xiv LIST OF TABLES 6.3 Absolute Point Sizes in Standard Classes............109
xiv LIST OF TABLES 6.3 Absolute Point Sizes in Standard Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . 109 6.4 Math Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 6.5 TEX Units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Chapter 1 Things You Need to Know hhis chapter presents a short oweview of the phlcsophy anc ar how TX works you will p stand thisboo 1.1 A Bit of History 1.1.1X TEX is a computer program created by Donald E.Knuth.It is aimed natical formulae.Knuth start lore the equipment eginni that he c the p d typographical quality that he saw affecting his own books and articles.TEX as we use it today was released in 1982,with some slight enhancements added in 1989 to better support 8-bit characters and multiple languages TEX is renowned for being extremely stable,for running on many different kinds of computers,and for being virtually bug free.The version number of TEX is converging to and is now at 3.14159265 TEX is prono a C h”as in th G rman word“Ach ttish h echnique.In an ASCII nes Tex. of th 'In German there are actually two pronunciations for"ch"and one might assume that the ause the X follous the not the
Chapter 1 Things You Need to Know The first part of this chapter presents a short overview of the philosophy and history of LATEX 2ε. The second part focuses on the basic structures of a LATEX document. After reading this chapter, you should have a rough knowledge of how LATEX works, which you will need to understand the rest of this book. 1.1 A Bit of History 1.1.1 TEX TEX is a computer program created by Donald E. Knuth [2]. It is aimed at typesetting text and mathematical formulae. Knuth started writing the TEX typesetting engine in 1977 to explore the potential of the digital printing equipment that was beginning to infiltrate the publishing industry at that time, especially in the hope that he could reverse the trend of deteriorating typographical quality that he saw affecting his own books and articles. TEX as we use it today was released in 1982, with some slight enhancements added in 1989 to better support 8-bit characters and multiple languages. TEX is renowned for being extremely stable, for running on many different kinds of computers, and for being virtually bug free. The version number of TEX is converging to π and is now at 3.14159265. TEX is pronounced “Tech,” with a “ch” as in the German word “Ach”1 or in the Scottish “Loch.” The “ch” originates from the Greek alphabet where X is the letter “ch” or “chi”. TEX is also the first syllable of the Greek word technique. In an ASCII environment, TEX becomes TeX. 1 In German there are actually two pronunciations for “ch” and one might assume that the soft “ch” sound from “Pech” would be a more appropriate. Asked about this, Knuth wrote in the German Wikipedia: I do not get angry when people pronounce TEX in their favorite way … and in Germany many use a soft ch because the X follows the vowel e, not the harder ch that follows the vowel a. In Russia, ‘tex’ is a very common word, pronounced ‘tyekh’. But I believe the most proper pronunciation is heard in Greece, where you have the harsher ch of ach and Loch
Things You Need to Know 1.1.2mX BTEX enables authors to typeset and print their work at the highest typo- ional layout. LIEX was origi y writ as nts type sett en b the an Ascu d Lay- ech 1.2 Basics 1.2.1 Author,Book Designer,and Typesetter To publish somthing,their typed s into the +1o tt ording to these instr A human book designer tries to find out what the author had in mind while writing the manuscript.He decides on chapter headings,citations, examples,formulae,etc.based on his professional knowledge and from the contents of the manuscript. y”a progra mor ical strueture of his work.This and therefore e aut ost moder cations,authors specify the document layout interactively while typing text into the computer.They can see on the screen how the final work will look when it is printed. When using IXTEX it is not normally possible to see the final output while typing the text,but the final output can be previewed on the Then corrections can be made before 1.2.2 Layout Design Typographical design is a craft.Unskilled authors often commit serious by assu esigned. What you you get
2 Things You Need to Know 1.1.2 LATEX LATEX enables authors to typeset and print their work at the highest typographical quality, using a predefined, professional layout. LATEX was originally written by Leslie Lamport [1]. It uses the TEX formatter as its typesetting engine. These days LATEX is maintained by the LATEX Project. LATEX is pronounced “Lay-tech” or “Lah-tech.” If you refer to LATEX in an ASCII environment, you type LaTeX. LATEX 2ε is pronounced “Lay-tech two e” and typed LaTeX2e. 1.2 Basics 1.2.1 Author, Book Designer, and Typesetter To publish something, authors give their typed manuscript to a publishing company. One of their book designers then decides the layout of the document (column width, fonts, space before and after headings, …). The book designer writes his instructions into the manuscript and then gives it to a typesetter, who typesets the book according to these instructions. A human book designer tries to find out what the author had in mind while writing the manuscript. He decides on chapter headings, citations, examples, formulae, etc. based on his professional knowledge and from the contents of the manuscript. In a LATEX environment, LATEX takes the role of the book designer and uses TEX as its typesetter. But LATEX is “only” a program and therefore needs more guidance. The author has to provide additional information to describe the logical structure of his work. This information is written into the text as “LATEX commands.” This is quite different from the WYSIWYG2 approach that most modern word processors, such as MS Word or LibreOffice, take. With these applications, authors specify the document layout interactively while typing text into the computer. They can see on the screen how the final work will look when it is printed. When using LATEX it is not normally possible to see the final output while typing the text, but the final output can be previewed on the screen after processing the file with LATEX. Then corrections can be made before actually sending the document to the printer. 1.2.2 Layout Design Typographical design is a craft. Unskilled authors often commit serious formatting errors by assuming that book design is mostly a question of aesthetics—“If a document looks good artistically, it is well designed.” But 2What you see is what you get
1.2 Basics 3 as a document has to be read and not hung up in a picture gallery,the ty and understandability is much more important than the beautiful look of it.Examples The font size and the numbering of headings have to be chosen to make the structure of chapters and sections clear to the reader. The line length has to be short enough not to strain the eyes of the reader,while long enough to fill the page beautifully. With WYSIWYG systems,authors often generate aesthetically pleasing documents with very little or inconsistent structure.ITEX prevents such formatting errors by forcing the author to declare the logical structure of his document.ETEX then chooses the most suitable layout. 1.2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages When people from the WYSIWYG world meet people who use ITEX,they often discuss"the advantages of LTEX over a normal word processor"or the opposite.The best thing to do when such a dis sion starts is to keep a low profile,since such discussions often get out of hand.But sometimes there is no escaping .. .Professionally crafted layouts are available,which make a document really look as if"printed. .The typesetting of mathematical formulae is supported in a convenient way. Users only need to learn a few -to-understand co nmands tha cify the logical stru almost never need ·Eve su s6 tood rences,table of cou gene ·Free add- fo many ty ographical tasks not able ap of thes on packages are des cribed in The LTEX Companion 3. ·X thors tow -structured texts,because this by specm. g structur
1.2 Basics 3 as a document has to be read and not hung up in a picture gallery, the readability and understandability is much more important than the beautiful look of it. Examples: • The font size and the numbering of headings have to be chosen to make the structure of chapters and sections clear to the reader. • The line length has to be short enough not to strain the eyes of the reader, while long enough to fill the page beautifully. With WYSIWYG systems, authors often generate aesthetically pleasing documents with very little or inconsistent structure. LATEX prevents such formatting errors by forcing the author to declare the logical structure of his document. LATEX then chooses the most suitable layout. 1.2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages When people from the WYSIWYG world meet people who use LATEX, they often discuss “the advantages of LATEX over a normal word processor” or the opposite. The best thing to do when such a discussion starts is to keep a low profile, since such discussions often get out of hand. But sometimes there is no escaping … So here is some ammunition. The main advantages of LATEX over normal word processors are the following: • Professionally crafted layouts are available, which make a document really look as if “printed.” • The typesetting of mathematical formulae is supported in a convenient way. • Users only need to learn a few easy-to-understand commands that specify the logical structure of a document. They almost never need to tinker with the actual layout of the document. • Even complex structures such as footnotes, references, table of contents, and bibliographies can be generated easily. • Free add-on packages exist for many typographical tasks not directly supported by basic LATEX. For example, packages are available to include POSTSCRiPT graphics or to typeset bibliographies conforming to exact standards. Many of these add-on packages are described in The LATEX Companion [3]. • LATEX encourages authors to write well-structured texts, because this is how LATEX works—by specifying structure
Things You Need to Know TEX,the formatting engine of IXTEX2e,is highly portable and free Therefore the system runs on almost any hardware platform available ITEX also has some disadvantages,and I guess it's a bit difficult for me to find any sensible ones,though I am sure other people can tell you hundreds ；-） .IATEX does not work well for people who have sold their souls... Although some parameters can be adjusted within a predefined docu- ment layout,the design of a whole new layout is difficult and takes a lot of time. It is very hard to write unstructured and disorganized documents. .Your hamster might,despite some encouraging first steps,never be able to fully grasp the concept of Logical Markup. 1.3 IATEX Input Files The input for ITEX is a plain text file.On Unix/Linux text files are pretty common.On windows,one would use Notepad to create a text file.It contains the text of the document,as well as the commands that tell ITX how to typeset the text. you are w rking with a ITEX IDE,it will contain a program for creating TEX input files in text format 1.3.1 Spaces nly as e".Whitesp single line break is treated as"whitespace" An empty line between two lines of text defines the end of a paragraph. Several empty lines are treated the same as one empty line.The text below is an example.On the left hand side is the text from the input file,and on the right hand side is the formatted output. It does not matter whether you spaces nralpasanradXatrome It does not matter whether An empty line starts a new paragraph. thathf tethatbetepn
4 Things You Need to Know • TEX, the formatting engine of LATEX 2ε, is highly portable and free. Therefore the system runs on almost any hardware platform available. LATEX also has some disadvantages, and I guess it’s a bit difficult for me to find any sensible ones, though I am sure other people can tell you hundreds ;-) • LATEX does not work well for people who have sold their souls … • Although some parameters can be adjusted within a predefined document layout, the design of a whole new layout is difficult and takes a lot of time.3 • It is very hard to write unstructured and disorganized documents. • Your hamster might, despite some encouraging first steps, never be able to fully grasp the concept of Logical Markup. 1.3 LATEX Input Files The input for LATEX is a plain text file. On Unix/Linux text files are pretty common. On windows, one would use Notepad to create a text file. It contains the text of the document, as well as the commands that tell LATEX how to typeset the text. If you are working with a LATEX IDE, it will contain a program for creating LATEX input files in text format. 1.3.1 Spaces “Whitespace” characters, such as blank or tab, are treated uniformly as “space” by LATEX. Several consecutive whitespace characters are treated as one “space”. Whitespace at the start of a line is generally ignored, and a single line break is treated as “whitespace”. An empty line between two lines of text defines the end of a paragraph. Several empty lines are treated the same as one empty line. The text below is an example. On the left hand side is the text from the input file, and on the right hand side is the formatted output. It does not matter whether you enter one or several spaces after a word. An empty line starts a new paragraph. It does not matter whether you enter one or several spaces after a word. An empty line starts a new paragraph. 3Rumour says that this is one of the key elements that will be addressed in the upcoming LATEX3 system