[Gianluca Gorni's home page]

TeX page

• Corso LaTeX 2010
• Introduction
• LaTeX reference on-line
• Math thesis template
• FAQ
• TeX implementations
• Music TeX
• Japanese TeX

---

Corso LaTeX 2010

Il corso è da 1 credito. 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 nella discussione di un progettino: 2 o 3 o più 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 risultato dell'esame è approvato o non approvato, senza voto.

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.

The main packages I used to write the slides are TeXPower and 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.
• 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 (1.1MB, last updated on 2009-11-27) with style files and sample templates and outputs for three kinds of documents:

• The actual Thesis, meant primarily for printing;
• Transparencies presentation of the thesis;
• pdf slideshow presentation, meant for projection from a computer.

The example is for a Math thesis, but the style file allows thesis in any subject. Unzip the archive and then compile the master files (tesi.tex, lucidiTesi.tex, presentazione.tex).

---

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.

TeX on personal computers

For Windows: (see also this TeX for Windows page and this other one, and one more)

• MikTeX (freeware); see these installation tips in Italian;
• ProTeXt, a package containing MikTeX together with editors and other stuff.
• Windows text editors specially suited for TeX (see a comprehensive list here):
  • TeXnicCenter (free) (see this tools page),
  • WinShell (free).
  • Texmaker (free).
  • LaTeXEdit (a limited version is free, the full version is charityware);
  • WinTeX 2000 (shareware, 39.97 euro),
  • WinEdt (shareware, $30 for students). Do not confuse WinEdt with WinEdit (commercial, 89$), which can also be used with (La)TeX, anyway.
  • LaTeX editor.
  • Chek out ProFont, a free programmer's font.
  • Instructions on how to install TeX for Windows with emacs as editor, by Claus Dethlefsen.
• Graphic converters: eps2pdf, EMPTOEPS, WMF2EPS.
• PCTeX (commercial); you can download a demo.
• I understand that TeXaide is a free equation editor for Windows that produces TeX code to paste into your TeX documents.
• TexPoint, a LaTeX add-in for PowerPoint.

For Macintosh (more info here):

• TexShop, and iTeXMac, two free TeX editors for MacOS X.
• i-Installer, an internet-aware free TeX installer and updater for MacOS X.
• OzTeX (shareware);
• CMacTeX (shareware; carbonized for MacOS X)

Some notes on TeX for Linux.

A more comprehensive list is here. More TeX-related links here. See also the Gilda/Guild group's page. There is also the web site of the Italian TeX Users Group.

Look here for how to combine TeX with pdf.

I can lend my TeX CD-ROM for easy installation of LaTeX to interested students. The disk is quite new (December 2004).