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TeX page

• Corso LaTeX 2024-25
• Introduction
• LaTeX reference on-line
• Math thesis template
• FAQ

Corso LaTeX 2024-25

Avviso.

Il corso è da 2 crediti. È indirizzato agli studenti di Matematica, ma può essere utile a qualunque studente di facoltà scientifiche, specialmente in vista della tesi di laurea. L'esame consiste in due parti:

• presentazione e discussione di un "progettino": 3-4 pagine di senso compiuto, a scelta dello studente, scritte in LaTeX, e contenenti gli elementi principali (intestazione, sezionamento, formule, rimandi ecc.). Il progettino va presentato o in versione cartacea o elettronica, in entrambi i casi con sia il testo sorgente che il typeset. Il progetto sarà respinto se contenente non pochi fra gli errori tipografici, di LaTeX o di stile discussi durante il corso: lettere accentate, dettagli tipografici (virgolette, trattini ecc.), capoversi, uso di accenti con backslash nel sorgente al posto di unicode, rimandi incrociati, formule scritte come testo o viceversa, regola dei simboli matematici formati da più lettere, formule su più righe, gestione non standard di andate a capo, font, spazi, cambi di pagina.
• traduzione in italiano e formattazione in LaTeX di un articolo di ricerca in inglese generato casualmente dal sito Mathgen (per gli studenti di matematica) o da SCIgen (per gli studenti di informatica o TWM). Sarà il docente a fornire allo studente un articolo individualizzato.

I lucidi del corso sono questi. C'è anche una versione per stampa. I lucidi sono stati pensati per lo schermo, comunque la versione per stampa dovrebbe far risparmiare un po' di carta.

Sono ancora disponibili i i lucidi in formato di schermo 4:3, compresa versione per stampa. Questi lucidi in formato 4:3 sono stati aggiornati l'ultima volta nel maggio 2016.

I principali pacchetti che ho usato per scrivere le presentazioni sono TeXPower e Marslides.

Introduction

Question: What is TeX???

Answer: it is not a cartoon character (that one is Tex Willer, with lower-case x). It is a text and page layout system, specially designed for mathematical and scientific printing. Browse the .pdf files in this site to see some of TeX's capabilities.

Question: How shall I pronounce "TeX"?

Answer: The official pronunciation is tricky for speakers of many languages. You will be forgiven if you just say "TEK", as in English "TECHnology". Please do not say "teks" as in (English) "Texas"!

Some pages describing the advantages of TeX over word-processors: Allin Cottrell, Skylar Thompson, wiki.

Also look at the TeX entry in the Free online dictionary of computing.

Have a look at The PracTeX Journal, the online journal of the TeX Users Group.

LaTeX reference on-line

• L'Arte di Scrivere con LaTeX di Lorenzo Pantieri.
• Mathematical writing di Donald E. Knuth, Tracy Larrabee e Paul M. Roberts: questioni di stile di scrittura matematica più che strettamente di LaTeX.
• Marc Baudoin's "Impara LaTeX! (... e mettilo da parte)", a handbook of LaTeX in 87 pages, translated into Italian by Alessandro Cannarsi, and converted to .pdf format (466K) by yours truly.
• Tobias Oetiker's (and others') "Una (mica tanto) breve introduzione a LaTeX2e" (Italian translation by the Gilda/Guild group, 109 pages) in .pdf format (1093K).
• Manuale utente per il pacchetto amsmath (pdf, 354K), Uso del pacchetto amsthm (pdf, 119K) and amsmath FAQ (text, 14K), from the Americal Mathematical Society (Italian translation by the Gilda/Guild group)
• LaTeX para las humanidades (pdf), Este documento tiene como objetivo ofrecer a todos los autores relacionados con cualquier campo de las Humanidades una introducción práctica, elemental y amena al uso de LaTeX.
• Bibfilex A free software to manage Biblatex files, by Massimo Nardello.
• Peter Flynn's "Formatting Information, A beginner's introduction to typesetting with LaTeX".
• "PGI - Piccole Guide d'Informatica" by Luigi Carusillo.
• "LaTeX Community", un forum in rete per gli utenti di LaTeX.
• "LaTeX for Word Processors Users" by Guido Gonzato.
• A comprehensive LaTeX symbol list (with 2590 symbols!).
• Well..., my own Introduzione al LaTeX.
• Consigli su Come (non) si scrive la tesi, di Stefano Mizzaro.
• Piet van Oostrum's Layout di pagina in LaTeX (users' guide to the fancyhydr package; Italian translation by the Gilda/Guild group) in .pdf format (388K).
• TeX by Topic, a whole book by Victor Eijkhout, is available on-line for free.
• George Grätzer's "Math into LaTeX. An Introduction to LaTeX and AMS--LaTeX" About 100 pages of this book are available on line in PostScript, pdf and dvi formats.
• A gentle introduction to LaTeX by Michael Doob.
• Example files from the book LaTeX Line by Line, by Antoni Diller.
• "Text Processing using LaTeX" from the University of Cambridge.
• "Beginner's LaTeX" from Virginia Commonwealth University Computer Center.
• Gettin Started with LaTeX, by David Wilkins.
• PDF LaTeX by example, by C.T.J. Dodson.
• An Introduction to using LaTeX2e, mostly about system setup, not about writing documents.
• A listing of on-line TeX help from Trento University.
• A listing of on-line TeX help from Trieste University.
• Advice on how to write a LaTeX thesis in Italian from Trieste University.
• (La)TeX Navigator.
• "Technical Documents with LaTeX", a course by Prof. Gary L. Gray and and Francesco Costanzo at Penn State University.
• Novice level tutorial for LaTeX ,by the Indian TeX Users Group.
• LaTeX Help from Emory University.
• An introductory course to LaTeX in German by Stephan Lehmke.
• "Scrivere con LaTeX" by Riccardo Murri.
• Notes on TeX for Linux.
• A guide to LaTeX from INFN.
• A TeXnical explanation on how to use True Type fonts with TeX.
• Practical LaTeX guide from Helsinki Dept. of Physics.
• A list of (mostly) LaTeX tools to make overhead slide or computer screen presentations. Look also at this CalTeX talk.
• Outils de rédaction scientifique from Univ. of Nantes.
• Apprendre LATEX en 6 leçons de 2 minutes.
• Google LaTeX page.
• To learn how to make beautiful illustrations: A MetaPost manual, and a PostScript manual.
• Troubleshooting graphic files for inclusion into LaTeX.
• Google's comp.text.tex group.

A sample math thesis template

Thesis front page

Transparencies presentation (in color)

PDF slideshow presentation

Here is a zip archive (last updated on 2018-08-31) with style file and sample template for print thesis, updated for PDF-A compliance. For this package to work, it is advisable to update the TeX installation to the most recent full version. Older versions lack some essential components.

The example is for a Math thesis, but the style file allows thesis in any subject. Unzip the archive and then compile the master file tesi.tex. To produce the final pdf you should also personalize the content of the file tesi.xmpdata.

---

TeX FAQ

• 
  The special font for the number sets are loaded with
  
  • \usepackage{amsfonts}
    \newcommand{\N}{\mathbb{N}}
    \newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb{Z}}
    \newcommand{\Q}{\mathbb{Q}}
    \newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}
    \newcommand{\C}{\mathbb{C}}
    
• 
  This special calligraphic font is called RSFS (Ralph Smith's Formal Font). It is available from CTAN (search for the "rsfs" string). A ready-made pack for Textures on the Macintosh is here. With the LaTeX package mathrsfs you can call the rsfs font with \mathscr{A}. With PlainTeX you get the same effect with the following definitions:
  • \font\tenrsfs=rsfs10
    \font\sevenrsfs=rsfs7
    \font\fiversfs=rsfs5
    \newfam\rsfsfam
    \textfont\rsfsfam=\tenrsfs
    \scriptfont\rsfsfam=\sevenrsfs
    \scriptscriptfont\rsfsfam=\fiversfs
    \def\mathscr#1{{\fam\rsfsfam\relax#1}}
    
• To write LaTeX documents in Italian with Miktex you will fist need (just once, not every time you typeset) to
  • select the hyphenation rules to be loaded (as explained in "Selecting Hyphenation Rules")
  • and then update the LaTeX format (see "the general tab").

  Then make your document preambles like this (on Windows and Unix):

  \documentstyle[italian,...]{...}
  \usepackage{babel}
  \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
  ...

• 
  To make it comfortable to type in Italian when using LaTeX load the inputenc package like this:
  
  • \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc} for use with Windows or Unix,
  • \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc} for use with Macintosh.

  A discussion on the correct use of the accents on the letters "i" and "u" in Italian spelling can be found here.

• Headers and footers: sometimes the title of a chapter or of a section is too long to fit into the page header. Then you can declare a shortened title with \chaptermark and \sectionmark:
  • \chapter{full title}
    \chaptermark{title for header}
    
    \sectionmark{title for header}
    \section{full title}
    \sectionmark{title for header}

  Note that \sectionmark is repeated twice, before AND after \section. This is awkward, but it's not my fault. Read here for more explanation.