A Brief Introduction to L A TEX Amanda Kriesel Metropolitan Community College, Nebraska akriesel@mccneb.edu April 7, 2016 Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 1 / 17
Table of Contents 1 What is L A TEX? Brief History of L A TEX TypeSetting Program Vs Word Processor 2 Popular Types of L A TEXDocuments 3 Where to Get L A TEX 4 Basic Document Codes Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 2 / 17
What is L A TEX pronounced as lay-tek short for Lamport Tex (Leslie Lamport) typetting program similar to a markup language acts as a publishing company s book designer for authors standard for creating mathematical written documents Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 3 / 17
Brief History of L A TEX based on Donald E. Knuth s typsetting language of 1977 Donald E. Knuth earned the A.M. Turing Award developed in 1985 by Leslie Lamport As technology advanced, word processors became ubiquitous in typography which negatively impacted published documents, especially in the mathematics community version numbers of TEX converges to π (3.141592653) Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 4 / 17
Typesetting Program Vs. Word Processor L A TEX is free L A TEX works well for writing mathematical articles, exams, etc professional look easy to learn standard in mathematics written language community Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 5 / 17
Typesetting Program Vs. Word Processor Cont. Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 6 / 17
Popular Types of L A TEXDocuments Mathematics Articles Exams Slide Presentation Theorems Bibliography Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 7 / 17
Where to get L A TEX To install on a personal computer go to: http://www.ctan.org/ TeXStudio PC TeXShop - Mac To install on a transportable or school device: http://miktex.org/portable Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 8 / 17
Basic Document Codes % my first LaTeX file \documentclass{article} % preamble \usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsthm} \begin{document} \section{this is a section} \subsection{this is a subsection} First paragraph is here. Second paragraph is here. \end{document} Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 9 / 17
Basic Document Codes Enclose all math in dollar signs, as $x^2-2x+1$ to display x 2 2x + 1 For math centered on a line by itself, use double dollar signs: $x^2-2x+1$ to display: x 2 2x + 1 Use caret for superscripts: $x^2$ to display: x-squared ( x 2) Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 10 / 17
Basic Document Codes Use underbar for subscripts: $X_2$ to display: X-sub-two (X 2 ) $x^23$ will be x-squared with a 3 right after it ( x 2 3 ), NOT x-to-the-23rd. To have larger exponents, use curly brackets: $x^{23}$ would be x-to-the-23rd ( x 23). Similarly for subscripts. Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 11 / 17
Basic Document Codes For writing limits use $$ \lim_{x \rightarrow \infty } 1/x = 0 $$ to display: For implications, use 1 lim x x = 0 \Rightarrow or \Longrightarrow to display: or = For fractions, use \frac{x^2+1}{x^2-2x+1}$ to display: x 2 +1 x 2 2x+1 Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 12 / 17
Basic Document Codes For integrals use $\int_a^b f(x)$ to display: b a f (x) For square roots use $\sqrt{x}$ and $\sqrt[n]{x}$ to display: x and n x Greek letters are just spelled out, like \pi to display: π Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 13 / 17
Basic Document Codes To display bold text: Bold - \textbf{} To display italix text: Italics - \textit{} To display Blackboard Font text: Math blackboard To display centered text: - \mathbb{} Centering text - \begin{center} \end{center} To display lists or bullets text: \begin{enumerate} \item \end{enumerate} Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 14 / 17
More Resources for L A TEX Check out my MCC faculty page under Latex Resources on the left tab. http://faculty.mccneb.edu/akriesel Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 15 / 17
References Tobias Oetiker Hubert Partl, Irene Hyna and Elisabeth Schlegl (2014) The Not So Short Introduction to L A TEX2E Free Software Foundation 1995-2011. Leslie Lamport s Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2016. http://www.lamport.org/ Philip Hirschhorn (2014) Using the exam document class http://www-math.mit.edu/ psh/exam/examdoc.pdf AM Turing (2016) Donald E. Knuth. http://amturing.acm.org Book Designer (2016) The Book Designer http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/01/the-trouble-with-word-processors/ eff Ford, Minnesota State University, Mankato Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 16 / 17
The End Amanda Kriesel (MCC) LaTex April 7, 2016 17 / 17