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Formatting Information — An introduction to typesetting with LATEX
‘Move the files to a directory where LATEX will find them.’
— Anon. Many class and package installation instructions.
There are always new classes and packages coming out, and others being updated (see the list in § 3.2 above). If you use an automated updater like TEX Live’s tlmgr or MiKTEX’s Update-FNDB then updates will get put in ‘The Right Place’ automatically, and you don’t need to do anything else.
But there are also times when you may want to add a new or special class or package by hand; perhaps a public one that comes from a publisher’s web site rather than CTAN; maybe a private one from your company or organisation (so LATEX and CTAN won’t know about it, and you’re not allowed to share it); or maybe classes and packages you are writing yourself.
Every users needs a place to put such files where they won’t get mixed up either with your documents or with TEX’s own files. This is the ‘The Right Place’ to put files mentioned in § 3.2.2 above, and it’s known as your Personal TEX Directory (PTD) or Personal TEX Folder (PTF).
LATEX will automatically check this folder first for classes and packages, so anything you put in your Personal TEX Directory will be found before LATEX looks anywhere else. This is why it’s important for manual updates, and for special or private classes, packages, styles, and fonts.
For TEX Live on Unix & GNU/Linux systems, including Apple Macintosh OS X, you do not need to do anything else, just put your new files in your Personal TEX Directory and LATEX will find them;
For MiKTEX (only) you need to tell the MiKTEX Console afterwards where you created your Personal TEX Directory (see step 3 below) and update your FNDB when you add or remove files.
For TEX Live, the folder MUST be called texmf (short for TEX and METAFONT), and MUST go in your home (login) directory on Unix & GNU/Linux systems and Microsoft Windows running TEX Live, or in the user’s Library folder on Apple Macintosh OS X. For MiKTEX you can choose a different name if you wish.
Follow the instructions for your operations system below.
You can use either the terminal or the file manager:
open a terminal (console) window and type
mkdir ~/texmf
use a file-manager:
Open a file-manager window (eg Thunar, Nautilus, Dolphin, etc) on your Home directory
Right-click in an empty area of your Home directory so the menu dialog appears
Click
Type the new folder name texmf
Press the Enter key
Close the file-manager
You can use either the terminal or the file manager:
use the Finder:
Open the Finder on your Home folder
Click on
Click on and in the Options dialog which appears, make sure that is checked, then close the dialog window and select Library in the list of folders
Click
Name the new folder texmf
Close the Finder
You can use either the terminal or a file manager:
open a Command window and type
cd %USERPROFILE% md texmf
(On older Windows systems (7/8/95/XP/ME) use %HOME% instead of %USERPROFILE%.)
use the File Explorer:
Open File Explorer (called My Computer or Computer on older Windows systems)
Make sure it is showing your home folder: this C:\Users\your~name on modern Windows systems (on Windows 7/8 it is Computer\System\Users\your~name and on older Windows it is C:\).
Right-click in your home folder and pick , then type in the name texmf (make sure it is called texmf in all lowercase) and press the Enter key.
Create the TDS subfolder structure (all systems)
At a minimum, you SHOULD create the TEX Directory Structure (TDS) folders and subfolders tex/latex, fonts/truetype, and fonts/opentype inside your new Personal TEX Directory because this is where you put the subsubfolders for classes, packages, and fonts that you add manually, for example
# I put my homebrew blockchart package in a blockchart directory texmf/tex/latex/blockchart/ texmf/tex/latex/blockchart/blockchart.sty # I put my supertramp package in a supertramp directory texmf/tex/latex/supertramp/ texmf/tex/latex/supertramp/supertramp.cls # I put Vivian Dehning's SuperTramp font in a dehning directory texmf/fonts/opentype/dehning/ texmf/fonts/opentype/dehning/SuperTramp.otf # I put daredemotypo's Faulmann font in a daredemotypo directory texmf/fonts/truetype/daredemotypo/ texmf/fonts/truetype/daredemotypo/FaulmannFont-JRMgj.ttf texmf/fonts/truetype/daredemotypo/FaulmannSmp-GO87G.ttf
If you want to recreate the entire TDS subdirectory tree, there are instructions for Unix & GNU/Linux systems in § 3.2.3 above which can also be adapted for Windows.
Update your FNDB (MiKTEX only)
If you use MiKTEX you MUST now tell MiKTEX to add your new Personal TEX Folder to its File Name Database (FNDB). This step is COMPULSORY: without it, nothing will work.
Click the or button and run the MiKTEX Console (maintenance options) program (it should be shown among your recent programs).
Click the Roots tab and the button, and navigate in the window to the place where you created the texmf folder above
Click on the General tab and tell MiKTEX to update its FNDB along with its other folders by clicking the button (the mediaobject ‘…’ below)
In MiKTEX you MUST click on the button any time you make changes to the contents of your Personal TEX Directory (the texmf folder), otherwise MiKTEX will not be able to find the files.
