6. LaTeX

LaTeX is a typesetting system which is widely used by scientists, and especially mathematicians, in preference to word processors.

6.1. Overleaf

One of the easiest ways to use LaTeX is through the cloud service Overleaf. This gives you a fully featured LaTeX system in your web browser without installing anything. Imperial has a professional licence for Overleaf which will cover you if you register using your Imperial email address. Register for Overleaf here.

6.2. Installing LaTeX on Windows

6.2.1. Software Hub

You can install the MikTeX distribution of LaTeX by navigating to the Software Hub and launching TexMaker. Further information on using the Software Hub is available on the Imperial ICT Software Hub webpage.

6.2.2. Direct install

The MikTeX distribution has step by step installation instructions on the MikTeX Windows Installation website.

6.3. Installing LaTeX on Mac

6.3.1. Homebrew

If you’ve installed Homebrew then you can install the MacTeX distribution of LaTeX by opening a terminal and running the following command:

$ brew cask install mactex

6.3.2. Direct install

Head to the MacTeX website and follow the instructions there.

6.4. Installing LaTeX on Linux or ChromeOS 1

All of the LaTeX distributions ship LaTeX via their package manager. LaTeX is very large, so often the distributions will split it into several packages and you may find yourself needing to install additional packages as you use more LaTeX features.

For Ubuntu you can get a fairly complete LaTeX install by running the following in the terminal.

$ sudo apt install texlive-latex-extra

For Fedora, you would run:

$ sudo dnf install texlive-scheme-medium

More details can be found on the Fedora LaTeX website.

Footnotes

1

To use these installation instructions for Chrome OS you first need to set up Linux on your Chromebook.