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LaTex

LaTeX is a typesetting system: you write plain text with commands, and it produces a clean PDF. It is the standard for papers, theses, maths and technical reports. Related: Research Notes, BibTeX.

When to use it

Use LaTeX for Use something else for
Maths, equations, proofs Quick memos and letters (a word processor)
Papers, theses, long documents with references Web pages and README files (Markdown)
Consistent numbering, cross-references, bibliography Heavy visual design (a layout tool)
Version control (it is plain text) Documents many non-technical people must edit

Ways to use it

  1. Online (nothing to install)
  2. Locally (works offline, faster, fully under your control)
    • macOS: MacTeX
    • Linux: TeX Live (sudo apt install texlive-full is large; texlive-latex-extra is a lighter start)
    • Windows: MiKTeX or TeX Live
    • Editors: TeXstudio, VS Code + LaTeX Workshop, Vim with VimTeX, or Overleaf's editor.

Your first document

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{amsmath}      % maths
\usepackage{graphicx}     % images
\usepackage{booktabs}     % good-looking tables
\usepackage{hyperref}     % clickable links (load last)

\title{My First Paper}
\author{Your Name}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
One short paragraph that says what you did and what you found.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
LaTeX handles numbering, references and layout for you.

\section{Method}
\subsection{Equation}
The quadratic formula is
\begin{equation}
  x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}.
  \label{eq:quad}
\end{equation}
See Equation~\ref{eq:quad}.

\end{document}

Compile 

$ pdflatex main.tex            # one run
$ latexmk -pdf main.tex        # runs as many times as needed (also bibtex/biber)
$ latexmk -pdf -pvc main.tex   # rebuilds whenever you save
$ latexmk -C                   # clean up build files
$ xelatex main.tex             # or lualatex: for custom fonts and full Unicode


flowchart LR
    T[main.tex] --> L1[LaTeX run 1]
    L1 --> A[.aux: labels, citations]
    A --> BB[bibtex / biber]
    BB --> L2[LaTeX run 2]
    L2 --> L3[LaTeX run 3: fix references]
    L3 --> P[main.pdf]

Document classes

Class For
article Papers, short reports
report Longer reports with chapters
book Books and theses
beamer Slides
IEEEtran, acmart, llncs Publisher templates (conferences, journals)
moderncv CVs

Useful packages

Package What it does
amsmath, amssymb Equations, symbols
graphicx \includegraphics
booktabs Professional tables (\toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule)
hyperref Clickable links and references
geometry Margins and page size
listings or minted Code listings (minted needs Python/Pygments)
tikz, pgfplots Diagrams and plots drawn in LaTeX
biblatex Modern bibliography (BibTeX)
siunitx Numbers and units (\SI{9.81}{m/s^2})
cleveref Smart references (\cref{fig:a} writes "Figure 1")
microtype Subtle spacing improvements

Maths in a minute

Inline: $E = mc^2$ and $\sum_{i=1}^{n} i = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}$.

\begin{align}
  f(x) &= (x+1)^2 \\
       &= x^2 + 2x + 1
\end{align}

\[
  \mathbf{A} =
  \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4 \end{pmatrix}
\]
- $...$ inline, \[...\] or equation for display, align to line up steps. - Greek letters: \alpha \beta \lambda; fractions: \frac{a}{b}; roots: \sqrt{x}; limits: \lim_{x\to 0}.

Figures, tables and references

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{results.png}
  \caption{Accuracy by model.}
  \label{fig:results}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr}
    \toprule
    Model & Accuracy & Time (s) \\
    \midrule
    A & 0.91 & 12 \\
    B & 0.94 & 40 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Results.}
  \label{tab:results}
\end{table}

As Figure~\ref{fig:results} and Table~\ref{tab:results} show, ...
- Put \label after \caption; refer with \ref (and ~ to avoid a line break before the number). - LaTeX decides float placement; do not fight it, rearrange the text. - Prefer vector figures (PDF, SVG converted to PDF) over low-resolution PNG for plots.

Citations

Distributed clocks~\cite{lamport1978time}.
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{refs}
Full guide: BibTeX.

Slides with Beamer

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}
\title{My Talk}
\begin{document}
\frame{\titlepage}
\begin{frame}{Why it matters}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item One idea per slide
    \item Use figures, not walls of text
  \end{itemize}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Quick diagram with TikZ

\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[draw] (a) at (0,0) {Client};
  \node[draw] (b) at (3,0) {Server};
  \draw[->] (a) -- node[above] {request} (b);
\end{tikzpicture}

Working with Git

$ cat .gitignore
*.aux *.log *.out *.toc *.bbl *.blg *.fls *.fdb_latexmk *.synctex.gz
main.pdf          # keep the PDF out of history, or publish it as a release
- One sentence per line makes git diff readable. - Keep figures and the .bib file in the repo; see Versioning and Releases for tagging a submission version.

Common errors

Message Usually means
Undefined control sequence Typo in a command, or a missing \usepackage
Missing $ inserted _, ^, &, % or # in normal text: escape with \ or use maths mode
File 'x.sty' not found Package not installed (tlmgr install x on TeX Live)
Runaway argument / File ended while scanning Unbalanced { } or \begin without \end
Overfull \hbox A line too wide (a warning; reword or allow hyphenation)
Reference ... undefined / ?? Compile again; check the label spelling
Image not found Wrong path, or extension needed

Tip: read the first error only. Later ones are often caused by it. The line number in the message points at where LaTeX noticed, which can be slightly after the real mistake.

Cheat sheet

Want Write
Bold, italic, code \textbf{x}, \emph{x}, \texttt{x}
Bullet list \begin{itemize} \item ... \end{itemize}
Numbered list \begin{enumerate} ... \end{enumerate}
Footnote \footnote{text}
New page \newpage
Non-breaking space Figure~\ref{...}
Quotes ``like this''
Comment % ignored
Table of contents \tableofcontents
Link \href{https://example.com}{text}