Wednesday, May 27, 2015

How to install Latex typesetting package in Ubuntu 14.04 / Debian Jessie

Latex is the probably the best typesetting package available. Though the learning curve is high, the benefits of using Latex outweighs several other programs. First of all its free, available on all platforms. The way it handles whitespaces is logical. There are lots of graphical backends for actually typing and creating Latex documents.


Latex is packaged as texlive packages for Ubuntu and Debian.


The barebone packages used for installing and using Latex in Ubuntu/Debian systems are: texlive-latex-base, texlive-latex-extra, texlive-fonts-recommended (for special font packages such as marvosym.sty etc)


sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended



For creating documents you need can also install a good Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Latex. The options are lots such as Texmaker, Texworks and Kile. My personal favourite is Texworks for its simplicity and lightweightedness. Kile is also a very good Latex editor for KDE.



sudo apt-get install texworks



If you want to use beamer for presentations:




sudo apt-get install latex-beamer