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LaTeX

Awesome LaTeX Awesome License: CC BY-SA 4.0

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This is a curated list of awesome stuff for the (La)TeX typesetting system.

Learning LaTeX

Guides how to learn LaTeX

Distributions

  • MacTeX - Most common LaTeX distribution for macOS, basically TeXLive with some Mac-specific tools added. mac
  • TeX Live - Most common LaTeX distribution for Unix-like operating systems, including GNU/Linux. Also works on Windows. linux windows
  • MikTeX - Most common LaTeX distribution for Windows, but also available for Mac, Linux or as Docker image. linux windows mac foss

Docker Images

When one aims for a ready-to-run LaTeX environment without installing, Docker images might be the choice.

Engines

  • pdfTeX - TeX compiler that produces PDF files immediately instead of DVI files (nowadays, this is the standard compiler for many users). foss
  • XeTeX - TeX compiler that provides better unicode and font support than TeX/pdfTeX (i.e. you can use the fonts of your operating system instead of only TeX fonts). foss
  • LuaTeX - (La)TeX compiler that supports Lua code for scripting and has improved unicode and font support than standard TeX/pdfTeX. foss
  • tectonic - Modern, self contained (La)TeX compiler powered by XeTeX and TeXLive. foss

LaTeX formulas on the web

  • Auto-LaTeX Equations with Google Docs - Render high-quality math equations directly in Google Docs.
  • MathJaX - JavaScript engine to render mathematical formulas on the web. The outcome looks really slick. foss
  • mimeTeX - mimeTeX is a rather old tool to render LaTeX formulas to PNG figures for your web site, without actually needing a LaTeX installation on your server. foss
  • mathTeX - mathTeX is the successor of mimeTeX: it produces nicer-looking images but it requires LaTeX to be installed on your server. foss
  • KaTeX - KaTeX is a math rendering library made by Khan Academy focusing on fast load times. All output is processed as plain HTML instead of fixed images. foss
  • Franklin.jl - Static site generator with KaTeX support, code evaluation, LaTeX-like commands and optional pre-rendering, in Julia. foss
  • xhub - Browser extension that lets you use LaTeX in GitHub pages. foss

Editors

Because editing LaTeX code with notepad is not awesome. There are many editors out there, below are the most awesome editors. A complete list of LaTeX editors is collected at tex.stackexchange.com as big list of LaTeX Editors/IDEs.

LaTeX-focused

Some of the most awesome editor for LaTeX do just that: edit LaTeX.

  • Kile - Great LaTeX editor originally from the Linux/KDE community. It runs fine on Windows and macOS as well. foss
  • TeXMaker - Pretty good alternative to Kile.
  • TeXStudio - Cross-platform LaTeX editor that stems from TeXMaker.
  • WinEdt - The LaTeX editor many people swear by. Only for windows.
  • TeXnicCenter - Quite old but free and decent editor for LaTeX. windows
  • LyX - Cross-platform WYSIWYM editor that uses LaTeX behind the scenes to render documents. foss
  • TeXShop - No-nonsense editor for LaTeX documents which is included in MacTeX. mac
  • TeXWorks - No-nonsense editor for LaTeX code, modeled after TeXShop, but this one is cross-platform. foss
  • BakomaTex - Commercial LaTeX editor that allows to edit your document both using its source code and WYSIWYG.
  • Texpad - Commercial LaTeX editor for macOS and iOS, with excellent features (document overview, synchronised PDF display, autocompletion, sync across devices, etc.) that never get in the way of writing. mac

General purpose text editors

These editors are no one-trick ponies: sure, they edit LaTeX, but they can do a lot more!

Online editors

Online editors that allow you to edit documents collaboratively.

  • List of popular online LaTeX editors - Community-maintained list of popular online LaTeX editor including equation editors.
  • Authorea - Online editor with built-in git support and bibliography tools.
  • ShareLaTeX - Has pretty great LaTeX documentation and simple version control.
  • Overleaf - Online editor, also with a WYSIWYM editor and git support.
  • WebLaTeX - Web-based vscode with Git Integration + Copilot + Grammar & Spell Checker + Live Collaboration Support based on GitHub Codespace and Dev container.
  • Papeeria - Online editor with built-in git support.
  • JaxEdit - Online LaTeX editor with Live Preview and nice presentation mode.

Bibliography tools

  • JabRef - Very powerful cross-platform (Java) bibtex editor. mac windows linux foss
  • Papis - Extremely customizable, powerful and simple cross-platform (Python) library manager. It has a very complete Command-Line-Interface, several GUIs and scripting capability. linux mac foss
  • Bibdesk - Great bibliography editor for mac.
  • Zotero - Reference manager for your browser that also exports to bibtex and integrates with many LaTeX editors. mac windows linux foss
  • Mendeley - Both an app and cloud client to manage your references and PDFs. Can sync out to a bibtex file for your LaTeX workflow. mac windows linux
  • betterbib - Command-line utility for improving your BibTeX files. Fetches information from online sources. mac windows linux foss

Build Tools

Compiling LaTeX documents can be tedious, build tools help you to manage the compilation process.

  • Arara (GitHub repo) - Simple tool that allows you to specify which tools to call inside your document and it can be extended quite easily. foss
  • latexmk - Build tool that is the commonly used by many LaTeX editors (LaTeXing, TeXShop, etc.) to build your LaTeX files. foss

GitHub Actions

Misc. Tools

  • CaTeX - Concatenates LaTeX documents with attention for properly merging the preamble.
  • Pandoc - This program converts almost any document format (LaTeX, DOC, markdown, etc.) to almost any other format. A great tool to aid workflows where multiple formats are used. foss

Quality Check Tools

  • ChkTeX - Linter / code checker for LaTeX documents. foss
  • blacktex - Command-line tool that replaces commonly occurring LaTeX anti-patterns and cleans up your files. windows linux mac foss
  • TeXtidote - A cross-platform (Java) spelling, grammar and style checker for LaTeX documents. windows linux mac foss

Tools centered around equations

  • Codecogs Eqn Editor - Online LaTeX equation editor that allows you to produce figures containing an equation.
  • EqualX - Graphical LaTeX formula editor. windows linux foss
  • KLaTeXFormula - Cross-platform alternative for LaTeXit. foss
  • Laeqed - Crossplatform LaTeX formula to PNG convertor. windows linux mac foss
  • LaTeXEqEdit - LaTeX formula editor for Windows. windows foss
  • LaTeXiT - LaTeXit is an equation editor that makes it easy to drag-and-drop rendered equations (as PDF, PNG, etc.) into your non-LaTeX documents on the Mac. mac
  • pix2tex - LaTeX OCR windows linux mac foss

LaTeX-compatible GUI tools

  • TikzEdt (also: GitHub repo) - WYSIWYG and text-based editor for TikZ pictures. foss
  • TikZ-Editor - Live-previewing editor for TikZ figures. mac linux foss
  • IPE - Drawing tool that integrates well with LaTeX commands and documents. foss
  • GeoGebra - Cross-platform geometry tool with output to TikZ. foss
  • Dia - Cross-platform diagramming tool that can export to PSTricks and MetaPost code. foss
  • TikZiT - GUI tool for creating graphs and string diagrams using PGF/TikZ. windows linux mac foss
  • LaTeXDraw - Vector-based drawing tool having LaTeX as first-class citizen. windows linux mac foss

Packages

  • CTAN - The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network is the place to look for useful packages and documentation.

References

Tables

  • Excel2LaTeX - Excel (2010 and older) macros to produce LaTeX tabular code. windows mac
  • csv2latex - Converts CSV files from your favorite programs to LaTeX tabulars. linux mac
  • Tables Generator - This website provides a graphical interface to input your table and produces properly-formatted code for LaTeX, Markdown, HTML, etc.
  • pgfplotstable - This package displays numerical tables rounded to desired precision in various display formats. It can even read CSV files to include directly in your LaTeX document.

Graphics

PSTricks

PSTricks is a great library to draw figures for inclusion in PostScript/DVI files.

TikZ

TikZ is an awesome package with many plugins that allow you to create figures from within your LaTeX documents. Typically, it is easier to get to work with pdflatex than PSTricks is.

  • TeXample - Blog about LaTeX, with a big collection of TikZ figures.
  • LaTeX en SI - Useful website with some custom packages to draw special plots (Bode, Nyquist, electrical schematics, block schematics, etc.) using TikZ. Note that everything is in French.
  • pgfplots - Truly awesome plotting library on top of and in the style of TikZ/pgf. This library can load in CSV data files, perform some calculations and create beautiful plots.
  • A very minimal introduction to TikZ (PDF) - Short introductory document to the world of TikZ, written by Jacques Crémer.
  • PetarV-/TikZ - Collection of publication-ready PGF/TikZ figures by Petar Veličković.
  • matlab2tikz - Convert your MATLAB plots to PGFPlots/TikZ. windows linux mac foss
  • tikzplotlib - Convert your matplotlib plots to PGFPlots/TikZ. windows linux mac foss
  • TikZBlog - Step-by-Step Tutorials about How to Draw Illustrations in LaTeX.

Source Code

  • minted - The minted package uses pygments to generate the listings. In this way, LaTeX is able to format more than 300 programming and markup languages and other text formats.

Typography

  • microtype - This package improves the appearance of your documents by enabling margin kerning and font expansion.

Presentations, Slides

  • nics - An opinionated alternative to Beamer, that we created with the hopes to make common tasks very easy and beautifully rendered by default. Has awesome documentation and a detailed cheatsheet to help you getting started.

Templates

Symbols

Resources

Showcases

Tutorials

Books

Blogs

  • TeXblog - Blog about LaTeX and everything related.
  • texblog.org - Blog on LaTeX and related topics (tutorials, packages, code snippets, etc.).
  • TeX Talk - Blog for the TeX Stack Exchange site with news and interviews.
  • TeX Hour - A weekly video meeting

Social media


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The icons indicating Mac, Linux and Windows compatibility show when a program is only available for those platforms. So absence of those icons means that the software is fully cross-platform.

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