LaTeX is the standard for the preparation of scientific documents; it formats your article with stylistic uniformity and saves you time on fixing the document layout.
Create better documents, faster
Select your ideal font and size from a wide selection with a quick command line on LaTeX.
Your research derived through many hours is nothing until it’s all documented, but standard document applications take too long to create when you’re designing the layout. That’s why LaTeX is the perfect choice for anyone writing a college thesis, scientific report, essay, presentation, or even the next best-selling novel.
LaTeX uses a coding structure. The templates are divided as classes and make it easy to change them with ease. Not everyone can code, but fortunately, LaTeX code gets issued as commands which make the entire process quick and straightforward to implement. Lists are made through a short command line and can be numbered or unnumbered.
Online WYSIWYG Mathematics Editor (Equation Editor), fast and powerful Editing features, inputting Normal text, Math symbols, and drawing Graph/Diagram in one single editor, help writing Math Document much easier. Export to Latex, Tikz, SVG, or Image (PNG). Elgato video capture software download for mac.
Organizing references is a straightforward process. The biblio section acts as a collection of all of them and will only include those you used in your document’s bibliography. Android browser for kindle.
LaTeX is entirely free to use, meaning anyone can access LaTeX’s solution to presenting reports, essays, books, and other pieces of writing. Using the software requires climbing a slight learning curve, but once you’ve gotten the hang of using LaTeX, you’ll be generating amazing documents.
Where can you run this program?
LaTeX is available for computers running MacOS, Windows or Linux, Windows. Windows has a few options for the distribution of LaTex you’d like to use.
- Mac users can choose LyX, the most famous LaTeX editor. It is an open-source editor.
- Texmaker is free; it is modern; it is equally cross-platform, making it work flawlessly on.
Is there a better alternative?
Latex Editors
No, LaTeX is the industry standard for a good reason. It’s a highly capable software that is easy to learn. There are non-standard alternatives such as Patoline, which uses a mix of TeX and not full TeX unlike LaTeX.
Our take
LaTex is an excellent system to use when preparing any document, whether a research task for school, your college thesis or a detailed report for your work.
Should you download it?
Yes, if you’re writing an important document, book or preparing a presentation, you’ll benefit from using LaTeX’s extensive features.
Tables of editor properties[edit]
Name | Editing style[Note 1] | Native operating systems | Latest stable version | Costs | License | Configurable | Integrated viewer |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2019-10-30) 12.2 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
Authorea | Source / partial-WYSIWYG | Online | N/A | Free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes |
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs | Source[Note 2] | Online | (2020-04-06) 48 | Free | Free | Yes | Yes |
CoCalc | Source | Online | N/A | Free | AGPL | Yes | Yes |
GNOME LaTeX | Source | Linux | (2019-03-10) 3.32 | Free | GPL | Yes | No |
Gummi | Source | Linux | (2020-01-26) 0.8.1 | Free | MIT | Yes | Yes (Live update) |
Kile | Source | Linux (macOS, Windows)[Note 3] | (2012-09-23) 2.1.3 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes (Quick preview) |
LEd | Source | Windows | (2009-10-09) 0.53 | Free | Proprietary | ? | Yes (dvi) |
LyX | WYSIWYM | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2019-06-25) 2.3.3 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
MeWa | Source | Windows | (2007-06-06) 1.4.0 | Free | GPL | Yes | No |
Notepad++ | Source | Windows | (2019-10-29) 7.8.1 | Free | GPL | Yes | No, but can be integrated [Note 4] |
Overleaf | Source | Online | N/A | Free | Unclear | Yes | Yes |
Scientific WorkPlace | WYSIWYM | Windows | (2016-02-23) 6.0.12 | Non-free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes |
TexLab | Source-WYSIWYG | Windows | (2019-04-30) 7.8 | Free | Free | Yes | Yes |
TeXmacs | WYSIWYG | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2017-12-21) 1.99.6 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
Texmaker | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2018-11-01) 5.0.3 | Free | GPL2 | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | Source | Windows | 2.02 Stable (September 29, 2013) [±] | Free | GPL | Yes | No |
TeXShop | Source | macOS | (2019-10-23) 4.44 | Free | GPL | Yes | Yes |
TeXstudio | Source | Linux, Windows, macOS | (2020-08-25) 3.0.0 | Free | GPL2 | Yes | Yes (pdf, selection with dvi2png) |
TeXworks | Source | Linux, macOS, Windows | (2019-03) 0.6.3 | Free | GPL | No | Yes (pdf) |
Verbosus | Source | Online, Android, iOS | (2016-05-06) 4.1.3 | Free | Proprietary | Yes | Yes (pdf) |
WinEdt | Source | Windows | (2018-05-07) 10.3 | Non-free | Proprietary | Yes | No |
WinShell | Source | Windows | (2013-02-10) 3.3.2.6 | Free | Proprietary | Yes | No |
Name | Editing Style | Native Operating Systems | Latest stable version | Costs | License | Configurable | Integrated viewer |
Inverse search[Note 5] | DDE support[Note 6] | Organises Projects | Menu for inserting symbols | Document comparison | Spell-checking | Multiple undo-redo | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Yes | No | Partial (master file) | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 7] | Yes |
Authorea | Yes | N/A | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs | Yes | N/A | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
CoCalc | Yes | N/A | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
GNOME LaTeX | Yes | N/A | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Gummi | Yes | N/A | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Kile | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
LEd | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
LyX | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MeWa | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Notepad++ | Yes, with SumatraPDF | Yes, with a DDE client | Yes | Partial[Note 8] | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Overleaf | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Scientific WorkPlace | N/A | ? | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No (one level) |
TexLab | Yes | N/A | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXmacs | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Texmaker | Yes | No | Partial (master file) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXShop | Yes | No | No | Yes[Note 9] | No | Yes | Yes |
TeXstudio | Yes | Yes | Partial (master file) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXworks | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes[Note 10] | Yes |
Verbosus | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
WinEdt | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinShell | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Inverse search | DDE Support | Organises Projects | Menu for inserting symbols | Document comparison | Spell-checking | Multiple undo-redo |
Best Latex Editor For Mac
Name | Collapsible sections | Find and replace using RegEx | Intelligenterror handling | Autocompletion of LaTeX commands | Parenthesis matching | Starts up to previous state[Note 11] | Unicode support | RTL Support[Note 12] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AUCTeX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 13] | Yes | Yes |
Authorea | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Auto-Latex Equations for Google Docs | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? |
CoCalc | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
GNOME LaTeX | Planned | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | (just same files) | Yes | Yes |
Gummi | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
Kile | Yes[Note 14] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
LEd | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No (just same files) | No | ? |
LyX | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MeWa | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? |
Notepad++ | Yes | Yes | No | Partial[Note 15] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Overleaf | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Scientific WorkPlace | No | ? | ? | N/A | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
TexLab | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
TeXmacs | No | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | No | Yes | ? |
Texmaker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXnicCenter | since v2.0 | since v2.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | since v2.0 | ? |
TeXShop | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
TeXstudio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TeXworks | No | Yes[Note 16] | No | Yes[Note 17] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Verbosus | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
WinEdt | Yes | Yes (modified) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
WinShell | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (just same files) | Yes | ? |
Name | Collapsible sections | Find and replace using RegEx | Intelligenterror handling | Autocompletion of LaTeX commands | Parenthesis matching | Starts up to previous state[Note 18] | Unicode support | RTL Support[Note 19] |
Editor | Screenshot |
---|---|
LyX | Screenshot |
Texmaker | Screenshot of Texmaker version 4.5 |
TexLab | TeXLab Screenshot |
TeXstudio | Screenshot of TeXstudio (2.12.6) |
Editor | Screenshot |
Macbook Latex
- ^'Source' means you see and edit the TeX source files. 'WYSIWYM' = What You See Is What You Mean, i.e. you see and edit formatted text. WYSIWYG means that see the output file automatically updated during the edit. Note that some PDF viewers (e.g. evince) automatically reload the PDF document when it is updated on the disk. So, any 'source' TeX editor can be turned into partial WYSIWYG editor by opening such a reader in an adjacent window.
- ^Not a full TeX editor. Only limited to math expressions only.
- ^Support for non-linux systems considered experimental.
- ^Notepad++ can execute Tex viewers
- ^Inverse search means that one can locate the relevant part of the source code from the viewer (e.g., double-clicking in dvi or pdf file brings up the appropriate line/paragraph in the latex code)
- ^On Windows some pdf viewers like Sumatra PDF or Adobe Reader don't use command line arguments for forward search, but the editor sends the document position to them using Dynamic Data Exchange
- ^Requires installation of extra package.
- ^A plug-in is required.
- ^LaTeX panel & Matrix panel
- ^Requires installation of extra package
- ^Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.
- ^RTL support means Right to Left language support.
- ^configurable as an option of the Emacs editor
- ^With usual section{} notation, Kile collapses equations and figures, but not sections. Collapsing of sections is possible with non-standard notation begin{section}{}..end{section}{}, but it eliminates sections from Structure View. An alternative possibility is bracketing sections with comments %BEGIN and %END.
- ^This will have to be set up manually.
- ^Provides a subset of the regular expression syntax implemented in the Perl scripting language, but fully supports Unicode ( Issue 194: Add advanced regexp options to Find/Replace )
- ^Template file in resource directory ( Documentation of the code completion feature )
- ^Starts up to previous state including the current editing point.
- ^RTL support means Right to Left language support.