A clarification on LaTeX

Just in case you’ve googled me and wondered why I happily link to something called LaTeX, I should clarify that LaTeX (most commonly pronounced “Lay-tek”) is a computer language for typesetting documents. (Well, it’s officially called \(\LaTeX\) and is a markup language rather than a standard computer language, but that’s splitting hairs.)

Most people use Microsoft Word to write documents. That’s fine. I prefer to use LaTeX, particularly if there is any mathematics in the document. The primary reason for this is ease. LaTeX can “read” math and I find it easier to type \sum x_i to obtain \(\sum x_i\) than to mess around with the equation editor.

LaTeX also produces remarkably beautiful documents. I appreciate that this sounds particularly nerdy, but it’s true: ask Dario for proof. Moreover, its settings are defaulted to look just right, so there’s no messing around with fonts, margins, line-spacing, etc.

Andrew Roberts has a thorough outline of the benefits of LaTeX. Here’s my summary:

1. Math(s) is much easier to write.
2. Presentations (via beamer) are cooler.
3. The documents look better.
4. You don’t have to worry about how it looks, so you can focus on content.

I admit the name is unfortunate, though.