2.4 Using an Abstract or Summary
- 2.5 Reasoning
- 2.6 Start your document text
- 2.7 Using a Table of Contents
- 2.8 Start typing!
- 3.1 Add colour and change page shape
- 3.2 Read all about it
- 3.3 Install a package
- 3.4 Replicating the TDS
- 4.1 List practice
- 4.2 Nesting
- 4.3 Calculate vertical spacing in a tabular environment
- 4.4 Create a tabulation
- 4.5 Adding pictures
- 4.6 Try some fixed-format text
- 5.1 Using biblatex
- 6.1 Font indexing in TEX Live installed from TUG DVD or download on Linux systems
- 6.2 Font indexing in TEX Live installed from .deb repositories on Debian-based Linux systems
- 6.3 Font indexing in TEX Live installed from .rpm repositories on RedHat-based Linux systems
- 6.4 Font indexing in MacTEX on Apple Mac OS X systems
- 6.5 Try setting up fonts by fontname
- 7.1 Rewriting the title
- B.1 Running LATEX in a terminal or console window
Revision history
RSS returns
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Publication history
The November 2003 edition of ‘Formatting Information’ was published as a single-topic issue of TUGBoat (Flynn, 2002). Subsequent editions have been published on the Silmaril LATEX web site at http://latex.silmaril.ie/formattinginformation/.
- v. 8.08 — 5 October 2023
- Updated events and merged them with the XML events from the XML FAQ in a single file. Merged the DTD too.
- v. 8.07 — 1 August 2023
- Switched back to XeLaTeX on KB's recommendation because of speed concerns with LuaLaTeX. Started work on an appendix on implementing designs, with a section of metadata and titling.
- v. 8.06 — 27 July 2023
- Extensively rewrote the section on alignment outside a tabular environment.
- v. 8.05 — 12 June 2023
- Added Barbara Beeton's comment on math delimiters; extracts from TYPO-L about em rules and en rules.
- v. 8.04 — 7 May 2023
- Added GUIT23 and DANTE meetings, corrected expansion of plural/suffix on defining instances of acronyms.
- v. 8.03 — 18 April 2023
- Added ConTEXt meeting (Sept 23), corrected misleading markup on Personal TeX Directories.
- v. 8.02 — 14 April 2023
- Resolved personname references to xml:ids, replaced more character entity references.
- v. 8.01 — 4 April 2023
- Removed (obsolete) list of commercial systems, edited surrounding text, and replaced links to the table with links to the subsection. Corrected @startinglinenumber on included code; resolved the right incantation for Windows to place the PTD; replaced dozens of character entity references no longer needed with their actual Unicode character.
- v. 8.0 — 1 April 2023
- Finally switched to LuaLaTeX, edited references to fit. Tidied up acronym crossrefs, updated lots of package references.
- v. 7.99 — 8 March 2023
- Added a few more exercises. Clarified some explanations. Completely rewrote the section on installation. Tidied up cross-reference linking in the PDF.
- v. 7.98 — 31 January 2023
- Added many more exercises. Corrected many bits of poor grammar and wordy explanations. Completely rewrote the section on fonts. pdflatex and plain LaTeX are now omitted (ie XeLaTeX only).
- v. 7.97 — 1 November 2022
- Started work on adding exercises. Added Discord to help section.
- v. 7.96 — 11 October 2022
- Added docx2tex converter and rationalised the section.
- v. 7.95 — 23 September 2022
- Rewrote the terminology and description of floats.
- v. 7.93 — 13 August 2022
- Rewrite of the TTF and OTF font installation section, updates to the accuracy of the other font installation sections.
- v. 7.92 — 9 August 2022
- Updated BachoTEX conference cancellation.
- v. 7.91 — 9 June 2022
- Updated BachoTEX conference.
- v. 7.9 — 20 February 2022
- Updated conferences. Changed the Quick Start to use XeLaTeX and updated the commentary on the commands used.
- v. 7.85 — 10 July 2021
- Updated list of commercial implementations to remove companies no longer trading.
- v. 7.84 — 16 February 2021
- Added new favicon.
- v. 7.83 — 10 December 2020
- Updated reference to csvtools in tables to datatool, and added image of tabled being edited in LYX.
- v. 7.82 — 23 April 2020
- Added footnote in verbatim about the alignment of the end command in other packages
- v. 7.81 — 19 November 2018
- Updated and rewrote the section on image file formats
- v. 7.8 — 25 February 2018
- Updated BachoTEX and MarkupUP
- v. 7.7 — 14 February 2018
- Updated conference dates; added details of lwarp; fixed bibref pointer to PDF pages where given.
- v. 7.6 — 14 May 2017
- Added salient comments about how to choose an editor from Michael Sperberg-McQueen, and slides from TUG 2017 from Barbara Beeton on how to handle LATEX errors.
- v. 7.5 — 21 January 2017
- Full update of Mac and Windows installation with new screenshots and a new layout for procedures; introduction of an XSLT routine to test when an element is immediately preceded by another element with only white-space intervening, and to generate a space token if needed (this overcomes the design flaw alluded to in the revision comments to v3.7 below); many updates to phraseology, and removal of obsolete mentions of packages and practices.
- v. 7.45 — 4 November 2016
- Updated details of TDS package installation
- v. 7.44 — 11 October 2016
- Updated details of meetings
- v. 7.43 — 15 April 2016
- Updated comments on superscripted ordinals, spacing around em rules, and details of loading OTF/TTF fonts
- v. 7.42 — 1 March 2016
- Edited all sections, corrected spellings, updated package details and all examples to XƎLATEX/biblatex/biber, fixed stray typos, checked links,. This is preparatory to v8, due for later in 2016.
- v. 7.41 — 30 January 2016
- Minor typos, updated event dates
- v. 7.4 — 16 November 2015
- Started updating converters
- v. 7.3 — 26 October 2015
- Updated meetings for 2016
- v. 7.2 — 12 July 2015
- Several sections re-ordered to present the material is a more logical fashion. Numerous grammatical elisions corrected, and some late typos (thanks to Rob Borland).
- v. 7.1 — 10 June 2015
- Minor changes to accommodate revised PDF format.
- v. 7.0 — 30 July 2014
- Completely re-edited, large sections rewritten, obsolete material removed, including installation changes for the 2014 DVD, and a completely new responsive web site launched.
- v. 6.0 — 30 December 2013
- Updated links, replaced references to obsolescent packages, rewrote installation for the 2013 DVD
- v. 5.7 — 21 December 2011
- Moved and expanded the details of creating a Personal TEX Directory. Added new section on using the LaTeX Font Catalogue.
- v. 5.6 — 1 November 2011
- Revised installation details for TL2011.
- v. 5.5 — 25 May 2011
- Minor revision; added details of page references in citations, a warning about the broken harvard.sty and its solution with natbib and har2nat, and a reference to bibunits.
- v. 5.4 — 27 April 2011
- Minor revision; added details of packages for body type size options; fixed bug in HTML bibrefs which were failing to retrieve the date.
- v. 5.3 — 22 March 2011
- Minor revision; removed mention of VTeX as a synchronous typographic editor and replaced with BaKoMa TeX. Located and fixed XSLT bug which was preventing cross-reference IDs being used correctly. Finally tracked down the non-appearance of italics in some places (no Lite Italic in my copy of Antique Olive).
- v. 5.2 — 13 March 2011
- Minor revision; even finer details of the problems Windows users face at installation.
- v. 5.1 — 5 March 2011
- Minor revision; spellings and font selection errors repaired; missing rule in HTML table example; better details of the problems Windows users face at installation.
- v. 5 — 28 January 2011
- Major revision; Installation and Editors sections rewritten, remaining package references updated, and more new ones added.
- v. 4 — 1 April 2009
- Major revision; Installation and Editors sections reorganised, all package references updated, and new ones added.
- v. 3.7 — 22 December 2006
- There have again been some small but significant improvements, both in the LATEX code, and in the default installations and implementations. The default colour package is now xcolor; the default output for many people is now PDF; and the advent of XƎTEX means that TrueType fonts and Unicode are now much more easily supported. The DocBook DTD has been updated to 4.4, and the TypeBook DTD shim likewise, and the IGNOREd code from 3.5 and earlier versions has now finally been dropped. XSLT still has the notorious design flaw of ignoring whitespace nodes in mixed content when a DTD is used, but this seems to have gone unnoticed except by the publishing industry. The use of the citetitle element for bibliographic references has been replaced by biblioref.
- v. 3.6 — 31 March 2005
- Since the publication of the November 2003 edition in TUGboat, several new books on LATEX have been released, and this edition reflects some of the new material and approaches contained in them. See the Bibliography for details of these publications. The only technical change has been to use empty elements for the TEX, LATEX, and other logos instead of the more usual entities so that the HTML version can use CSS to produce better logos. Thanks to whoever wrote the CSS for TEX4ht, which is where I found the styles.
- v. 3.5 — 29 July 2004
- Modified DTD to add span element type to allow use of external entities for formatted TEX, LATEX, and other logos in the HTML version. Changed entity declaration in the internal subset to enable this, and switched declarations and marked sections in the DTD. This now means it needs Saxon 7 or 8 to process, as Saxon 6 does not handle parameter entities values used as parameter entity declarations.
- v. 3.4 — 9 November 2003
- Applied all Barbara Beeton’s corrections (see separate emails) and rewrote a few formatting macros to allow the document to fit more easily into the US Letter shape. It would be nice if it would also format for A5 so that it could become a paperback but that’s another day’s work. Started on writing the missing sections (Installing Type 1 CM Fonts and Going beyond LATEX, but these are not finished yet) and rewrote entirely the existing (non-CM) Type 1 font installation procedure in line with the new (unreleased) Gutta-Percha script. Added hidden meanings for CD, DVD, IBM.
- v. 3.3 — 20 August 2003
- Fixed XSLT bug which wrongly lettered appendices. Fixed problem which called wrong font for examples of Times and Helvetica (thanks to William Adams). Updated numerous typos, added comments about pdftex option to color. Rewrote formatting for TUGboat.
- v. 3.2 — 5 March 2003
- Finished rewrite. Revised and expanded almost everything.
- v. 3.1 — 28 August 2002
- Recast in DocBook and reworded some sections. Started the big rewrite.
Copyright
This document is copyright © 1998–2023 by Silmaril Consultants under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (copyleft).
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the last appendix ‘GNU Free Documentation License’ below.
You are allowed to distribute, reproduce, and modify this document without fee or further requirement for consent subject to the conditions in § E.5 below. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this document. If you make useful modifications you are asked to inform the author so that the master copy can be updated for the benefit of others.
The PDF edition was typeset with XeLATEX in Noto Serif, Noto Sans, and Nimbus Mono Narrow from the XML master document also used in the web and eBook editions, transformed with XSLT 3, Calibre, and kindlegen. Readers of the Kindle (.mobi) version may notice that the TEX and related logos are reproduced in plain text rather than with the special spacing and alignment normally seen; this is to compensate for the many deficiencies of the Kindle file format and the Kindle devices, which are not capable of reproducing microtypographic adjustments. Standard Electronic Publication v3 (EPUB) format eBook readers are not affected by this and show the logos in their correct form.