TeX Formatting (for Math Majors)

• TeX is a technical typesetting system. It is well-suited to typesetting mathematics and other technical texts and can handle many languages. It was designed by Donald Knuth of Stanford University in the 1970s and given to the scientific community for free. You should not have to pay for downloading or using TeX, ever.
• General information is available at the TeX users group (tug) website. There is also a short getting-started document at the Comprehensive TEX Archive Network (CTAN).
• George Graetzer authored a very readable book on LaTeX, one of the most common “dialects” of TeX. The first chapter is available for download. It will tell you everything you need to know to author homework and perhaps even your thesis.
• For Windows computers, install TeXmaker as a front-end and editor, and also MiKTeX as a TEX engine.TeXmaker has a user manual.
• On a Mac, install the MacTeX distribution, which has a built-in TEX engine and several editors to choose from.
• On Linux systems, install TeX Live as an engine and then TeXmaker as a front-end/editor.
• TeXmaker can make PDF files and also PostScript files. You can store, email, and print these files.
• Linux systems and Macs come with good PDF readers. TeXmaker also has a built-in PDF reader. For Windows, there is the Foxit reader. The most widely used PDF reader is Adobe’s Acrobat Reader (available for Windows, Macs, and Linux). However, it has some disadvantages (frequent updates, security issues).
• Here is a simple template for making homework sets (tex version, typeset pdf version).