Latex , Sample introduction and how to install it on Unix system

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing.

LaTeX is not a word processor! Instead, LaTeX encourages authors not to worry too much about the appearance of their documents but to concentrate on getting the right content

TeX Live ?

TeX Live is an easy way to get up and running with the TeX document production system. It provides a comprehensive TeX system with binaries for most flavors of Unix, including GNU/Linux, and also Windows. It includes all the major TeX-related programs, macro packages, and fonts that are free software, including support for many languages around the world.

How to install it on Ubuntu ( Unix-like system) ?

If you don't want to bother reading the full install documentation and just want to install everything in TeX Live, on a Unix-like system ,users can follow the instructions for Unix-like systems, but make sure you have the Cygwin prerequisites before beginning the installation.

1. For typical needs, we recommend starting the TeX Live installation by downloading  install-tl-unx.tar.gz (2.5mb) 
2. The simplest way to start it on a Unix-compatible system is as follows:
1. > cd /path/to/installer 
2. > perl install-tl
3. To install in expert GUI mode , you’ll need the Perl/TK module compiled with XFT support, which is generally the case with GNU/Linux, but not necessarily with other systems. Given that, you can run:
1. perl install-tl -gui
4. after installation complete (it take a long time) you should edit your PATH environment by
    adding this line into your .bashrc (in Ubuntu) :
1. PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2012/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH; export PATH
2. MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf/doc/man/man:$MANPATH; export MANPATH
3. INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf/doc/info:$INFOPATH; export INFOPATH
5. the last step is to check your installation by typing tex --version on cmd Terminal

If this is the first time you are trying out LaTeX, you don't even need to install anything. For quick testing purpose you may just create an user account with an online LaTeX editor .for example :

• Google Documents or LaTeX Lab allows real-time simultaneous collaborative editing of text files for anyone with a Google account (and its option to make the document available through a URL makes local download and compilation easily scriptable).

• LIMSUP is an online LaTeX editor allowing real time collaboration of LaTeX documents (announcement)

• Monkey TeX is free and allows team sharing.

 These websites offer collaboration capabilities while allowing you to experiment with LaTeX syntax without having to bother with installing and configuring a distribution and an editor.

I wish this sample tutorial make your life easier :)


 for more information Go to the  official page .
Other references :
 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX