Which manuals are on your "TeX Reference" shelf?

Question

This is a community wiki since there is no "one true answer"- if you find an answer that contains a lot of your choices, but is missing something you feel is incredibly useful. Feel free to add it. A short description of what topics the reference covers would be nice as well.

Organize by subject please.

For example: I always keep the following PDFs at my fingertips.

Document Layout

The Memoir manual: Covers, in exquisite detail, how to produce just about any document using the memoir LaTeX class. (PDF 4.5 MB)

Mathematical Typesetting

Math Mode: A document by Herbert Voß that explains how to typeset just about any mathematical expression in LaTeX. (PDF 2 MB)

Graphics

The PGF Manual: Explains, with examples, how to draw just about any figure using PGF/TikZ. Also a good example of what awesome documentation should look like. (PDF 9.5 MB)

Those examples you put in the question would make good answers, I think... — David Z, Jul 26 '10 at 23:02
Interesting idea of a shelf you have there. (Admittedly, I believe that most of the hard-copy TeX-related reference books I use are currently in a clothes basket in my bedroom...) — SamB, Feb 09 '11 at 01:49
I do wish The PGF Manual would be printed in a book format... — Isaac Kleinman, Jan 16 '12 at 15:48

score 37 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 11 '17 at 06:31

For now, I will post reference manuals that haven't been mentioned here yet.

LaTeX

For LaTeX itself there's a great reference: source2e.pdf. It's usually part of a LateX distribution, so I quickly access it by texdoc source2e and enter a keyword to the search feature of the pdf browser.

Presentations

The beamer manual is so comprehensive that it serves me often as reference. Again, I use texdoc beamer.

Document Layout

I appreciate the KOMA-Script manual by Markus Kohm. In German it's still more extensive, but I hope the English version will be improved as well. The manual addresses many aspects of layout and typographic style. texdoc scrguien or texdoc scrguide.

Mathematical Typesetting

Besides Herbert Voss' great Mathmode.pdf, the amsmath user's guide is a valuable reference because amsmath is the standard package for mathematica typesetting. texdoc amsldoc

Symbols

The common reference is the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List by Scott Pakin containing about 6000 symbols and how to typeset them. texdoc symbols-a4

Hypertext and PDF features

The probably most important reference is the hyperref manual. It deals with nearly all you need to know about hyperlinks and PDF bookmarks. What it doesn't tell yet, may be read in the README file to that package. texdoc hyperref/manual and texdoc hyperref/readme
Further there's the pdfTeX user manual. texdoc pdftex-a

TeX

Besides the great TeX-by-Topic reference, the TeXbook by Donald E. Knuth is my reference because I like to read the documentation written by the TeX creator itself even if it's not so accessible like the first mentioned book.

Bibliographies

BibTeXing by Oren patashnik is a good reference for BibTeX. For instance, it lists entry and field types. texdc btxdoc

texdoc is the tool for quick access, but one should know for what to look out. Earlier it was difficult because one had to remember complicated file names, but today texdoc understands commonly used aliases.

Hmm, I mostly prefer pdftex-s over pdftex-a myself, though the backgrounds are a bit glitchy (they don't seem to have the proper "depth", so that some of the text hangs off of them at the end of most screens). — SamB, Feb 09 '11 at 01:47

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '10 at 20:10

23

I normally don't care much for actual physical references, but The LaTeX Companion is fantastic; it covers everything in LaTeX, and quite a few of the more popular packages

answered Jul 26 '10 at 20:10

Michael Mrozek

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score 22 · Answer 3 · edited May 26 '22 at 15:40

22

I have to say I tend to 'texdoc <package>' for most of my requirements. Tikz and beamer feature quite heavily, and as a programmer 'TeX by Topic' is hard to beat.

edited May 26 '22 at 15:40

Glorfindel

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answered Jul 26 '10 at 20:13

Joseph Wright

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Link to TeX by Topic: A TeXnician's Reference by Victor Eijkhout: http://eijkhout.net/texbytopic/texbytopic.html – ShreevatsaR Jul 26 '10 at 20:32
16

Or 'texdoc texbytopic' – Will Robertson Jul 28 '10 at 14:28

score 21 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 08:15

21

Not to forget Tobias Oetikers "The Not So Short Introduction to Latex" Or via texdoc lshort

answered Feb 09 '11 at 08:15

adnc

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score 16 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 19 '10 at 23:25

Although it can struggle with more obscure symbols. I use detexify when I need to look up a symbol name. It is a little applet that does image recognition on hand drawn latex symbols and spits out a few likely candidates and their respective commands.

score 13 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 20 '10 at 08:11

My book shelf is quite full, but in practice I do not use any of those, except when I occasionally have to do some LaTeX. So:

TeX

The TeXBook. Eijkhout's TeX by Topic may be easier to read for general use, but when you need the absolute final answer to a question, nothing beats Knuth's own manual.

LaTeX

The LaTeX Companion. As said, I do not use LaTeX a lot, but when I do, I find this the easiest way to look something up.

ConTeXt

The ConTeXt Wiki's search box. There are quite a lot of manuals about ConTeXt, but the wiki is the most valuable resource, for me.

score 12 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 20 '10 at 04:18

At work I have the beamer and pgf manuals open about 50% of the time. The TeXbook is one of the most thumbed books I own. But I also would like to recommend A Guide to LaTeX by Kopka and Daly. A very nice guide that starts from basics and ends with a bit of programming.

score 10 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 16 '12 at 04:25

10

Even though that these days few people use AMS-TeX I have to mention beautiful Michael Spivak's book Joy of TeX as well as the Advanced TeXbook. I am sure many of older package writers have used the second one to learn the tools of the trade.

answered Jan 16 '12 at 04:25

Predrag Punosevac

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score 9 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 26 '10 at 20:07

9

I don't keep a local copy, but I usually find that the LaTeX WikiBook has most of the answers for my everyday questions.

answered Jul 26 '10 at 20:07

Do you know if there are .tex files which output this .pdf ? – MathScholar Oct 19 '18 at 22:29
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Sadly, the advice in the LaTeX WikiBook is not always accurate, or observant of best practices. My attempts to correct errors were summarily rejected, so I gave up. – barbara beeton May 26 '22 at 15:59

score 8 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:24

8

I don't really have a shelf, but a folder full of references; one I use quite often is the The Visual LaTeX FAQ.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 10:24

Habi

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score 5 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 18 '12 at 01:21

5

Besides what has already been mentioned, a great reference for low-level TeX stuff is David Bausum's "TeX Reference Manual", of which there is an online version available.

edited Nov 18 '12 at 01:21

doncherry

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answered Nov 16 '12 at 17:57

Elmar Zander

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score 4 · Answer 12 · edited Jan 16 '12 at 14:24

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I got various TeX-related books, all the companions for example. Nowadays I usually use the 2nd edition companion and texdoc.

edited Jan 16 '12 at 14:24

N.N.

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answered Jan 16 '12 at 06:19

Uwe Ziegenhagen

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score 4 · Answer 13 · edited Jan 16 '12 at 14:25

I'm not certain how useful it is these days, but I feel that I ought to mention Leslie Lamport's original book "A Document Preparation System - LaTeX - User's Guide and Reference Manual" from 1986. I grabbed it from a guy who was retiring at the last place I worked. It's actually still pretty good for beginners.

I have that, Knuth's 'TeXbook' and 'Metafont', and Kopka and Daly's `Guide to LaTeX2e'.

I also use texdoc a lot.

score 3 · Answer 14 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 03:13

3

It is not actually a real documentation but I usually keep it open just next to the pdfs mentioned above. Qtikz comes in quite handy for quick testing tikz pictures and command tryouts. It also saved my day a few times.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 03:13

percusse

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Now a new tikzedt has come with new features. – Mar 14 '12 at 04:23
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@percusse Bbbbbut that's is cheating. (Seems useful though.) – Nov 18 '12 at 08:05
@MarcvanDongen Why do you think so? – percusse Nov 18 '12 at 15:42
@percusse Real TikZies just use TeX. (It was a joke:-) – Nov 18 '12 at 19:15
@MarcvanDongen Hahah, sorry. I'm not very smart these days (finalizing the thesis). More tuna fish needed. – percusse Nov 18 '12 at 19:19
@percusse Good luck with the thesis. – Nov 18 '12 at 19:23

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Jan 16 '12 at 13:59

2

For those who read Czech: TeXbook naruby (TeXbook inside out) (PDF) is an excellent textbook/reference for low-level TeX.

answered Jan 16 '12 at 13:59

eudoxos

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That is related only by the author, but not by content — what you references describes Olsak's set of macros on top of TeX (LaTeX-like) whereas "TeXbook inside out" is a low-level textbook of TeX internals. – eudoxos Feb 12 '23 at 07:51
No problem. Yes, it looks lower-level, I did not look into so much detail before (quite a feat for 1 person to maintain this, btw). – eudoxos Feb 12 '23 at 13:35

score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 29 '24 at 02:36

2

The reference manual for the expl3 programming environment, Latex3 Interfaces.

answered Jan 29 '24 at 02:36

John

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user8395964 · Answer 17 · 2023-02-11T15:00:00.447

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Update: I just read the everywhere acclaimed here book: lshort i.e. The not so short intro to latex, and i found that LOTs of items are ditto same on both these sources. I don't know which copied from where. And now, since most content is same, so, for several reasons (lack of updates to pdf, lack of proper maintenance, among other things), I will also not recommend wikibook.

Apend: Wikibook itself in this section itself recommends lshort and dicimaw-latex-thesis

I also find that LaTeX wikibook is an extremely good place for the beginners (which I am) and giving me pointers on where to go next.

And the "next" place is usually the particular package's documentation.

*

edited Feb 11 '23 at 15:00

answered Dec 10 '22 at 06:41

user8395964

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Sadly, the LaTeX Wikibook often does not observe "best practices", and is sometimes just plain wrong. However, lshort is reliable, and therefore recommended for general principles. – barbara beeton Feb 05 '23 at 19:43
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Although one can probably guess the answer anyway to which came first (and therefore which was probably the original of any copy), to put concrete figures on it, lshort dates back at least to 1995 (according to its copyright), whereas the first commit to the Wikibook was in 2005. – LSpice Jan 29 '24 at 04:54
wow, that's nice @LSpice – user8395964 Jan 29 '24 at 05:08

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jan 29 '24 at 01:59

Herbert Voss's mathmode document mentioned in the main question is, as its URL http://tug.ctan.org/obsolete/info/math/voss/mathmode suggests, now marked obsolete. However, user @Su-47 points out in an answer to What happened to mathmode documentation? that there is an updated version, Typesetting mathematics with LaTeX, available at https://www.tug.org/~hvoss.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 18 '13 at 09:35

0

I basically have the documentation to all packages Stefan Kottwitz posted earlier, with the exception for the

Bibliography: BibLaTeX in combination with BibLaTeX-chem for some styles.

But what I really wanted to add are some very useful tools for typesetting

Chemistry: siunitx for every kind of SI-Unit necessary. The chemstyle bundle, which is implementing a floating environment for schemes, but the best thing about it is on how to enumerate chemical compound within eps figures. And last, not least the bpchem package for correct enumeration.

answered Jul 18 '13 at 09:35

Martin - マーチン

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chemstyle doesn't do the numbering of compounds but uses either chemcompounds (default) or bpchem for the task. However, there is the more comprehensive chemnum which also allows numbering of compounds within EPS figures. Related: there is also the [tag:chemmacros] bundle consisting of four packages with loads of goodies for chemists. – cgnieder Jul 18 '13 at 10:59

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Jan 29 '24 at 16:10

My first exposure to LaTeX documentation was Lamport's book, cited elsewhere here. But overall, the most useful reference I had while getting "up to speed" have been the various editions of George Grätzer's Math into LaTeX The current version in print is:

George Grätzer, More Math Into LaTeX, 5th edition, 2016, Springer.

I still come back to it from time to time, even though I make considerable use of The LaTeX Companion (3rd ed.) and, of course, lots of texdoc calls.

Which manuals are on your "TeX Reference" shelf?

Document Layout

Mathematical Typesetting

Graphics

20 Answers20

LaTeX

Presentations

Document Layout

Mathematical Typesetting

Symbols

Hypertext and PDF features

TeX

Bibliographies

Linked

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