TeX Resources

Introduction to TeX/LaTeX (pdf file)

A short overview of TeX and LaTeX, based on a presentation given in for participants at the 2006 Summer REU Program of the UIUC Mathematics Department.

Introduction to LaTeX

A three hour introduction to the (very) basics of Latex. Self-guided, but it would be useful to have a reference, such as Gratzer's "Math into Latex", handy.

Latex tips

This is a home grown (and growing) collection of tips for using Latex more efficiently and avoiding common mistakes. The tips are specifically geared towards typesetting mathematical articles. They also include some tips on good mathematical writing practices.

Note: I am in the process of updating and expanding these pages. Preliminary versions of the new set of pages can be accessed here.

TeX resources

UIUC Thesis style files

General TeX Resources

Online books, tutorials, and reference works

Text Processing using LaTeX. From the Cambridge University Engineering Department. An extensive listing of resources, including links to many free online guides.
Amsmath User's Guide. The official documentation for the amsmath LaTeX package, from the CTAN archive. Additional documentation for AMS TeX tools and packages can be found at the AMS TeX Resources website.
Scott Pakin's Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List. A gigantic collection of LaTeX symbols and special characters, covering 3300 symbols in 225 tables over 111 pages.
Math into LaTeX, Chapter 1. A free online version of part of Gratzer's "Math into LaTeX", including Chapter 1, the index, and the appendices at the end of the book.
The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e. The classic free online text on LaTeX. An excellent and fairly complete introduction to TeX at the beginner to intermediate level. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover AMS-LaTeX; for that, use one of the guides listed above.
Online Tutorials by the Indian TeX Users Group. An absolutely first-rate, beautifully produced, set of tutorials.

Books

While one could certainly learn TeX/LaTeX entirely from online materials, anyone serious about learning TeX should buy a book. It is a worthwhile investment that will likely be useful for a long time. Unlike books about commercial software which become obsolete as soon as a new version comes out (who would want to buy a book on Windows 95 today?), TeX is a stable system, and books on TeX have a long half-life. There are dozens of books on TeX, but here is a short selection:

A must-have: George Gratzer, "Math into LaTeX". This is the standard reference on LaTeX with the AMS flavor, and a must (IMHO) for anyone planning to write mathematical papers in LaTeX. There are dozens of books on LaTeX, but none covers the AMS packages (amsmath, amsthm, amsfonts, etc.) in any detail, if at all. For most people interested in using LaTeX for mathematical typing, the Gratzer book is all they need. The first chapter serves as a good stand-alone introduction to LaTeX; this chapter is also available online at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/mil/mil.pdf, but instead of trying to download and print this fairly large file, you may be better off just buying the book.
H. Kopka, P. Daly, "A guide to LaTeX": Probably the best and most comprehensive reference on LaTeX proper (as opposed to add-on packages which are discussed in the next item).
M. Goossens, F. Mittelbach, A. Samarin, "The LaTeX Companion": As the name suggest, this book (a heavyweight, comprising over 1000 pages) complements, rather than replaces, standard introductions and reference works such as Kopka/Daly, by covering many of the "packages" and add-ons available for LaTeX.
M. Goossens, S. Rahtz, F. Mittelbach, "The LaTeX Graphics Companion": Similar in spirit to the "LaTeX Companion", but focusing on packages and tools for typesetting graphical material.

Last modified: Tue 13 Nov 2007 10:00:38 AM CST A.J. Hildebrand