How is a TeX document written when using LuaLaTeX?

Question

I am new to the LaTeX world and would like to start off with a book project. My target is specifically creating books for print and online.

My requirements are

• UTF-8,
• Arabic,
• custom fonts,
• to output PDF/X-1a compliant PDFs.

I have read that LuaTeX is the new engine.

How does using LuaLaTeX affect the .tex document structure?

For example, if I follow the LaTeX Beginner’s Guide, would I be able to use LuaLaTeX?

Is only the preamble different when using LuaLaTeX?

I am using TeXStudio under Windows 8.1.

Answer 1

LuaLaTeX shouldn’t affect your document too much. The main thing you’ll have to change is the preamble. There’s no need to load packages like fontenc or inputenc. LuaLaTeX supports UTF-8 by default, so you should encode your files with UTF-8 (this should be possible with TeXStudio). Instead of having a preamble like

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

there now is the package fontspec to set the document’s fonts:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O}
\setsansfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Biolinum O}

and so on. Please read the documentation of the fontspec package for details on this. Also the LuaTeX reference might be useful, as well as Manuel Pé­gourié-Gon­nard’s Guide to LuaLaTeX, which I really recommend reading. It basically gives you the main differences (see p. 3 of the PDF file):

1. Don’t load inputenc; just encode your source in UTF-8.
2. Don’t load fontenc or textcomp; load fontspec.
3. babel works with LuaLaTeX but you can load polyglossia instead.
4. Don’t use any package that changes the fonts; use fontspec commands instead.

Basically, everything that works with normal pdfTeX should also work with LuaTeX, but be aware that LuaTeX is still in development and it could change from release to release. For distinct questions and problems, please have a look around this website for an answer to your question, or ask a question yourself.