1 Introduction

1.1 Just what is LATEX?

This book is a manual for LATEX, a documentation preparation system widely used in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, but which is also spreading to many other disciplines. A brief overview of its features is presented here.

• LATEX is a comprehensive set of markup commands used with the powerful typesetting program TEX for the preparation of a wide variety of documents, from scientific articles, to reports, to complex books.

• LATEX, like TEX, is a totally open software system, available free of charge. It is also permissible to modify and redistribute all or any part of it, provided the name is altered, in order to avoid confusion.

• The LATEX core is maintained by the LATEX3 Project Group ...

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