LaTeX/Kurulum

Installing "LaTeX" is not a simple one-click download and install. Multiple programs often need to be downloaded and installed in order to have a suitable computer system that can be used to create publishable output, such as PDFs. The basic requirement is to have TeX and LaTeX. Optional, and recommended installations include an attractive editor to write LaTeX source documents (this is probably where you will spend most of your time), and a bibliographic management program to manage references.

TeX and LaTeX

TeX and LaTeX are available for most computer platforms, since they were programed to be very portable. They are most commonly installed using a distribution, such as teTeX, MiKTeX, or MacTeX. This, however, does not include any editor or advanced graphical user interface. Other programs, that are not part of the distribution, are used to write and prepare TeX and LaTeX files.

UNIX/Linux

UNIX and Linux users have a wide choice of distributions; the most common are teTeX and TeX Live. As of May 2006 teTeX is no longer actively maintained and its former maintainer Thomas Esser recommended TeX Live as the replacement. Ubuntu and Debian users can install one (not both!) of these systems using the system's apt package manager.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X users may use MacTeX, supporting TeX, LaTeX, AMSTeX, ConTeXt, XeTeX and many other core packages.

TeX Live is also available through MacPorts and Fink.

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows users can install MiKTeX onto their computer. This distribution has advanced features, such as automatic installation of packages, and simple interfaces to modify settings, such as default paper sizes.

Online

To get started without needing to install anything, users can use ScribTeX which is a completely online LaTeX compiler, based on the TeX Live distribution.

Editors

TeX and LaTeX source documents (as well as related files) are all text files, and can be opened and modified in almost any text editor. A few recommended editors include:

Cross-platform

• Texmaker
• Vim with Vim-LaTeX Vimscript plugin
• Emacs with AUCTeX
• ScribTeX (browser based)
• Verbosus (browser based)

Linux-only

• Kile

Mac OS X-only

• TeXShop

Windows-only

• LEd
• TeXnicCenter
• WinEdt
• WinShell

Bibliography management

Bibliography files (*.bib) are most easily edited and modified using a management system. These graphical user interfaces all feature a database form, where information is entered for each reference item, and the resulting text file can be used directly by BibTeX.

Cross-platform

• JabRef
• Mendeley

Mac OS X-only

• BibDesk

Graphics tools

Xfig

Xfig is a basic program that can produce vector graphics, which can be exported to PSTEX. It can be installed on UNIX/Linux platforms. With Ubuntu or Debian distributions, it can be easily installed using apt.

On Microsoft Windows systems, Xfig can only be installed using Cygwin-X; however, this will require a fast internet connection and about 2 gigabytes of space on you computer. With Cygwin, to run Xfig, you need to first start the "Start X - Server", then launch "xterm" to bring up a terminal. In this terminal type "xfig" (without the double quotes of course) and press return.

Inkscape

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, which can export images to EPS or PDF files, which may then be imported into LaTeX (see LaTeX/Importing Graphics). It can run natively under Windows, Linux or Mac OS.

An extremely useful plug-in is textext, which can import LaTeX objects. This can be used for inserting mathematical notation or LaTeX fonts into graphics (which may then be imported into LaTeX documents).

OpenOffice.org

It is also possible to export vector graphics to EPS format using OpenOffice.org Draw, which is an open source office suite available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

See also

• Installing Extra Packages