# Latex (text processing system)

Latex is also the sap of certain trees that can be used to make rubber
Original author(s) Leslie Lamport Cross-platform Typesetting LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL) www.latex-project.org

LaTeX is a system used for making printed text look good using a computer. It is especially good at making mathematical formulas look right. It is used on Wikipedia. It is used mostly at colleges.

The user types up a mathematical text in any program that changes or writes text (a text editor, like Word, Notepad, Wordpad, etc.). A computer program called a LaTeX compiler applies all sorts of formatting to the text to make it look nice. When the user writes the text, he includes some computer code to tell the compiler what to do. For example, adding " \alpha " will print the Greek letter alpha. Writing "\section{Introduction}" puts the word "Introduction" into big bold font with a number in front of it for a section title in a paper.

LaTeX was originally written in the early 1980s by Leslie Lamport at SRI International.[1] The current version is LaTeX2e (styled ).

## Example

The example below shows the LaTeX input and corresponding output:

 \documentclass[12pt]{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \title{\LaTeX} \date{} \begin{document} \maketitle \LaTeX{} is a document preparation system for the \TeX{} typesetting program. It offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies, and much more. \LaTeX{} was originally written in 1984 by Leslie Lamport and has become the dominant method for using \TeX; few people write in plain \TeX{} anymore. The current version is \LaTeXe. % This is a comment; it will not be shown in the final output. % The following shows a little of the typesetting power of LaTeX: \begin{align} E &= mc^2 \\ m &= \frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} \end{align} \end{document} 

## References

1. Leslie Lamport (April 23, 2007). "The Writings of Leslie Lamport: LaTeX: A Document Preparation System". Leslie Lamport's Home Page. Retrieved 2011-08-17.