Printing LaTeX command without compiling it

Question

How could I write a command in LaTeX, so after compiling it will be shown as a text in PDF and not executed?

For Example, I would write \it This is how you write in italic and the compiled pdf would contain the exact same text between the quotation marks without \it being executed.

Answer 1

You can put them in the verbatim environment.

\begin{verbatim}
\it This is how you write in italic
\end{verbatim}

P.S. If you need to put them in-line, you can put them in the \verb== environment:

\verb=\it This is how you write in italic=

Answer 2

showexpl package that loads listings package might be interesting for you as it provides more sophisticated features as follows.

\documentclass[preview,border=12pt,12pt]{standalone}

\usepackage{accsupp}
\newcommand*{\noaccsupp}[1]{\BeginAccSupp{ActualText={}}#1\EndAccSupp{}}

\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{showexpl}


\lstdefinestyle{Common}
{   
    language={[LaTeX]TeX},
    numbers=left,
    numbersep=1em,
    numberstyle=\tiny\noaccsupp,
    frame=single,
    framesep=\fboxsep,
    framerule=\fboxrule,
    rulecolor=\color{red},
    xleftmargin=\dimexpr\fboxsep+\fboxrule,
    xrightmargin=\dimexpr\fboxsep+\fboxrule,
    breaklines=true,
    breakindent=0pt,
    tabsize=2,
    columns=flexible,
    includerangemarker=false,
    rangeprefix=//\ ,
}


\lstdefinestyle{A}
{
    style=Common,
    backgroundcolor=\color{yellow!10},
    basicstyle=\scriptsize\ttfamily,
    keywordstyle=\color{blue}\bf,
    identifierstyle=\color{black},
    stringstyle=\color{red},
    commentstyle=\color{green}
}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\section*{lstinline}
\lstinline[style=A]|\LaTeX\ is fun.|

\section*{lstlisting}
\begin{lstlisting}[style=A]
\LaTeX\ is also fun in displayed mode.
\end{lstlisting}

\section*{LTXexample}
\LTXexample[style=A]
\LaTeX\ is fun.
\endLTXexample
\end{document}

Answer 3

If you want to accomplish this inside a section title, it doesn't work with \verb|\it| AFAIK. However, instead, you could use \textbackslash it\ { \ }. to get \it{} printed.

Answer 4

The ltxdoc document class, which is used for LaTeX documentation, contains the following definition:

\DeclareRobustCommand\cs[1]{\texttt{\char`\\#1}}

With this definition you can use \cs{textit} and the output will contain \textit.