Source: TeXfaq.org
Last sync: 2018/07/29
Getting started
How can I be sure it’s really TeX?
How does LaTeX relate to Plain TeX?
How should I pronounce “LaTeX(2ε)”?
How should I pronounce “TeX”?
If TeX is so good, how come it’s free?
Reading (La)TeX files
Should I use Plain TeX or LaTeX?
TeX User Groups
The CTAN catalogue
Things with “TeX” in the name
What are XeTeX and LuaTeX?
What are the AMS packages (amsmath, etc.)?
What is ε-TeX?
What is CTAN?
What is ConTeXt?
What is Eplain?
What is LaTeX2e?
What is LaTeX?
What is MetaFont?
What is MetaPost?
What is TeX?
What is Texinfo?
What is pdfTeX?
What is the future of TeX?
What’s “writing in TeX”?
Why is TeX not a WYSIWYG system?
Accents in bibliographies
BibTeX doesn’t understand lists of names
BibTeX sorting and name prefixes
Capitalisation in BibTeX
Choosing a bibliography style
Creating a BibTeX bibliography file
Creating a bibliography style
Format of numbers in the bibliography
Listing all your BibTeX entries
Making HTML of your Bibliography
Multi-letter initials in BibTeX
Multiple bibliographies?
Multiple citations
Non-english bibliographies
Normal use of BibTeX from LaTeX
Putting bibliography entries in text
Reconstructing bib files
Reducing spacing in the bibliography
References from the bibliography to the citation
Separate bibliographies per chapter?
Sorting and compressing citations
Sorting lists of citations
String too long in BibTeX
Table of contents rearranges “unsrt” ordering
URLs in BibTeX bibliographies
Using BibTeX with Plain TeX
Adobe font formats
Documented LaTeX sources (dtx files)
How does hyphenation work in TeX?
Spawning programs from (La)TeX: \write18
Unicode and TeX
What are “resolutions”?
What are (TeX) macros
What are LaTeX “environments”
What are LaTeX classes and packages?
What are PK files?
What are TFM files?
What are encodings?
What are the EC fonts?
What are virtual fonts?
What is “Encapsulated PostScript” (“EPS”)?
What is a DVI driver?
What is a DVI file?
What is the “Berry naming scheme”?
What is the TDS?
Writing (text) files from TeX
\special commands
(La)TeX tutorials
BibTeX Documentation
Books on LaTeX
Books on TeX, Plain TeX and relations
Books on Type
Books on other TeX-related matters
Books relevant to TeX and friends
Documentation of packages
Freely available (La)TeX books
Getting help online
How to ask a question
How to make a “minimum example”
Learning to write LaTeX classes and packages
MetaFont and MetaPost Tutorials
Online introductions: LaTeX
Online introductions: Plain TeX
Reference documents
Specialist mailing lists
The PicTeX manual
Tutorials, etc., for TeX-based systems
Typography tutorials
WIKI books for TeX and friends
Where can I find the symbol for …
Where to find FAQs
Accents misbehave in tabbing
Alignment tab changed to \cr
An extra }?
Capacity exceeded [semantic nest …
Capacity exceeded — input levels
Checksum mismatch in font
Controlling widows and orphans
Enlarging TeX
Entering compatibility mode
Extra vertical space in floats
Fatal format file error; I’m stymied
Float(s) lost
Graphics division by zero
How to approach errors
I asked for “empty”, but the page is numbered
Illegal parameter number in definition
Improper \hyphenation will be flushed
LaTeX gets cross-references wrong
LaTeX won’t include from other directories
Link text doesn’t break at end line
Mismatched mode ljfour and resolution 8000
Missing $ inserted
Missing \begin{document}
Missing number, treated as zero
Missing symbol commands
My brackets don’t match
No line here to end
No room for a new “thing”
Non-PDF special ignored!
Not in outer par mode
Old LaTeX font references such as \tenrm
Option clash for package
Package reports “command already defined”
Page number is wrong at start of page
Perhaps a missing \item?
Please type a command or say \end
Start of line goes awry
Support package expl3 too old
The structure of TeX error messages
Token not allowed in PDFDocEncoded string
Too deeply nested
Too many math alphabets
Too many unprocessed floats
Two-column float numbers out of order
Unable to read an entire line
Underlined text won’t break
Unknown graphics extension
Warning Font shape … not available
What’s happened to initex?
Where are the am fonts?
Where are the msy fonts?
Why are my sections numbered 0.1 …?
Why doesn’t verbatim work within …?
Why is my table/figure/… not centred?
\end occurred inside a group
\normalsize not defined
\spacefactor complaints
epsf gives up after a bit
pdfTeX destination … ignored
Centring a very wide figure or table
Diagonal separation in corner cells of tables
Facing floats on 2-page spread
Figure (or table) exactly where I want it
Fixed-width tables
Floats in multicolumn setting
Floats on their own on float pages
Flowing text around figures
How to alter the alignment of tabular cells
How to change a whole row of a table
Merging cells in a column of a table
Moving tables and figures in LaTeX
Placing two-column floats at bottom of page
Spacing lines in tables
Tables longer than a single page
The design of tables
The thickness of rules in LaTeX tables
Variable-width columns in tables
Vertical layout of float pages
Acquiring bitmap fonts
Characters disappear from figures in pdfTeX
Choice of Type 1 fonts for typesetting Maths
Deploying Type 1 fonts
Fonts go fuzzy when you switch to T1
Fuzzy fonts because Ghostscript too old
Getting “free” fonts not in your distribution
Getting MetaFont to do what you want
Previewing files using Type 1 fonts
TeX font metric files for Type 1 fonts
The wrong type of fonts in PDF
Unicode Maths using OpenType fonts
Using Adobe Type 1 fonts with TeX
Using non-standard fonts in Plain TeX
Using the “Concrete” fonts
Using the Latin Modern fonts
Weird characters in dvips output
Which font files should be kept
1-column abstract in 2-column document
A “report” from lots of ‘article’s
Adobe Reader messing with print size
Alternative head- and footlines in LaTeX
Appendixes
Balancing columns at the end of a document
Better script fonts for maths
Bibliography, index, etc., in TOC
Big letters at the start of a paragraph
Breaking boxes of text
Cancelling \ragged commands
Changing margins “on the fly”
Changing the margins in LaTeX
Changing the space between letters
Code listings in LaTeX
Creating posters with LaTeX
Double-spaced documents in LaTeX
Formatting a thesis in LaTeX
Generating an index in (La)TeX
Getting the right paper geometry from (La)TeX
How to create a \subsubsubsection
How to create crop marks
How to get copyright, trademark, etc.
How to get rid of page numbers
How to set up page layout “by hand”
How to type an “@” sign?
How to typeset an underscore character
Including a file verbatim in LaTeX
Including line numbers in typeset output
Indent after section headings
Letters and the like
Multiple indexes
My section title is too wide for the page header
Other “document font” sizes?
Overstriking characters
Packages to set up page designs
Page numbering “‹n› of ‹m›”
Page numbering by chapter
Parallel setting of text
Preventing page breaks between lines
Printing the time
Producing presentations (including slides)
Putting things at fixed positions on the page
Realistic quotes for verbatim listings
Really blank pages between chapters
Referring to labels in other documents
Referring to things by their name
Replacing the standard classes
Setting bold Greek letters in LaTeX maths
Setting papers for journals
Setting text ragged right
Symbols for the number sets
Table of contents, etc., per chapter
The Principal Value Integral symbol
The format of the Table of Contents, etc.
The size of printed output
The style of captions
The style of document titles
The style of section headings
Typesetting URLs
Typesetting epigraphs
Typesetting music in TeX
Typesetting pseudocode in LaTeX
Typesetting the Euro sign
Typesetting things in landscape orientation
Unnumbered sections in the Table of Contents
Using “old-style” figures
Using symbols
Watermarks on every page
Wide figures in two-column documents
Zero paragraph indent
Curriculum Vitae (Résumé)
Displaying MetaPost output in ghostscript
Drawing Feynman diagrams in LaTeX
Drawing with TeX
Imported graphics in dvipdfm
Imported graphics in dvips
Imported graphics in pdfLaTeX
Importing graphics from “somewhere else”
Importing graphics into (La)TeX documents
In-line source for graphics applications
Labelling graphics
Limit the width of imported graphics
Modern graphics file names
Repeated graphics in a document
Top-aligning imported graphics
(La)TeX for different machines
(Modern) Windows systems
Commercial TeX implementations
Contributing a file to the archives
Finding (La)TeX files
Finding new fonts
Finding packages to install
Generating package documentation
Installation using MiKTeX package manager
Installation using TeX Live manager
Installing a PostScript printer built-in font
Installing a Type 1 font
Installing a font provided as MetaFont source
Installing a new font
Installing files “where (La)TeX can find them”
Installing the Type 1 versions of the CM fonts
Installing things on a (La)TeX system
Installing using ready-built ZIP files
Macintosh systems
Other systems’ TeX availability
Preparing a Type 1 font
Private installations of files
Ready-built installation files on the archive
Repositories of TeX material
Shortcuts to installing files
TeX-friendly editors and shells
Temporary installation of (La)TeX files
The TeX collection
Tidying up after installation
Unix and GNU Linux systems
What was the CTAN nonfree tree?
Where to install packages
Which tree to use
(La)TeX-friendly drawing packages
Alternatives to TeX
Automatic sizing of minipage
Conversion from (La)TeX to HTML
Conversion from (La)TeX to plain text
Conversion from SGML or HTML to TeX
DVI previewers
DVI to PostScript conversion programs
Generating bitmaps from DVI
How many words have you written?
Making outline fonts from MetaFont
Math on the Web
Other conversions to and from (La)TeX
Output to “other” printers
Quality of PDF from PostScript
Redefining counters’ \the-commands
Replacing the BibTeX–LaTeX mechanism
Reporting a LaTeX bug
Retrieving (La)TeX from DVI, etc.
Spelling checkers for work with TeX
Submitting new material for the FAQ
TeX Engine development
TeXCAD, a drawing package for LaTeX
The LaTeX project
The TeX document preparation environment
Translating LaTeX to Plain TeX
Typesetting all those TeX-related logos
Using TeX to read SGML or XML directly
WEB systems for various languages
What is Literate Programming?
What to do if you find a bug
You don’t understand the answer
Active characters in command arguments
Adjusting the presentation of section numbers
Am I using pdfTeX, XeTeX or LuaTeX?
Changing the words babel uses
Commands defined with * options
Comparing the “job name”
Defining LaTeX commands within other commands
Defining a macro from an argument
Defining characters as macros
Defining macros within macros
Detecting that something is empty
Finding if a label is undefined
Finding if you’re on an odd or an even page
Finding the width of a letter, word, or phrase
Fonts at arbitrary sizes
How to break the 9-argument limit
How to change LaTeX’s “fixed names”
How to change the format of labels
How to print contents of variables?
Is the argument a number?
Is this command defined?
Key-value input for macros and package options
LaTeX internal “abbreviations”, etc.
LaTeX3 programming
Making labels from a counter
Master and slave counters
More than one optional argument
Non-letters in macro names
Optional arguments like \section
Patching existing commands
Repeating a command n times
Repeating something for each ‘thing’ in a set
Spaces in macros
Subverting a token register
The definitions of LaTeX commands
The quality of your LaTeX
There’s a space added after my environment
Transcribing LaTeX command definitions
Using Plain or primitive commands in LaTeX
Using labels as counter values
What’s the reason for “protection”?
@ in macro names
\protect
(La)TeX makes overfull lines
(Merely) peculiar hyphenation
Accented words aren’t hyphenated
Adjusting maths font sizes
All the files used by this document
Bits of document from other directories
Cancelling terms in maths expressions
Case-changing oddities
Characters missing from PDF output
Commands gobble following space
Conditional compilation and “comments”
Copy-paste-able/searchable PDF files
Defining a new log-like function in LaTeX
Ellipses
Even subscript height
Fancy enumeration lists
Finding “8-bit” Type 1 fonts
Footnotes in LaTeX section headings
Footnotes in captions
Footnotes in tables
Footnotes numbered “per page”
Footnotes whose texts are identical
Getting \marginpar on the right side
How many pages are there in my document?
How to adjust list spacing
How to do bold-tt or bold-sc
Hyperref and repeated page numbers
Hyphenation exceptions
Including Plain TeX files in LaTeX
Interrupting enumerated lists
Line-breaking in in-line maths
Makefiles for LaTeX documents
Making PDF documents from (La)TeX
Making hypertext documents from TeX
Marking changed parts of your document
Maths symbols don’t scale up
More than one sequence of footnotes
My words aren’t being hyphenated
Not resetting footnote numbers per chapter
Numbers for referenced equations only
Numbers too large in table of contents, etc.
Only one \baselineskip per paragraph
Preventing hyphenation of a particular word
Proof environment
Re-using an equation
Replacing Type 3 fonts in PostScript
Rerun messages won't go away
Running equation, figure and table numbering
Set specifications and Dirac brackets
Stopping all hyphenation
Sub- and superscript positioning for operators
Text inside maths
The comma as a decimal separator
The hyperTeX project
Theorem bodies printed in a roman font
Using a new language with Babel
Version control using RCS, CVS or the like
Weird hyphenation of words
What’s going on in my \include commands?
What’s the name of this file
What’s wrong with \it, etc.?
What’s wrong with \newfont?
Where have my characters gone?
Why bother with fontenc?
Why does LaTeX split footnotes across pages?
Why does it ignore paragraph parameters?
Why doesn’t \linespread work?
Why is the inside margin so narrow?
Why not use eqnarray?
Why use $$?