LaTeX (pronounced lay-tek) is a document formatting system widely used in technical subjects such as logic, math, physics, linguistics, computer science, and philosophy of science. No other software compares in the quality of output and the huge range of symbols and images that can be produced---if you know how!!  I have been encouraging my students (especially those interested in such topics as logic) to get acquainted with LaTeX. 

LaTeX is open-source software and the code can be modified by anyone who wishes (so long as they have the requisite skills...).  All that is asked is that if you create, say, a new document class or package, be sure to give it a new name so that it will not conflict with code that is already out there. 

LaTeX Web Resources:  General

Here are links to some of the many LaTeX resources on the Web:

Wikibooks has a very up to date and complete introduction to LaTeX; you can find a lot of what you need to get started and keep going here:  LaTeX at Wikibooks.

TUG (the TeX Users Group) has vast resources:  TUG Homepage. 

Here is TUG's 'Getting Started' Page:  Getting Started with TeX.

There are several versions of TeX/LaTeX available, most of them free (though donations are appreciated).  The one I currently use is MikTeX:  MikTeX Homepage and Download.  This works very well on Windows systems.  For those who drink the Apple-flavoured Koolaid, try MacTeX:  MacTeX Downloads.  And here is an introduction to LaTeX for Linux users.

For much more about LaTeX, see The LaTeX Project.  And here is another very useful site:  http://www.howtotex.com/.

Here is a very helpful site for those who wish to use LaTeX for typesetting logic:  LaTeX For Logicians.

LaTeX Packages

There are hundreds of add-on packages designed to augment the basic functionality of LaTeX-2e.  Many of these packages were designed to solve some very specific problem, and you only need them when you need them.  Several packages, however, have made themselves virtually essential for most applications of LaTeX.  Packages are loaded into a document with a \usepackage{packagename} command in the preamble, and the compiler miraculously hunts around on the web and finds the needed code (probably from CTAN, the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network).  That is why you need to be on an active Internet connection if you want to use a package, unless you've downloaded the code and figured out how to install it in your local LaTeX directory tree (something that I don't know how to do myself...!). 

Here are some of the most widely used packages, with links to their documentation:

The very useful graphicx package allows you to insert images of many sorts in a LaTeX document, and also manipulate letters and symbols in many ways.  Wikibooks has a good introduction to graphics in LaTeX documents.

The amsmath package is indispensable for anyone using mathematical or logical symbols beyond the most elementary level.  Here is the amsmath users' guide.

The beamer package allows the creation of presentations in LaTeX.  Generally Beamer is not as easy to use as Powerpoint, but it is the presentation software of choice if you are using a lot of mathematical or logical symbols.  Here is the Beamer documentation.  Here is a nice tutorial on Beamer, and here is another (geared to Linux users but mostly applicable to any Beamer user).  

The hyperref package allows you to insert hyperlinks in your documents; this is increasingly hard to do without.

The geometry package gives you efficient control over page margins and other aspects of basic page layout.

For those working in quantum information theory or quantum computation, try Q-circuit.

For those interested in what might be called 'extreme typesetting,' there are two very powerful graphics packages you could explore:  xy-pic and TikZ.

Here is a link to CTAN's mind-boggling archive of packages.  As a rule, if there is a formatting problem you can't solve readily using the built-in functionality of LaTeX, someone has probably created a package that solves it for you, or almost.  If not, become a TeXpert, and write a new package yourself!  As a general rule (with some exceptions), there is always a more elegant and efficient way of doing a given typesetting task than what you do now, if you have the skill and want to take the time to figure it out.   (Though you should ask yourself whether your educational or professional goals are to become a programmer, or to do your intended work in logic, philosophy, physics, neuroscience, etc.) 

Keep in mind that when you use a package (or, indeed, TeX or LaTeX themselves) you are benefitting from the mostly unpaid labour of the members of a huge community of dedicated LaTeX programmers scattered all over the world.  They do all this largely free work just because...well, just because they like doing it and think it is worthwhile, perhaps because in a small way it helps to create the kind of world they'd like to live in.  LaTeX is a fascinating example of a tremendously effective social symbiosis.

Templates and Sample Files

I offer here some template and sample files that may be helpful; feel free to edit them to suit your own purposes. 

Here is a collection of logic symbols that I have created, and which work for the particular way in which I write symbolic logic:  Logic_Symbols_v6.  You can use this either by putting the following command, \input{Logic_Symbols_v6}, in your preamble, or by cutting and pasting the command definitions you want directly into your document.  You have to load the graphicx package to make the Russell definite description symbol work. 

Here are some physics macros that I've created, which can be used the same way:  Physics_Macros.

Here is the code I use to generate natural deduction proofs, equivalence algebra calculations, and truth tables:  Logic_Templates.  No doubt these can be improved.

Here is a General Paper Template which will help you get started. 

Here is a template for Physics lab reports, kindly supplied by Prof. Locke Spencer (Physics and Astronomy, U of Lethbridge):  Lab Report Template.  You'll need the following graphics files as well to run the report template:  lsfig1.png and lsfig2.pdf.  (Right-click on the image and choose "Save Image As".)  To process the template document it has to be in the same folder as the two graphics files. 

A LaTeX Talk

Here is a talk I gave on LaTeX at the University of Lethbridge on Oct. 3, 2016:  The Joys of LaTeX: An Entry Guide for the Potentially Obsessive.  (This will read better if you download it into Adobe Reader or Acrobat.)

And here is the Beamer source code for this talk:  Code for 'The Joys of LaTeX'. 

— Created November 23, 2016; most recent update August 16, 2020.