Editing TeX (section)

{{short description|Typesetting system}}
{{other uses|Tex (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = TeX
| logo                   = TeX logo.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
| logo_size              = 
| developer              = [[Donald Knuth]]
| released               = {{start date and age|df=yes|1978}}
| latest_release_version = TeX Live 2024<ref name="texlive">{{cite web |title=TeX Live - TeX Users Group |url=https://tug.org/texlive/ |website=tug.org |access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref>
| latest_release_date    = {{start date and age|df=yes|2024|3|13}}
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date    = <!--  {{Start date and age|df=yes|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| operating_system       = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Typesetting]]
| programming_language   = [[WEB]]/[[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]
| license                = [[Permissive free software license|Permissive free software]]
| website                = {{URL|https://tug.org/}}
}}
{{Infobox file format
| name                   = TeX
| icon                   =
| logo                   =
| screenshot             =
| caption                =
| extension              = .tex
| mime                   = application/x-tex{{Efn|name=Unreg|[[Media type#Unregistered tree|Unregistered media type]]}}
| type code              =
| uniform type           =
| magic                  =
| owner                  =
| released               = {{Start date and age|1978|df=yes}}
| latest release version =
| latest release date    =
| genre                  = [[Document file format]]
| container for          =
| contained by           =
| extended from          =
| extended to            =
| standard               =
| url                    =
}}

'''TeX'''  ({{IPAc-en|t|ɛ|x}}, see [[#Pronunciation and spelling|below]]), stylized within the system as {{Stylized LaTeX|tex}}, is a [[typesetting]] [[Computer program|program]] which was designed and written by computer scientist and Stanford University professor [[Donald Knuth]]<ref>{{cite web |url= https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/java/1999-q2/msg00419.html |title=Per Bothner (attendee at TeX Project meetings) discusses authorship |quote= Knuth definitely wrote most of the code himself, at least for the Metafont re-write, for which I have pe[r]sonal knowledge.  However, some of his students (such as Michael Plass and John Hobby) did work on the algorithms used in TeX and Metafont.}}</ref> and first released in 1978. The term now refers to the system of extensions – which includes software programs called TeX ''engines'', sets of TeX [[Macro (computer science)|macros]], and packages which provide extra typesetting functionality – built around the original TeX language.  TeX is a popular means of typesetting complex [[mathematical formulae]]; it has been noted as one of the most sophisticated digital [[Typography|typographical]] systems.<ref>Yannis Haralambous. ''Fonts & Encodings (Translated by P. Scott Horne)''. Beijing; Sebastopol, Calif: O'Reilly Media, 2007, pp. 235.</ref>

TeX is widely used in [[academia]], especially in [[mathematics]], [[computer science]], [[economics]], [[political science]], [[engineering]], [[linguistics]], [[physics]], [[statistics]], and [[quantitative psychology]]. It has long since displaced [[troff|Unix troff]],{{efn|Although ''troff'' still remains as the default formatter of the UNIX documentation.}} the previously favored formatting system, in most [[Unix]] installations. It is also used for many other typesetting tasks, especially in the form of [[LaTeX|{{Stylized LaTeX}}]], [[ConTeXt|Con{{Stylized LaTeX|4}}t]], and other [[Macro (computer science)|macro]] packages.

TeX was designed with two main goals in mind: to allow anybody to produce high-quality books with minimal effort, and to provide a system that would give exactly the same results on all computers, at any point in time (together with the [[Metafont]] language for [[font]] description and the [[Computer Modern]] family of [[typeface]]s).<ref>{{cite journal | last=Gaudeul | first=Alexia | title=Do Open Source Developers Respond to Competition?: The (La)TeX Case Study | journal=SSRN Electronic Journal | date=2006 | issn=1556-5068 | doi=10.2139/ssrn.908946 | doi-access=free }}</ref> TeX is [[free software]], which made it accessible to a wide range of users.