TeX Resources on the Web

This is a list compiled for the TeX Users Group by Sebastian Rahtz, with the help of Michel Goossens and Barbara Beeton, and many helpful people who sent in corrections. More contributions welcome!

Donald Knuth 's home page

Local TeX Users Groups
FAQ, documentation
CTAN interfaces
Free TeX implementations
Shareware TeX implementations
Commercial TeX vendors
Other typesetting systems which understand TeX
Packages and programs
Projects
TeX on the Web, and related software
Publications
Publishers
Miscellaneous
Related text-processing

Where to find help and documentation

If you have a general question, start with the Frequently Asked Questions!

TeX Frequently Asked Questions list prepared by the UK TeX Users Group; this is also available formatted in various forms for ftp on CTAN .
DE-TeX-FAQ - Fragen und Antworten über TeX und DANTE e.V. for German Speakers from DANTE; DE-TeX-FAQ can be fetched using FTP from here.
LaTeX Navigator: Une encyclopédie LaTeX for French speakers; the English and German translations are provided.

Don't forget the newsgroup comp.text.tex if you have queries not answered above, it's full of knowledgeable people.

For some general help with LaTeX commands etc, look at

The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX by Tobias Oetiker.
Hypertext Help with LaTeX by Sheldon Green at NASA
LaTeX help from Emory Univ

Online help for other bits of TeX software:

Graphics and Colour with LaTeX, a useful extract from the 3rd edition of Kopka and Daly's Guide to LaTeX
MetaPost
Plain TeX , from Norm Walsh (then at O'Reilly)
BibTeX , from Norm Walsh (then at O'Reilly)
Make Index , from Norm Walsh (then at O'Reilly)
Reference cards for AMSTeX and Plain TeX by Joseph Silverman
Using TrueType fonts with TeX (LaTeX) and pdfTeX (pdfLaTeX) by Damir Rakityansky

Another useful document is Word-processor to LaTeX convertors, a small FAQ maintained by Wilfried Hennings about converting word-processor packages to LaTeX

If you have problems with LaTeX, check the LaTeX 2e home page, and the LaTeX bugs database: ,a searchable back log of bugs and fixes

Some important `standardization' documents you should be aware of are

TDS , the TeX Directory Standard, a recommended layout for TeX systems
Fontname , a scheme by Karl Berry for naming TeX fonts

CTAN interfaces

The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) is the primary repository for all free TeX-related material. There are various Web search engines, including
CTAN-Web , which is the search setup recommended by TUG
CTAN search from Winnipeg
CTAN Search by Peter Flynn
DANTE CTAN Index
Index of /tex-archive/ on ftp.tex.ac.uk

Specifically for macro packages, look at the catalogue by Graham Williams, available in various places:

Free TeX implementations

TeX Live is a CD-ROM package from TUG and other user groups which contains setups for many Unix systems, Win32, and Amiga

Web2c , Karl Berry's monumental and widely-used system for compiling all the important TeX software in C. Now maintained by Olaf Weber.
teTeX , Thomas Esser's packaging of Web2c for many Unix systems
NTeX (Linux TeX based on Web2c 7.2)

MikTeX , a highly-regarded setup for Windows 95/NT
web2c-win32 (fpTeX) a complete port of web2c for Win32 by Fabrice Popineau, including a port of Xdvi for windows (windvi); also on CTAN in systems/win32/we2bc
Another guide to installation of MiKTeX, GhostView and WinEdt32 may be found here.

emTeX , the classic DOS and OS/2 TeX setup by Eberhard Mattes

The AMS TeX pages have a good list of Public domain TeX implementations and sources.

Shareware TeX implementations

OzTeX for the Macintosh, by Andrew Trevorrow
CMacTeX for Macintosh, by Tom Kiffe
TeXgX , a Macintosh TeX by Jonathan Kew that can access the sophisticated features of GX fonts (such as automatic ligatures, contextual swashes, etc)
Gary Gray maintains a full Web page for Macintosh TeX and LaTeX stuff.

OS/2 TeX , setup for OS2/ put together by Juergen Kleinboehl

Commercial TeX vendors

Mackichan Software, Inc. sell Scientific Word for Windows and Mac, a WYSIWYG program using TeX in the background
Y&Y Inc Home Page: TeX systems for Windows; also the main providers of the Lucida families of PostScript fonts.
Blue Sky Research sell Textures for Macintosh
Ideal Fonts sell virtual fonts for Textures
Personal TeX Inc sell packages for Windows users
True TeX is a TrueType based TeX for Windows
VTeX , includes TeX IDE, outline fonts, visual tools, HTML and PDF backends

The AMS TeX pages have a good list of Commercial TeX implementations

Other typesetting systems which understand TeX

U.K.-based Advent Publishing Systems and U.S.-based Advent/Lightbinders sell 3B2, a high-end professional publishing system with built-in WYSIWYG TeX support and full SGML conformance.

Packages and programs

LaTeX , biggest and most widely used TeX macro package
Context, Hans Hagen's powerful, modern, TeX macro package; a serious contender for those wanting a production-quality publishing system
AMS-TeX and AMS-LaTeX , the American Mathematical Society's TeX packages
CSTeX , LaTeX and plain TeX support for Czech and Slovak users, including special fonts
EDMAC , Dominik Wujastyk and John Lavagnino's package for typestting critical editions
Eplain , Karl Berry's extended plain format
Feynmf , Thorsten Ohl's package for doing Feynman diagrams using LaTeX and Metafont/Metapost
Harvard package , for bibliographies in LaTeX, by Peter Williams
PSTricks Notes by Denis Girou (including bug list)
The REVTeX package
Seminar (LaTeX slides), notes by Denis Girou (including bug list and FAQ)
Xy-pic, Kristoffer Rose and Ross Moore's graphics package, specialising in commutative diagrams

AUC-TeX ,a sophisticated Emacs mode for TeX
BibMaker , a bibliography manager (exports and imports BiBTeX) by Rich Ertel
BibDB , a BibTeX Database Manager (DOS and Windows) by Eyal Doron
dvips , Tom Rokicki's widely-used dvi to PostScript driver
EMTEXGI , a Windows interface for emTeX
Excalibur , the Mac TeX-aware spell checker
Metapost ,John Hobby's version of Metafont that makes EPS files
stepTeX , porting the famous NeXTStep TeX previewer
LyX, a Unix X Windows front end for TeX
TeXaide , a special free version of Mathtype's Equation Editor, generating TeX markup
WinEdt , a very powerful TeX editor and shell for Windows 9X/NT (shareware)
pfe (Programmer's File Editor) Another editor for a Windows system
xdvi , Paul Vojta's widely-used X Windows TeX previewer; the `kpathsea' variant is currently maintained as xdvik
gsftopk is Paul Vojta's program to make PK bitmaps from Type1 fonts, useful for many TeX previewers
TeXpict is a useful drawing package which exports to LaTeX
Xindy ,a new index processor designed to replace makeindex
xtem_TeXmenu , X11 GUI for TeX and LaTeX
dvii, a useful program by Adam H. Lewenberg for looking at dvi files and summarizing the contents (fonts, specials, etc)
dvipdfm, Mark Wick's dvi to PDF converter

Extended TeX projects

LaTeX 3 , the successor to LaTeX (one day)
pdfTeX , A TeX variant by Han The Thanh which can produce Acrobat PDF instead of dvi (available on CTAN as part of systems/web2c/); the manual, useful examples, and a FAQ can be found at http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/
e-TeX , extended TeX (available on CTAN in systems/e-tex)
Omega , Unicode-based TeX (available on CTAN as part of systems/web2c/)
Typesetting Chinese or Japanese
NTS , an extensible and completely TeX-compatible New Typesetting System implemented in Java

TeX on the Web, and related software

HyperTeX , conventions for TeX hypertext
ASTER demo (spoken mathematics)
The Hyperlatex package
LaTeX2HTML translator to create Web pages from LaTeX documents. See also the manual.
tex2html , commercial TeX to HTML conversion system, which renders maths using the Symbol font (and other tricks)
ltoh , Russel Quong's customizable LaTeX to HTML converter
Techexplorer, a Web browser plugin from IBM which renders TeX markup
MathType and the Equation Editor in MS Word. MathType is a WYSIWYG equation editor that outputs TeX.
TeX4ht , TeX and LaTeX for Hypertext, by Eitan Gurari. It supports LaTeX to XML, including MathML See also an update page talking about MathML. There is a useful guide on how to set it all up with MikTeX by Philip Viton here
IDVI a Java dvi viewer
HTeX A simplified LaTeX interface for Web documents
tth TeX to HTML converter
Texpider , MicroPress' version of TeX that writes HTML directly

If you are interested in math and XML, look at MathML , the proposal for math on the Web, and a standard DTD. There is a comprehensive general guide to the Mathematical Markup Language, maintained by Pankaj Kamthan.

Also check out:

MINSE: a math polymediator
WebEQ a Java Equation viewer
MathView: an interactive math plug-in from Waterloo Maple
Communicating Math with Hypertext
Including Math Notation in Web Pages
Mathscape Michael Barnettt's work on symbolic calculation for electronic publishing. (See scep.ps for a PostScript file [size about 7700k].)

Museums of Typography
Shyster , James Popple's case-based legal expert system which produces LaTeX output
International Ispell , the sophisticated interactive spell checker that understands TeX markup
Nelson Beebe's home page
Rogue's gallery of past TUG presidents
TeX merchandising to benefit user groups
WYSIWYG Word Processors Allin Cottrell's entertaining article with a strong bias for LaTex and against word processors.

Related text-processing

Some pointers to the wider context (SGML etc):
SGML/XML Web Page
A list of Typography, Calligraphy & Type-Related Books by Delve Withrington
Glossary of printing terms
Typozines This page contains links to online magazines, e-zines and journals covering typography and graphic design.

Sebastian Rahtz,

Please send comments to rahtz@tug.org

Or look at Sebastian's daughter Matilde visiting the Protestant Cemetery, Rome (80k JPG image, watch out).

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