LATEX Friendly Zone
What is it, Why use it, etc
LATEX is a freeware that can type-set documents
(especially with Mathematics) very very beautifully. It belongs to
What You See Is Not What You Get class and might
take a while before one gets used to it. Treat it like a programming language
to learn faster and once used to it, other type-setting software will not
impress you much.
Introduction |
Graphics |
Symbols |
Reference |
CTAN
The first three documents (PDF) explain the basics, usage of various types of graphics and commands for an exhaustive list of symbols. Fourth one is a hand-book but, like all other hand-books, is quite big. Bookmark the last link - if your system complains that a particular file is not present (usually with an extension of cls or sty), just visit this site and you will get it for free.
Indian TeX Users' Group |
Mailing List |
Online Tutorials |
Primer
There are several other similar groups but I just happen to use this one - this organization periodically brings out newer versions of useful packages and sends out a newsletter regularly. You will get very useful tips and tricks as well as solutions to bugging problems by subscribing to the mailing list. You may also help others if you already know how to get around a problem.
TeXShop | MiKTeX | WinEdt (shareware) | Baraha
LATEX was (and still is) mostly a UNIX / LINUX freeware but one needn't loose heart for being a Mac/Windows user. TeXShop is a good (and free) way to get started (for Mac users); MiKTeX is a freely available platform and has so far the most complete collection of packages. There are several text editors that can compose LATEX documents in a Windows environment but WinEdt (shareware) seems to work very well with MiKTeX. Baraha is a Windows based, stand-alone, free text editor (for some of the Indian scripts - Kannada, Devanagari, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi) compatible with MS-Word.
Leelavati Trust has brought out the first version of KannadaLATEX, using which one can compose LATEX documents in my native language, Kannada. It comes with a manual for using keyboard and can be used both in Windows and in Linux/UNIX environments. More information can be obtained by contacting Dr. C S Yogananda of IISc., Bangalore.
LATEX for Newbies (& some Geeks)
Following are sample formats / templates to help one get started with LATEX. All you need is a LATEX compiler, Adobe Acrobat Reader and basic knowledge of how to process a LATEX document. As you can see, there are several sample files, starting from a very plain document to complicated ones with LATEX-generated graphs, journal formats and PowerPoint-like presentations. Check the PDF file first to see if it meets your requirement(s).
- A very simple document - PDF | TeX
- Simple document with a figure - PDF | TeX
- Simple Mathematics - PDF | TeX
- Complicated stuff - PDF | TeX
- All in one - PDF | TeX
- Manuscript (ReVTeX) - PDF | TeX
- IEEE Manuscript Template - PDF | TeX | BIB
- Presentation (PDFScreen) 1 - PDF | TeX
- Presentation (PDFScreen) 2 - PDF | TeX
Tips and Tricks : Using JPEG/GIFF images in LATEX
This requires the knowledge of bounding box of the graphic and there
are several ways to get it. For example, this information is contained in the
first few lines of a Post Script file (open it in VI and observe).
The following method is a long but efficient approach that requires just a
one-time setup. Download the following scripts, put them in your
search path (probably $HOME/bin) and change their permission
to 755. Please go through my comments in these scripts and refer to
the man pages of commands to learn more about the options used with
them.
jpgbb |
jpgtops |
gifbb |
giftops
Now, download
dvipsrc to your $HOME
directory and rename it as .dvipsrc (yes, this will be a hidden file)
jpgbb
A bash shell script, written by
Dr. Miguel Blanco,
to extract bounding box information from a JPEG image. The script uses the
following commands - /bin/awk, /usr/bin/djpeg and
/usr/bin/pnmtops - which are distributed with most Linux
distributions. This results in a file called graphic.jpg.bb, which
supplies the bounding box information to LATEX.
jpgtops is just a combination of djpeg and pnmtops,
and is executed implicitly when dvi is converted to Post Script.
JPEG file is converted into PNM (just to maintain the uniformity between
this and the next script) and bounding box information is then extracted
from it. Using this information, JPEG files are included in Post Script on the
fly and this saves some disk space.
Usage : jpgbb graphic.jpg
gifbb
There is no simple way to include GIFF files and converting to JPEG format
sometimes makes them look horrible. This one, bash shell script,
written by Dr. Miguel
Blanco, converts a GIFF image to PNM and then extracts the bounding box
information from it. The script uses the following commands -
/bin/awk, /usr/bin/giftopnm and /usr/bin/pnmtops -
which are distributed with most Linux distributions. This results in a file
called graphic.gif.bb, which supplies the bounding box information to
LATEX. giftops is just a combination of
giftopnm and pnmtops, and which includes the GIFF files on
the fly when dvi is converted to Post Script.
Usage : gifbb graphic.jpg
In order that LATEX understands what you are
doing, you need to put the following lines in the preamble of your LATEX document (i.e., before
\begin{document})
\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.eps,.ps,.jpg,.gif}
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.jpg}{eps}{.jpg.bb}{'jpgtops #1}
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.gif}{eps}{.gif.bb}{'giftops #1}
Then, use the normal syntax,
includegraphics[options]{graphic}, to insert the JPEG / GIFF graphic
file. Note that the extension .jpg or .gif is not used.
This makes it possible to use latex or pdflatex.