Latex on Ubuntu

On Ubuntu 11.04

Install some packages to get pdflatex, xelatex and other tools for Latex support.

sudo apt-get install texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-xetex

On Ubuntu 10.04

This is what I did to get TeX/Latex working on Ubuntu 10.04. Note, this is not the only way... Also, this may have some redundant packages.

There is a Winefish program to edit the latex files, but you can do it using gedit or emacs if you know most of the commands or have a good example or template. A good editor would have syntax highlighting and auto spell-check.

Install some packages to get pdflatex, "xelatex"" and other tools.

sudo apt-get install tex-common
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base 
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex

Get some fonts to avoid the infamous missing 'ptmri7t' error.

sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended

Using Latex

You can create the pdf document from TeX like this

pdflatex mydoc.tex

I find it useful creating a makefile that will do this and some other tasks, such as cleaning up the log files and such. For example:

BASE_NAME=main

all:
	xelatex $(BASE_NAME).tex
	bibtex $(BASE_NAME)
	xelatex $(BASE_NAME).tex
	xelatex $(BASE_NAME).tex

clean:
	rm -f $(BASE_NAME).pdf *.aux *.bbl *.dvi *.log *.blg

Good resources

• in general: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
• Fonts and text size: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Formatting#Font_Styles_and_size
• Figures and captions: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Floats,_Figures_and_Captions#Figures
• Tables: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Tables
• Latex makefiles: http://www.wlug.org.nz/LatexMakefiles