LaTeX (and pdfTeX and XeTeX etc)

What is it?

LaTeX (and pdfTeX, XeTeX etc) are high-quality typesetting systems, which works a bit different compared to word processors.

It can seem extremely difficult to learn in the beginning, even for an experienced computer user. My advise is therefore to take a look at LyX. It works as a graphical layer above LaTeX, ie. combines the power of LaTeX and the simplicity of a word processor. You can just click and chose everything, or if you want you can use the keyboard short-cuts which will speed up typing really fast! And the best thing, the output will as always with LaTeX be aesthetic!

My guides

Nice plots in PDF-based TEX-engines such as XETEX and pdfTEX using Octave, gnuplot and Xfig

When making reports with plots and graphs from Octave or Matlab, of course it is possible to just save and use the figure as it is, but for sure it won't look beautiful with the rest of the text.

However, gnuplot can make very beautiful graphs with real formulas inserted. Going via Xfig, Octave and gnuplot can be used to create nice figures for XeTeX or pdfTeX. Here is my guide on how to do this. (There is also a HTML version). Download guide's source.

Links

Guides and tutorials (for beginners):

• Getting to Grips with LaTeX
• LATEX for Complete Novices

Topic specific and command listings:

• Help on LaTeX commands
• Harvard Latex
• /TeXnik/
• LaTeX - Wikibooks

Others:

• LyX - The Document Processor
• XeTeX, typesetting in any language or font.
• The XeTeX Archives
• TeX Users Group (TUG)
• CTAN – Comprehensive TeX Archive Network
• Japanese and LaTeX-beamer presentations Guide for font-installing on Linux
• The Ipe extensible drawing editor A nice program for creating figures in PDF which then can be inserted into your reports etc.

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Last changed: December 2008