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<!-- $Id: levels.html,v 1.23 2021/11/26 02:09:37 karl Exp $ -->
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<title>Levels of TeX - TeX Users Group</title>
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</head><body>
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<h2>LaTeX vs. MiKTeX: The levels of TeX</h2>
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<p>A friend once asked us, “Should I use LaTeX or MiKTeX?”
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In various guises, this is a common question, seemingly innocent, but
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actually betraying a fundamental confusion about the levels of operation
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in the TeX world. As a further confusion, the word “TeX”
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can be used to refer to any of a myriad of items at any level. Starting
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at the top:
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<ol>
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<li><b>Distributions:</b>
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<a href="https://miktex.org/">MiKTeX</a>, <a href="/texlive/">TeX
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Live</a>, <a href="http://w32tex.org/">W32TeX</a>, … These are
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the large, coherent collections of TeX-related software to be downloaded
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and installed. When someone says “I need to install TeX on my
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machine”, they're usually looking for a distribution.
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<li><b>Front ends and editors:</b>
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<a href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">Emacs</a>,
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<a href="http://vim.org/">vim</a>,
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<a href="/texworks/">TeXworks</a>,
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<a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/">TeXShop</a>,
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<a href="http://www.toolscenter.org/">TeXnicCenter</a>,
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<a href="/winedt/">WinEdt</a>, … These editors are what you use
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to create a document file. Some (e.g., TeXShop) are devoted specifically
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to TeX, others (e.g., Emacs) can be used to edit any sort of file. TeX
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documents are independent of any particular editor; the TeX typesetting
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program itself does not include an editor.
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<li><b>Engines:</b> TeX,
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<a href="http://pdftex.org/">pdfTeX</a>, <a
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href="http://scripts.sil.org/xetex">XeTeX</a>, <a
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href="http://luatex.org/">LuaTeX</a>, … These are the executable
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binaries which implement different TeX variants. In short:
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<ul>
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<li>pdfTeX implements direct PDF output, along with a variety of
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programming and other extensions.
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<li>XeTeX does the above, and also supports Unicode natively, OpenType
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and TrueType fonts, access to system fonts, …
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<li>LuaTeX does all the above, and provides access to many internals via
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the embedded Lua language. Thus it is by far the most programmable engine.
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<li>[e][u]pTeX provide full support for Japanese typesetting.
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</ul>
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There are other engines, but the above are by far the most commonly used
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nowadays.
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<li><b>Formats:</b>
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<a
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href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-latex">LaTeX</a>,
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<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/texbytopic">plain TeX</a>, <a
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href="https://ctan.org/pkg/optex">OpTeX</a>, … These are the
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TeX-based languages in which one actually writes documents. When someone
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says “TeX is giving me a mysterious error”, they usually
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mean a format.
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<li><b>Packages:</b>
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<a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/geometry">geometry</a>, <a
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href="https://ctan.org/pkg/lm">lm</a>, … These are add-ons to
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the basic TeX system, developed independently, providing additional
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typesetting features, fonts, documentation, etc. A package might or
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might not work with any given format and/or engine; for example, many
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are designed specifically for LaTeX, but there are plenty of others,
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too. The <a href="https://ctan.org/">CTAN sites</a> provide access
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to the vast majority of packages in the TeX world; CTAN is generally the
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source used by the distributions.
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</ol>
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<h3>Output formats</h3>
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<p>TeX source files can be typeset into several different output
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formats, depending on the engine. Notably, the pdfTeX engine (despite
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its name) can output both <a
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href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-dvi">DVI</a> and <a
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href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-acrobat">PDF</a>
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files.
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<p>At a high level, the output format that gets used depends on the
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program you invoke. If you run <tt>latex</tt> (which implements the
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LaTeX format), you will get DVI; if you run <tt>pdflatex</tt> (which
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also implements the LaTeX format), you will get PDF.
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<p>No TeX engine implements native HTML output, but it is still possible
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to get HTML, XML, etc., output:
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<ul>
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<li>The <a href="/tex4ht/">tex4ht</a> program can be run
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(e.g., <tt>htlatex</tt>, <a
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href="https://ctan.org/pkg/make4ht">make4ht</a>). TeX4ht uses TeX behind
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the scenes, so user macros, etc., are generally recognized. There are
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many possible output formats, including Office XML.
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<a href="/TUGboat/tb25-1/gurari.pdf">TUGboat article on tex4ht</a>, and
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<a href="/TUGboat/tb40-1/tb124hoftich-make4ht.pdf">more recent
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article</a>.
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<li>The <a
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href="https://ctan.org/pkg/lwarp">lwarp</a> LaTeX package causes LaTeX
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to output HTML5. It hooks into many packages to create the html.
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<a href="/TUGboat/tb38-1/tb118dunn-lwarp.pdf">TUGboat article on lwarp</a>.
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<li>The <a
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href="https://dlmf.nist.gov/LaTeXML/">LaTeXML</a> Perl program
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independently parses LaTeX documents and generates many output formats.
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</ul>
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<h3>ConTeXt</h3>
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<p><a href="http://www.pragma-ade.com/">ConTeXt</a> is a special case,
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straddling levels. It contains a format at the level of plain TeX and
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LaTeX, but unlike the other formats, it is invoked via a separate
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program (e.g., <tt>context</tt>) which then runs a TeX engine. This
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makes it possible to support a wide array of advanced features, such as
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integrated graphics and XML input, since the control program can
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determine the flow of processing.
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<h3>References</h3>
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<p>Of course, this short web page is only a brief introduction to the
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basics. Here are some pointers to further information.
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/begin.html">Getting started with TeX</a>, the TUG page
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giving an introduction to various parts of the TeX world.
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<li><a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/components">Components
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of TeX</a>, Joachim Schrod's technical article describing many of
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the relationships hinted at here in more detail. It was written
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many years ago, but the relationships still hold.
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<li><a href="https://ctan.org/pkg/latex-doc-ptr">A First Set of LaTeX
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Resources</a>, Jim Hefferon's document recommending LaTeX packages
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for many common tasks.
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<li><a href="https://texfaq.org/FAQ-texthings">Things
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with “TeX” in the name</a>, FAQ entry.
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<li><a href="/notices/">The TeX Family in 2009</a>, an article published
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in AMS Notices by Jim Hefferon and Karl Berry, giving an overview
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of the TeX engines, graphics, hypertext, presentations, fonts, etc.
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Although now more than a decade old, it still reasonably describes
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the current state of things.
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</ul>
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<hr><small>This file is public domain.
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$Date: 2021/11/26 02:09:37 $;</small>
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