Type All Kind of Your Documents with L a T e X
1. What is L a T e X :
L
a
T
e
X
(pronounced “LAY-tek” or “LAH-tek”) is a tool for
typesetting professional-looking documents. However,
L
a
T
e
X’s mode of operation is quite different to
many other document-production applications you may have used, such as
Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer: those “
WYSIWYG
” tools provide users with an interactive page into which they type and
edit their text and apply various forms of styling.
L
a
T
e
X
works very differently: instead, your document is a plain text file
interspersed with
L
a
T
e
X
commands used to express the desired (typeset) results.
To produce a visible, typeset document, your
L
a
T
e
X
file is processed by a piece of software called a
TeX engine which uses the commands embedded in your text file
to guide and control the typesetting process, converting the
L
a
T
e
X
commands and document text into a professionally typeset PDF file. This
means you only need to focus on the content of your document
and the computer, via
L
a
T
e
X
commands and the TeX engine, will take care of the
visual appearance (formatting). You can learn more from
Wikipedia .