Questions asking for a list of alternatives with no definitive answer.
250
votes
54answers
29k views
Showcase of beautiful typography done in TeX & friends
If you were asked to show examples of beautifully typeset documents in TeX & friends, what would you suggest? Preferably documents available online (I'm aware I could go to a bookstore and find ...
241
votes
33answers
51k views
LaTeX Editors/IDEs
What editors/IDEs are available for easing the process of writing TeX/LaTeX documents?
Please state some useful features like code completion, spell checking, building final DVI or PDF files, etc.
...
187
votes
52answers
16k views
What packages do people load by default in LaTeX?
I'm getting the impression from reading the answers written by some of the real experts here that there are quite a few little packages that just tweak LaTeX2e's default behaviour a little to make it ...
125
votes
10answers
9k views
How to create posters using LaTeX
I want to create posters for my poster presentation on a conference. What tools or LaTeX classes are available for preparing posters ?
75
votes
22answers
5k views
Tools for automating document compilation
A lot of people write makefiles that say something like
paper.pdf: paper.tex
pdflatex paper
bibtex paper
pdflatex paper
pdflatex paper
To handle re-running TeX to ...
67
votes
3answers
2k views
Consistent typography
When working with large documents, or even across multiple (smaller) documents, I often find that I forget which typographical consistencies I should stick to.
With TeX being inherently consistent in ...
65
votes
5answers
2k views
What are the finishing touches you put to a document?
I'm curious about the finishing touches that people put to LaTeX documents. Are there any canonical or special things that people do in finalizing a document?
What I do:
Careful proofreading of ...
60
votes
8answers
3k views
Beautiful table samples
I'm interested in learning about some nice-looking table samples. Colors can make a huge difference, and just providing some color to headers, background, or borders can dramatically change ...
57
votes
19answers
22k views
What are the available “documentclass” types and their uses?
Some of the available classes of documents in LaTeX are well known and widely used, such as the article and beamer classes, while others are not so well known, such as the standalone class.
I found ...
57
votes
17answers
5k views
Comprehensive list of tools that simplify the generation of LaTeX tables
Manually hacking tables in LaTeX is one of the less funny things when preparing a document. Naturally, there are quite a few tools that promise to simplify this. In fact, I have somewhat lost track of ...
50
votes
11answers
2k views
Best practices references
What resources (online or otherwise) exist that give good advice on best practices for TeX, etc.? I'm looking particularly for things that assume you already know TeX or LaTeX, and aim to help you ...
47
votes
2answers
3k views
Which tabular packages do which tasks and which packages conflict?
I've read a couple of questions recently about tabular environments, and it seems there's a whole bunch of packages that do stuff in this field. I'd really like a summary of what each package does, ...
46
votes
13answers
2k views
In what ways can TeX be used beyond document production?
Most people use TeX and its many varieties to create printed documents, such as reports, books, flyer's, etc. Occasionally, I have found software that uses TeX markup for other purposes, for e.g., the ...
42
votes
35answers
5k views
What professions use TeX/LaTeX besides CS?
TeX and LaTeX are widely used in Computer Science. What other academic disciplines or professionals use it?
40
votes
34answers
6k views
Most significant reasons that led us to (La)TeX
Looking back, what really convinced you to begin writing with TeX or LaTeX?
This question is "community wiki", so there's no reputation to lose or to gain.
Please don't write advantages of TeX and ...
39
votes
11answers
6k views
LaTeX templates for writing a thesis
Aside from CTAN, what are good resources/repositories for Latex templates? In particular, I'm looking for some pretty Thesis templates (I'm familiar with classicthesis)
33
votes
17answers
2k views
A big list of every keyval package
I lose track of all the different keyval packages. Can we maintain a list here? (Community wiki, one package per answer with a brief description of scope. I've started things off but need help ...
33
votes
3answers
6k views
Most useful additions in KOMA-Script?
(Background: I'm a beginner who will mostly use LaTeX for university articles and reports, but no math. Also, as I reside in Canada, the German typography conventions, which I understand KOMA-Script ...
33
votes
2answers
747 views
List of higher-level LaTeX commands corresponding to TeX commands
Since LaTeX is a format built on top of TeX, it surely has several high level abstractions that perform similarly to TeX commands, with some added error-handling functionality, for example. I always ...
31
votes
1answer
2k views
What font packages are installed in TeX live?
What font packages are installed in a full installation of TeX live? Which are obsolete? Example: \usepackage{mathpazo} brings Palatino as the roman font. The times package seems to be obsolete (as ...
29
votes
3answers
5k views
What are all the font styles I can use in math mode?
As can be seen in above picture, there are lots of fonts or font styles that can be used in math mode.
What are all the fonts or font styles I can use in math mode, and which packages are required ...
29
votes
1answer
924 views
Beautiful presentations done with TeX and related systems
I recently had to persuade a fellow student that you can create beautiful presentations with LaTeX and beamer. Luckily, I already had some examples. But I'm sure that there are better presentations, ...
28
votes
14answers
3k views
What does the draft mode change?
I wonder which changes are made by the draft option?
That means what will be changed by calling it as global class option (\documentclass[draft]{<class>}) or locally for a single package if it ...
28
votes
5answers
2k views
Showcase of beautiful title page done in TeX
The book is mostly meets by the Title Page. Default TeX \maketitle are simple and minimalistic.
I'm looking for examples of Title Pages:
complex - have different formatting;
beautiful and awesome;
...
28
votes
1answer
929 views
Packages that need to be included in a specific order
This isn't a real question, so I'm marking it community wiki.
When I was new to LaTeX, I thought that the \usepackage command worked much like the #include command of the C language: just put ...
27
votes
13answers
1k views
What are other good resources on-line for information about TeX, LaTeX and friends?
Are there newsgroups, forums, FAQs, and other sites that provide quality information on TeX, LaTeX and friends? Are all of these in English, or is there one in "my language of choice"?
26
votes
6answers
3k views
What is your favorite Emacs and/or AUCTeX command/trick?
What is your favorite Emacs and/or AUCTeX command/trick?
The point here is that I don't know what I don't know. I'm an Emacs and AUCTeX user looking to improve my Emacs & AUCTeX use, especially ...
25
votes
6answers
2k views
List of TeX formats
LaTeX, ConTeXt and plain are the most well known TeX formats/macro packages. But there are others, such as Lollipop. What others are out there and are any in use these days anymore?
25
votes
7answers
1k views
What's a good editor for (La)TeX programming?
I've found several questions about editors for writing LaTeX documents ( LaTeX Editors/IDEs seems to be the definitive one). But I'd like to know which editors are out there that help you develop ...
23
votes
11answers
12k views
Best way to generate a nice function graph in LaTeX?
Which is the best way to put function graphs into a LaTeX document?
Note: Since the question is fairly wide, and perhaps a bit individual, I will wait for at least 4 answers before I close it ...
23
votes
5answers
1k views
Showcase of brace tricks: }, \egroup, \iffalse{\fi}, etc.
There have been a few questions about braces recently, specifically about when to use them (see this and that question). Note: I had mistakenly stated that SamB was the author of both questions.
But ...
22
votes
7answers
731 views
Good arguments to make other people use TeX
I am a high-school student on the way to my graduation. I like TeX very much, as it gives me much more satisfaction with the quality of my homework than using libre office and friends. But when I try ...
22
votes
2answers
810 views
What are good advanced LaTeX books?
I've been using LaTeX for about 3 months, and I'm hooked. My background is programming, so for the basic, google is sufficient. I did some research at amazon.com and found these two books with many ...
22
votes
1answer
534 views
List of Indexing Packages - Pros and Cons
What are the various indexing packages and what are their pros and cons? When should one choose one over the other?
There is some discussion of this in What are the latest/best practices for index ...
20
votes
6answers
639 views
How can other programming languages and tools be used to create content for TeX documents?
When writing about programming languages or tools one often wants to include output from them in the document. Then it is useful if such output can be created as the document is compiled. For ...
19
votes
10answers
1k views
What useful web services are out there?
Looking at this question, I wonder what good and useful web services are out there. For example the LaTeX symbol classifier looks interesting. You can draw a symbol with your mouse and get back the ...
19
votes
2answers
818 views
Which are your “favourite” confusing error messages?
This question: \addvspace can't replace \vspace shows a situation in which an error message can be confusing. If \addvspace is used when not in vmode the error message obtained is
! LaTeX Error: ...
18
votes
2answers
400 views
What is the gold standard of package documentation?
When writing documentation for a package aimed at CTAN, what should every manual contain? Specific examples of concise yet complete documentation are valued.
This is one of those (hopefully) big list ...
15
votes
8answers
3k views
What are your favorite document classes and what do you use them for?
I'm using the TeX Live distribution and I've noticed that there are a lot of document class files (291 actually) for different things (books, math, thesis, presentations, etc).
What are your ...
15
votes
12answers
1k views
Output viewers for use with LaTeX
What viewers do you use for reviewing the beautifully-styled output of your LaTeX source?
List PDF, DVI and PostScript options.
Possibly, one entry per answer, and list platform availability, ...
14
votes
7answers
450 views
How do you keep track of your code snippets?
If you've been working with LaTeX for any amount of time, I'm sure you've picked up several little tricks and snippets of code that you want to reuse. For example, a particular way to set up a package ...
14
votes
0answers
275 views
Could TeX.SE put on a showcase of scientific posters?
Could the people of the TeX.SE put on a showcase of scientific posters made with (La)TeX? I have seen other showcases on here, this collection for example. However, with a large number of people using ...
10
votes
1answer
327 views
List of TikZ Editor
After mentioning TikZ in academia, I tried to have a look here for recommended editors for TikZ. I found no list, and thus here's the question:
What TikZ editors/front-ends do you know? What can you ...
10
votes
1answer
107 views
How many different concepts of “token equivalence” are there in TeX?
I was living in the delusion that the "token equality" tested by \ifx was the only thing you need to remember about this subject, but this week I learned otherwise (thanks to David Carlisle).
Now ...
8
votes
2answers
347 views
What are good packages / techniques for writing more readable LaTeX *code*?
A while ago I stumbled upon the semantic package --- its 'math ligatures' feature in particular --- and the whole way in which I write math-code in LaTeX changed.
Instead of
\[
\sem{\sigma}_s^x ...
6
votes
3answers
87 views
Opaque error messages given by common environments
This is a public-interest question.
The title of the question Why does this error keep popping up even though I clearly fixed it? poignantly expresses a fundamental truth of LaTeX usage: sometimes ...
6
votes
1answer
223 views
TeX resources for philosophers
What TeX resources are there that are aimed at the field philosophy?
I already know of PhilTeX and LaTeX for logicians.
5
votes
2answers
455 views
How to make sense of font metrics?
If I have a Tex font, and I want to really understand how it will be laid out by Tex, and what features of the font to bear in mind when tuning my output to be beautiful, what tools are useful for ...
5
votes
0answers
270 views
Lua techniques and libraries for LuaTeX [closed]
With LuaTeX, it is possible to use many libraries and functions that can simplify various aspects of Lua programming. As Lua as language is quite new for the majority of TeX users, I think it would be ...
4
votes
1answer
127 views
What non-free books are available and recommended?
Once convinced, for example by this answer, that I should buy a book on (La)TeX and friends, its is time to decide which one... This big list misses some ranking, and make it hard to choose.
This ...
