Editing LaTeX (section)

{{Redirect|LATEX|the polymer|Latex|5=Latex (disambiguation)}}
{{Short description|Typesetting system}}
{{Infobox software
| name = LaTeX
| logo = LaTeX project logo bird.svg
| logo caption = The LaTeX Project logo
| logo size = 240px
| screenshot =
| caption =
| author = [[Leslie Lamport]]
| developer =
| released = {{Start date and age|1984|df=yes}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|edit|reference|P348}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date = <!-- {{Start date and age|202y|mm|dd}} -->
| programming language =
| platform = <!--Which?-->
| size =
| genre = [[Typesetting]]
| license = [[LaTeX Project Public License]] (LPPL)
| website = {{URL|https://www.latex-project.org}}
}}

'''LaTeX''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɑː|t|ɛ|k|audio=En-us-LaTeX.ogg}} {{Respell|LAH|tek}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|e:|t|ɛ|k}} {{Respell |LAY|tek}},<ref>{{Cite web |title=An introduction to LaTeX |url=//latex-project.org/intro.html |access-date=18 April 2016 |website=LaTeX project}}</ref>{{refn|group=Note|Also pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɑː|t|ɛ|x}} {{Respell|LAH|tekh}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|e:|t|ɛ|x}} {{Respell |LAY|tekh}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|eɪ|t|ɛ|k|s}} {{Respell|LAY|tex}}.}} often stylized as '''{{Stylized LaTeX}}''') is a [[software system]] for [[typesetting]] documents.<ref name="Lamport1986">{{Cite book |last=Lamport |first=Leslie |title=LATEX: a document preparation system |date=1986 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Pub. Co |isbn=0-201-15790-X |oclc=12550262}}</ref> LaTeX markup describes the content and layout of the document, as opposed to the [[formatted text]] found in [[WYSIWYG]] word processors like [[Google Docs]], [[LibreOffice Writer]], and [[Microsoft Word]]. The writer uses [[Markup language|markup]] tagging conventions to define the general structure of a document, to stylize text throughout a document (such as bold and italics), and to add [[citation]]s and [[cross-reference]]s. A [[TeX]] distribution such as [[TeX Live]] or [[MiKTeX]] is used to produce an output file (such as [[PDF]] or [[Device independent file format|DVI]]) suitable for printing or [[digital distribution]].

LaTeX is widely used in [[academia]] for the communication and publication of scientific documents and technical note-taking in many fields, owing partially to its support for complex mathematical notation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What are TeX, LaTeX and friends? |url=//www.ctan.org/what_is_tex.html}}</ref><ref name="Gaudeul2006">{{Cite journal |last=Alexia Gaudeul |date=June 2007 |title=Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study |journal=Review of Network Economics |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.2202/1446-9022.1119 |s2cid=201097782 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It also has a prominent role in the preparation and publication of books and articles that contain complex [[Multilingualism|multilingual materials]], such as Arabic and Greek.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Markin |first=Pablo |date=1 November 2017 |title=LaTeX, Open Source Software, Facilitates the Adoption of Open Access by Authors, Repositories and Journals |url=http://openscience.com/latex-open-source-software-facilitates-the-adoption-of-open-access-by-authors-repositories-and-journals/ |access-date=5 November 2017 |website=OpenScience}}</ref> LaTeX uses the TeX typesetting program for formatting its output, and is itself written in the TeX [[Macro (computer science)|macro]] language.

LaTeX can be used as a standalone document preparation system or as an intermediate format. In the latter role, for example, it is sometimes used as part of a pipeline for translating [[DocBook]] and other [[XML]]-based formats for PDF. The typesetting system offers programmable [[desktop publishing]] features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross-referencing of tables and figures, chapter and section headings, graphics, page layout, indexing and [[bibliography|bibliographies]].

Like TeX, LaTeX started as a writing tool for mathematicians and computer scientists, but even from early in its development, it has also been taken up by scholars who needed to write documents that include complex math expressions or non-Latin scripts,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec |language=en |url=https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Multilingual_typesetting_on_Overleaf_using_babel_and_fontspec |access-date=2022-04-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Babel: The multilingual framework to localize LaTeX, LuaLaTeX, XeLaTeX |language=en |url=https://latex3.github.io/babel/ |access-date=2024-11-09}}</ref> such as [[Arabic script|Arabic]], [[Devanagari]], and [[Chinese characters|Chinese]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinese |url=https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Chinese |access-date=2020-12-30 |website=www.overleaf.com |language=en}}</ref>

LaTeX is intended to provide a high-level, descriptive markup language to utilize TeX more easily. TeX handles the document layout, while LaTeX handles the content side for document processing. LaTeX comprises a collection of TeX macros and a program to process LaTeX documents, and because the plain TeX formatting commands are elementary, it provides authors with ready-made commands for formatting and layout requirements such as chapter headings, footnotes, cross-references and bibliographies.

LaTeX was originally written in the early 1980s by [[Leslie Lamport]] at [[SRI International]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Leslie Lamport |date=April 23, 2007 |title=The Writings of Leslie Lamport: LaTeX: A Document Preparation System |url=//research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#latex |access-date=2007-04-27 |website=Leslie Lamport's Home Page}}</ref> The current version is LaTeX2e, first released in 1994 but incrementally updated starting in 2015. This update policy replaced earlier plans for a separate release of LaTeX3, which had been in development since 1989.<ref name="Latex3planning">{{Cite web |title=Quo vadis LaTeX(3) Team — A look back and at the upcoming years |url=https://www.latex-project.org/publications/2020-FMi-TUB-tb128mitt-quovadis.pdf |access-date=2023-06-09 |website=www.latex-project.org}}</ref> LaTeX is [[free software]] and is distributed under the [[LaTeX Project Public License|LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL)]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=LaTeX - A document preparation system |url=https://www.latex-project.org/ |access-date=2019-07-20 |website=www.latex-project.org}}</ref>