latex - Man Page

• Compile a DVI document: latex source.tex
• Compile a DVI document, specifying an output directory: latex -output-directory=path/to/directory source.tex
• Compile a DVI document, exiting on each error: latex -halt-on-error source.tex

tldr.sh

latex [first-line]

This manual page is a mere skeleton.

The L A T E X language is described in the book L A T E X - A Document Preparation System. L A T E X is a T E X macro package, not a modification to the T E X source program, so all the capabilities described in tex(1) are present.

The L A T E X macros encourage writers to think about the content of their documents, rather than the form.  The ideal, very difficult to realize, is to have no formatting commands (like “switch to italic” or “skip 2 picas”) in the document at all; instead, everything is done by specific markup instructions: “emphasize”, “start a section”.

The primary source of documentation for L A T E X is the L A T E X manual  referenced below.

lualatex, pdflatex, pdfcslatex, xelatex are L A T E X formats based on the respective engines.  All output PDF by default.
platex, uplatex are Japanese L A T E X formats based on e-pTeX and e-upTeX (DVI output).
lamed is the Aleph-based L A T E X format (DVI output).
dvilualatex is LuaTeX-based and outputs DVI.
cslatex is csTeX-based (primitives integrated into pdfTeX) and outputs DVI.

On some systems latex209 and slitex may still be available for compatibility with older versions of L A T E X.  These should not be used for new texts.

amstex(1), luatex(1), pdftex(1), ptex(1), tex(1), xetex(1).

Leslie Lamport, L A T E X - A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley, 1985, ISBN 020115790X.

Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens, Johannes Braams, David Carlisle, and Chris Rowley, LaTeX Companion, Addison-Wesley, 2004, ISBN 0201362996 (2nd edition).

The L A T E X home page is http://latex-project.org.
A list of some L A T E X tutorials is at http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=man-latex.
An unofficial reference manual for L A T E X is at https://ctan.org/pkg/latex2e-help-texinfo.

amstex(1), arlatex(1), bibtex(1), bibtool(1), bundledoc(1), catdoc(1), ctanify(1), dvibook(1), dviconcat(1), dviselect(1), dvitodvi(1), fig2ps(1), fig2ps2tex(1), fpclasschart(1), fpdoc(1), gpg-key2latex(1), hitex(1), jadetex(1), lacheck(1), latex2html(1), latex2rtf(1), latex-dev(1), latexmk(1), linuxdoc(1), lyx(1), makeskel(1), mendex(1), musixtex(1), pdftex(1), perltex(1), ps2frag(1), pslatex(1), purifyeps(1), sgml2latex(1), tex2lyx(1), upmendex(1), xetex(1).

The man pages platex(1), uplatex(1) and xelatex(1) are aliases of latex(1).