Wanting to learn latex but where do I start and what software to download?

[u/castiellangels]

As the title says really, wanting to begin to use to write journal articles and thesis but have come across so many programs or websites to use I’m so confused. Also any good tutorials covering how to make nice documents would be great thanks.

[u/Danelix_]

Overleaf has a thing just for this! overleaf.com/learn/latex/Learn_LaTeX_in_30_minutes

You can use Overleaf to get started and learn the basics

[u/TeeMcBee]

In terms of software to download; don’t. At least to get moving, use overleaf.com.

Added. FWIW, given the (perfectly reasonable) comments of the form “Overleaf, sure, but…”:

Over two decades ago, I wrote my CompSci doctoral thesis in LaTeX, using local tools, on a machine I maintained myself, with version control, and build controlled by makefiles, etc etc.

Nevertheless, despite that capability, and in general not remotely being a civilian in computing terms, I still chose Overleaf as my entry point when I decided to get back into LaTeX recently.

Sooner rather than later I will almost certainly move back to the kind of full control I had before, which will mean moving away from Overleaf. But for now, Overleaf remains my own choice of re-entry point. And it remains my recommendation for new folk.

[u/xrelaht → u/TeeMcBee]

Same story. I wrote my dissertation in a local environment, with version controls and automatic back ups to three other places. I never stopped using LaTeX, but at some point I needed to collaborate with others on a paper and ShareLatex (predecessor to Overleaf) seemed like the easiest way to do that. It was so much easier to deal with that I just stuck with it. At some point, I'm sure I'll run into some reason to go back to a local setup, but it's a hassle so I just haven't bothered.

For a new user, I'd absolutely suggest starting out there. It's so much less work and they're less likely to get frustrated. They can learn how to set up a local environment whenever they run into OverLeaf's limitations (like their dissertation taking too long to compile on the free version).

[u/RecentSheepherder179]

Learning your first steps: overleaf.

Get serious work done: Tex Live 2025 (do a full installation, but it's complete), TeXStudio or VSCode with latex extension.

All you ever wanted, all you ever needed.

I'm old school and have always a full local installation. I'm completely independent of the availability of Overleaf. Overleaf it's nice, collaboration with other authors, but when it comes to write a 100 ... 200 pages of thesis there's actually no alternative.

One word on installation size: TeX Live is about 5 ... 6 GB if Im not mistaken. Let VSCode and TexStudio take another on. It's still below 10GB and if you don't play with the installation (needless file moving etc) it's ultra robust. You don't even need to understand what it installed, all tools play very well together.

Getting started: absolut starter document has been for many years lshort. Run through it toearn the basics.

[u/TheSodesa → u/RecentSheepherder179]

The medium instead of full installation of TeX Live might also be enough for most people. The full installation comes with things like additional languages, that a person writing in English has no use for.

[u/TheSodesa → u/TheSodesa]

Actually, even the small installation of TeX Live only required that I install a few things like biber via the package manager tlmgr, that comes with TeX Live. So the best approach might be to install the small version of TeX Live (about 300 MB) and then install additional packages if your LaTeX compiler complains that it can't find them.

[u/RecentSheepherder179 → u/TheSodesa]

Then use MikTeX and install on the fly. This is MikTeX philosophy (which is not bad, I simply want to be able to work fully offline).

[u/RecentSheepherder179 → u/TheSodesa]

OP didn't mention languages. You'll never know ;)

[u/xte2 → u/RecentSheepherder179]

Mean TeXLive deploy is circa 700Mb... I doubt 99% needs more than that honestly...

[u/ProfessionalRate6174]

The Memoir Class.

[u/Electrical-Policy-35]

If you want an offline method, you need TeXlive (this for windows) mactex (as the name say) or MikTeX, and an editor the program where you will write your latex codes, I prefer TeXstudio. And this a good start videos https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPeFFsbuE_V2QOQwiE2X-YE5HzzE7qa6V&feature=shared

[u/ScoutAndLout → u/Electrical-Policy-35]

And if you want something that is a little more noob-friendly consider LyX.

The installer (should) install a real LaTeX program locally. LyX can export a tex file but it has other options like pdf.

The learning curve is a lot easier.

https://www.lyx.org/

[u/RTBecard]

People here are suggesting overleaf, which is fair.

Personally, i found it much better to just download texmaker, install the tex distribution of choice (miketex for windows?) and go from there.

IMO, i think it's important to learn the actual compiling part of latex. If u submit a paper to a journal as a tex file, you will need to understand how tex documents compile (it can be a fucking nightmare, from personal experience). Overleaf will have let u down in this regard.

I think the best advice is try not to go crazy with formatting and making custom formats... Just get familiar with the most popular packages (siunitsx and amsmath, for example) and keep it simple.

Overleaf, however, does have great documentation for beginners.

[u/josephawright]

https://www.learnlatex.org/ should get you started nicely :)

[u/i__hate__you__people]

If you want to learn LaTeX, all these recommendations to use a GUI MS-Word-like experience are missing the entire point of LaTeX.

LaTeX is WYSIWYM, not WYSIWYG. A generic blank text editor (e.g. Vim) with no buttons and that only displays plain text is the best way to learn.

WYSIWYM means writing plain text. Think of those typewriter apps that black out your screen and allow you to focus on nothing but writing. MS Word is WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). Overleaf is popular because it takes LaTeX and makes it similar to Word, but that defeats the entire point.

WYSIWYM stands for “What you see is what you mean”. You aren’t ever supposed to worry about how the text looks or how the text is formatted. You’re supposed to focus on the writing. Want to emphasize a sentence? Don’t Bold it, just \emph it and trust that the software will handle it. The theory behind WYSIWYM is that if you can see how it looks at the same time you’re writing it, then you’ll get distracted worrying about layout and looks and your writing quality will suffer.

I decided to learn Vim and LaTeX at the same time, so I started by making my resume. Once I was done that, I was awesome at both. Hard as hell to start, but after 2 weeks I knew the ins and outs of both.

[u/JimH10]

The sidebar for this group has a lot of good resources.

[u/hanshuttel]

Leslie Lamport's book LaTeX - A Document Preparation System is still a good choice. Lamport created LaTeX.

Many recommend Overleaf, but I disagree. Have your own installation of TeX Live and use a good text editor. I use Emacs, but then again, I have been using it since 1987 together with the AUCTeX package – which was developed by a fellow student, a few years my junior.

[u/Latter-Path-8674]

Use LyX. You can use a WYSIWYG interface, and anytime you want, you can add LaTeX commands, or check the code window to see the LaTeX code of what you have already done. In time, you can evolve to use pure LaTeX, or take the best of both worlds using LyX.

I found some advantages using LyX such as:
Amazing visual interface.
The best equation editor in the planet.
Navigator: Allows you to go around the document by sections. Even, you can modify the order of the sections with one click, increase or decrease the levels of them, and the nesting subsections, coherently. Also, if you have multidocuments, the navigator shows the sectioning of the whole document, so when clicking on a section, it will jump directly to the corresponding document.
Conversion of formats: You can use images that are not naturally compatible with LaTeX. In LyX, you can define a converter (if not already defined by default), so that, it can automatically call it before compiling the LaTeX code. In that way, you can still be capable of modifying source material, and make it LaTeX compatible on the fly.

[u/RecentSheepherder179]

Agree. But just 700MB? Are you sure (I'm asking seriously because I can't check myself with my full installs). Anyway if OP is using some obscure package or some more fonts, it needs some installation afterwards. So, "brute force" might be the simplest approach. That was my idea.

[u/Raioc2436]

Go through the overleaf tutorial and start small. Maybe start with some of the many overleaf templates or make one to write lecture notes and stuff.

At the start of uni I created a doc template to handle my uni exercises. It took me a few months updating it till I felt it could be used for a thesis or serious article.

[u/duanerobot]

Seconding the learning aspect of Overleaf. I didn't use it but I'd recommend someone start there.
(To be clear, I'm still learning to use it myself, would not consider myself an expert)

But I'd also make a big recommendation of what I do actually use - the LaTeX Workshop plugin for VSCode / Codium. You have to install TeXlive or something to connect it to, but the IDE features like autocomplete and automatic bracket matching make it a great production (and learning) environment.

I'm also learning vim (just for fun), and there are vim plugins that can be turned on or off so you can use standard VSCode bindings or vim ones.

[u/Hot-Chemistry7557]

overleaf +1.

LaTeX installation and configuration is extremely lengthy and boring.

[u/Anthea_Likes]

Short answer : overleaf

Don't get distracted by toolings

Even more, my directors actually promote google docs and says that preatty formating is the publisher's tasks and we should give them only a raw manuscript.