What is the best book to start learning LaTeX?

Question

Which book (free or otherwise) was the most useful to you when you started learning LaTeX?

I am frequently asked this question by friends who want to learn LaTeX, and I recommend the book which got me started, The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2ε, but I feel that there might be better options around.

Also see LaTeX Introductions in languages other than English.

Answer 1

I've used LaTeX wikibook mostly. It's a really good resource when writing mark-up which is the easiest and fastest way to learn.

Answer 2

I found Kopka and Daly's Guide to LaTeX to be very helpful. It starts with the basics of what a LaTeX document is, how it's laid out, what components it can and should have, etc. and then moves on to cover technics for drawing and including figures, creating new commands and environments, and more advanced customization in case you ever need it.

Most important to me were the many examples scattered throughout, so that if you have some idea of what you're trying to do you usually don't have read an entire section but just flip through until you find an appropriate example and then try something similar.

Answer 3

I used The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2ε and still go back to it.

(I think that all the answers should be in the answers so that it's easier for people to compare them; also, what I said is true: it is the one that I use and continually go back to.)

Answer 4

Grätzer's under-appreciated book is excellent, especially at showing you how to do things the "right" way:

• George Grätzer (2007), More Math into LaTeX, 4th edition, Springer, ISBN 978-0387322896

(Earlier editions were called "Math into LaTeX"; it's not a sequel.) Especially if you're learning LaTeX for typesetting mathematics or related areas, this is a wonderful book — it includes, for example, chapters on the several AMS environments for multiline equation displays, making presentations with Beamer and other classes, and BibTeX — all things that you're likely to need at some point. Several samples from the book are available on CTAN (and you can also find online copies of the book of *cough* dubious legality).

[Edit: His first section, A Short Course in LaTeX, is available on CTAN and I recommend it even higher than lshort/not-so-short introduction: it's shorter, though of course less detailed. As quoted in the comment below, it's IMHO the ideal introduction to LaTeX for mathematics.]

Among actually free books, take a look at the LaTeX book on Wikibooks; its excellent quality may surprise you!

Answer 5

I think I would suggest the book by van Dongen, Latex and Friends, which is very up-to-date (in fact, still being written) --- for example, it has a long chapter on tikz. The book used to be available to download from van Dongen's web site but, to quote from an entry on his web site:

Due to copyright restrictions I had to remove the preliminary version of my book on LaTeX and Friends.

Springer's web site shows a print version due in 2012 and this has been reviewed on the TeX User Group site.

Parts of the book may now be read on line. There's also a short film about the book.

Answer 6

Ah, I remember my first steps: somehow I stumbled upon LaTeX Primer which was not only a great introductory text, but was a real beauty typography-side.

Also, another great book which hasn't been mentioned here yet (and is definitely worth mentioning) is Digital Typography using LaTeX by Apostolos Syropoulos, Antonis Tsolomitis and Nick Sofroniou. I personally call this book "the book" along with Gratzer's "the book" ;)

Answer 7

Have a look at Stefan Kottwitz's LaTeX Beginner's Guide. It has lots of fully-explained examples and up-to-date tips.

Answer 8

The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX that the question references is good, but when first learning LaTeX, I found Peter Flynn's Formatting information a very useful supplement.

Answer 9

The Art of LaTeX is a 100-page intro to the subject with a lot of parallel "LaTeX-code : typeset-result" examples throughout the text.

A companion book, The LaTeX Math Companion, does the same with math in LaTeX.

They are filled with examples, well-formatted and cross-indexed. Written by Helin Gai, Duke University.

In practice the source I have found most useful and convenient is this LaTeX wikibook.

Answer 10

The most important is to learn by doing. Take some small piece you want to typeset and make a most simple possible document. Then start to make it more compilicated. If you want figures/plots use TikZ.

Answer 11

I recommend Peter Flynn's Formatting Information to people -- it seems to have the right pace and style for many, being well-written and reasonably brisk.

Another (unusual) advantage is that it's more sympathetic towards humanities users than many introductions.

Answer 12

I found Art of Problem Solving Wiki page on LaTeX to be a good resource. (it's themed towards learning simple syntax for texing math, which was exactly what I wanted)

Additionally, there is the useful list of LaTeX symbols.

Answer 13

I think that a great start is some of the above mentioned like: The Art of Problem Solving

But I think that a short introduction book to LaTeX is good and its goes by the name:

learning LaTeX, by David F. Griffiths and Desmond J. Higham. learning LaTeX

Very light on the beginner and quite comical throughout.

Another great one that is free and a online pdf version would be this:

A Simplified Introduction to LaTeX

Hope this helps any.

Answer 14

For me, I find that The LateX Companion by Mittelbach and Gossens. It is very useful especially for troubleshooting purposes when compiling errors when the code gets more sophisticated. I am writing a book and subdivide into chapter by file. Chapter 1 one tex file. The master file controls the overall includes bibliography cover page,preface etc.

For one simple page really beginner stuff it is easy, you don't need this. It is when the error warnings become more abstract and you wonder what is happening and try to understand the error messages/warnings.

Answer 15

I found Lamport's Latex: a document preparation system the best book for learning LaTeX

Answer 16

I found this guide to be helpful when I began:

Getting to Grips with Latex

Short and very to the point with a lot of good examples.

Answer 17

If you seriously mean your TeX/LaTeX future, the pointers in the other replies are definitely a good starting point, but already at an intermediate/advanced stage I strongly recommend the Donald Knuth's TeX book plus reading the guts of the $TEXMF/tex/latex/base/latex.ltx file, i.e., the LaTeX implementation. Takes an effort, but at least some knowledge of internal workings of plain TeX is in my opinion indispensable for typesetting non-trivial documents. One bumps to the limits LaTeX pretty quickly.

Answer 18

Ethan Bloch's A Brief Introduction to LaTeX for Bard Students which can be found on his homepage contains exactly enough info to get started (I started texing with it within an hour).

Edit: He removed the document.

Answer 19

To get started with LaTeX, visit:

1. Getting something out of LATEX
2. Road Map

Answer 20

I recently stumbled across this website:

http://spandex.io/blog

Some concise info on basics that you really need to know when starting out. I found it useful. Not everything I'd want to know but it's apparently still being added to.