Memo: RPI.

109
Subject: LATEX Tutorial
Date: April 1997

Text Formatting with LATEX

A Tutorial

Table of Contents
1. LATEX Basics 1
1.1 What is TEX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 What is LATEX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 How LATEX Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.4 The LATEX Input File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4.1 Entering LATEX Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4.2 Entering Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4.3 Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4.4 Structure of the Input File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 Some LATEX Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. Creating A LATEX Document 6
2.1 Document Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Class Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Making a Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5 Making a Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6 Behind the Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.6.1 Auxiliary Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.6.2 How a Page is Built . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.7 Example: Report Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.8 Example: Letter Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3. Document Layout 12
3.1 Line Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3 Text Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.4 Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.5 Headers, Footers, and Page Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Note: This memo reflects the use of LATEX 2ε .

4. Within the Text 15
4.1 Section Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 Changing Type Style and Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3 Starting New Lines and New Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4 Leaving Horizontal and Vertical Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.5 Drawing Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.6 Footnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.7 Centering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.8 Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.9 Reproducing Text As-Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.10 Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.11 Cross References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.12 Placing Figures and Tables on the Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.12.1 Making a Caption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.12.2 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.12.3 Overcoming Problems with Float Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5. Tables 24
5.1 Tabbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.2 Tabular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.2.1 A Simple Ruled Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.2.2 Using Paragraph Columns, Spanning Columns . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2.3 Aligning on the Decimal Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.2.4 Suppressing Leading or Trailing Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6. Mathematics 29
6.1 In-line Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.2 Display Math (for unnumbered equations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.3 Equation Environment (for numbered equations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6.4 Eqnarray Environment (for multiline equations) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
6.5 Array Environment (for matrices, etc.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6.6 Building Mathematical Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.6.1 Superscripts and Subscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.6.2 Spaces in Math Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.6.3 Dots, Braces, and Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6.6.4 Fractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.6.5 Radicals, Integrals, and Summations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.6.6 Large Delimiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
7. Special Topics 36
7.1 Managing a Large Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.2 Preparing a Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7.3 Generating an Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.4 Including and Manipulating PostScript Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.5 Accents and Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Appendix A: Mathematical Symbols 42
Appendix B: Error Messages 45
 Memo: RPI.109
Subject: LATEX Tutorial
Date: April 1997

Text Formatting with LATEX

Chapter 1. LATEX Basics

1.1 What is TEX?
• TEX is the typesetting language, designed especially for math and science, upon
which LATEX is built. TEX is pronounced “Tech,” similar to “Bach.”

• TEX is portable. It is available for most computers and is used all over the world.
TEX documents can be moved easily from one system to another, as long as the
required fonts are on both systems.

• TEX comes with its own set of fonts, called “Computer Modern.” These fonts exist
in a variety of styles, including serif, sans serif, and typewriter (fixed pitch).

• TEX is also a programming language, making it possible to create commands that

simplify its use.

1.2 What is LATEX?

• LATEX is a TEX macro package, originally written by Leslie Lamport, that simplifies
the use of TEX. All the above features of TEX, including portability, also apply to
LATEX. LATEX is pronounced either “Lay-tech” or “Lah-tech.”

• Most LATEX commands are “high-level” (such as chapter and section) and specify
the logical structure of a document. The author rarely needs to be concerned with
the details of document layout. Most plain TEX commands also work with LATEX.

• The document class determines how the document will be formatted. LATEX pro-
vides several standard document classes from which to choose.

1.3 How LATEX Works1

To use LATEX, you first create a plain ASCII text file with any text editor. In this file
you type both the text of your document and the LATEX commands to format it. You
then run the LATEX program to process the file, and LATEX produces a new file called a
DVI (“device independent”) file that is in binary format (not readable to humans). A
separate program called a “device driver” converts the DVI file to a format acceptable
by the printer you are using. Device drivers for the screen are called previewers.

1
This memo describes the LATEX language. To learn how to run, preview, and print on Rensselaer’s
unix systems, see Quick Study#20, Using TEX and LATEX on RCS.
RPI.109
2
1.4 The LATEX Input File
LATEX input files normally have names that end with the extension .tex: for example,
an acceptable filename might be myfile.tex. The input file contains both the text of
your document and the LATEX commands needed to format it.

1.4.1 Entering LATEX Commands

To distinguish them from text, all LATEX commands (also called control sequences) start
with a backslash “\”. There are two kinds of control sequences:
• control words are made up completely of letters. They must end with either
a non-letter or a space so LATEX knows where the control word ends. A space
following a control word is “consumed” by LATEX and does not appear in the
output. An example is the control word \newpage, which forces a new page.

• control symbols consist of the backslash followed by exactly one non-letter. They
are most often used to put a special symbol in the text. For example \$ prints a
$ (which cannot be entered directly because LATEX uses it to begin math mode).
Control symbols do not have to be followed by a space.

LATEX commands are case-sensitive. Most are all lowercase. A few commands use the
first letter in uppercase such as \Delta → ∆. Fewer still use all uppercase.
Some commands take an “argument,” placed within curly braces { } after the command
name. For example, \textbf{this text is bold} prints the text inside the braces in
boldface type: this text is bold

LATEX uses grouping to limit the effect of certain commands. Braces ({ and }) are used
to begin and end groups. For example, the \large command is usually used inside a
group: {\large this is bigger than normal} produces:
this is bigger than normal
A command such as \large is called a “declaration” because, unless it is given within
a group, its effect will continue until another declaration (in this case \normalsize)
counteracts it. Note the difference between a declaration used inside a group and a
command like \textbf{...}, which will not work unless an argument is specified.

The symbol % can be used to put a comment in your input file. When LATEX sees a %, it
ignores the rest of the line.

When you use commands that specify a length, such as a command to set the size of a
margin or a command to leave a certain amount of space, you will need to specify the
units of measurement. LATEX recognizes the following units:
cm centimeter pt printer’s point, ≈ 72 per inch
mm millimeter em font-dependent width of “m”
in inch ex font-dependent height of “x”

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1.4.2 Entering Text
In the input file, words are separated by leaving one blank space. Paragraphs are
separated by leaving one blank line. (You can also use the command \par to indicate a
new paragraph.) LATEX ignores multiple blank spaces and multiple blank lines in input
files.
Type single quotation marks by using the left (‘) and right (’) single quote marks on
your keyboard. Type left double quotation marks by using using two single left quotes
(‘‘), and type right double quotation marks by using either two single right quotes (’’)
or the double quote key (").
There are three kinds of dashes in typeset documents: the hyphen (for compound words),
the endash (for such things as page number ranges), and the emdash (used as a punc-
tuation mark in English prose). Since there is only one dash on the keyboard, type -,
--, and --- to get -, –, and — .
To prevent two words from being split at a line break, tie them together with the tilde
character: for example Mr.~Smith will never appear with “Mr.” at the end of one line
and “Smith” at the start of the next.
Note that some characters have special meaning to LATEX and must be entered in a
special way, as described in the next section.

1.4.3 Special Characters

Certain characters have special meaning to LATEX. An example is the % sign, which
indicates that the remainder of the line is a comment and should not be processed.
Below is the complete list of special characters. To have these characters print in your
output, you must type them in your input file as shown below.
Character Type in file Special LATEX meaning
# \# Parameter in a macro; also used in tables
$ \$ Used to begin and end math mode
% \% Used for comments in the source file
& \& Tab mark, used in alignments
\ Used in math mode for subscripts
ˆ \ˆ{} Used in math mode for superscripts
˜ \˜{} Tie character, used to produce a “hard” space
{ $\{$ Used to begin a group
} $\}$ Used to end a group
\ $\backslash$ Used to begin a control sequence
< $<$ Without the $ signs, produces ¡
> $>$ Without the $ signs, produces ¿

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1.4.4 Structure of the Input File
All LATEX input files must conform to a certain structure. They begin with the command
\documentclass, and all the text of the document must be contained between the
commands \begin{document} and \end{document}.

\documentclass[options]{class}
Preamble
\begin{document}
Document text
\end{document}

In the first command above, class specifies the type of document you intend to create.
You can choose from one of the LATEX classes described in the next chapter. If you wish,
you can also include one or more options to modify the behavior of the document class.
The preamble is the section of the file between the \documentclass{...} command and
the \begin{document} command. This is the place to put commands that will influence
the style of your entire document and macro definitions that you will use later. You may
also load packages that add new features to LATEX. Text is not allowed in the preamble.
The \begin{document} command indicates the end of the preamble and the beginning
of your text. A corresponding \end{document} command always ends your files. A
really short LATEX input file might look like:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This LaTeX file is short and sweet. It uses the article class,
a good all-purpose layout. There is nothing in the preamble, which
is perfectly acceptable.

This is a new paragraph. \textit{Here’s some italic text}

and \textbf{some bold text}.
{\small The text inside these braces is smaller than normal.}
Now the text size is back to normal.
\end{document}
Longer examples, one using report class and one using letter class are included at the
end of the next chapter.

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1.5 Some LATEX Vocabulary
Commands produce text or space. For example, \hspace{2in} and \vspace{2in} are
commands that create 2 inches of horizontal and vertical space, respectively, and
\textit{some italic words} puts the contents of its argument in italic type.

Declarations produce neither text nor space, but either affect the way LATEX prints
the following text or provide information for later use. Font size changes are an
example of declarations. \large will cause any text that follows to appear in a
larger type size. Declarations are often used within a group to limit their scope.
For example: {\large Only the text inside these braces is large.}

Environments are blocks of text that receive special processing. An environment

is defined by a matching \begin{environment name} ... \end{environment
name}. For example, text appearing between the commands \begin{quote} and
\end{quote} will be set off in a single-spaced, indented block. Note that a blank
line before an environment ends the previous paragraph. A blank line following an
environment indicates that the line following the environment is a new paragraph.
Nested environments must be ended in the reverse order of entry, i.e., the first
started is the last ended.

Mandatory arguments supply information required for a command to execute. For

example, \hspace{2in} needs the information provided by the argument to gen-
erate the horizontal space. Mandatory arguments are enclosed in braces: { }.

Optional arguments follow a command name and are inclosed in square brackets: [ ].
For example, the size of type to be used for your main text is an optional argument
in the {\documentclass} command. To use the article class in 11-point type, you
would type \documentclass[11pt]{article}. Without this optional argument,
you would get the default 10-point type.

* indicates a variation on a command or environment. For example, \\ indicates a line

break. \\* indicates a line break with the restriction that LATEX is not allowed to
begin a new page at that point. Space printed by \vspace and \hspace commands
is normally dropped if it appears at the beginning or end of a line or page. If
you want the space printed no matter where it falls, you would use \hspace* or
\vspace*.

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Chapter 2. Creating A LATEX Document
2.1 Document Classes
The document class determines the overall layout of the document. There are five
standard classes distributed with LATEX:
article for simple or short documents, including journal articles, and short reports. A
good all-purpose class.
report for small books and longer reports containing chapters.
book for books.
letter for letters, either business or personal.
slides for making transparencies for projection on a screen.
These classes provide preset formats with default margins, paragraph formatting, and
special commands suitable for producing specific sections. For example, the article,
report, and book classes include a variety of commands to format section headings
(\part, \chapter, \section, \subsection, etc.), as well as commands to produce a
title page and a table of contents. There are minor differences between these three
classes. The book class, for example, uses a smaller printed page size—about 7.5 ×
5 inches—and is formatted for two-sided printing by default. The article class is
intended for shorter works and does not have chapters (so articles can be easily included
in reports or books). The letter class provides special commands to produce the
salutation, address, and closing.
These four classes are single-spaced by default, and have 10, 11, and 12-point type sizes
available as options. 10 points is the default size.
The slides class uses sans-serif type fonts much larger than the usual ones and expects
the document to be divided up into 1-page sections.
At Rensselaer, there is an additional class on RCS called thesis, which may be used to
produce either a master’s or a doctoral thesis with a format that meets the requirements
of the Rensselaer Graduate School. It was written by Academic Computing Services
using the report class as a base. To use the thesis class, begin your document with
the line:
\documentclass{thesis}
Instructions are in ACS Memo RPI.110, Preparing A Thesis with LATEX.

2.2 Class Options

The document class may be modified by options, which are placed in square brackets
after the \documentclass command:
\documentclass[options ]{class }

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Multiple options are separated by commas. The standard class options include:
10pt, 11pt, 12pt Selects the point size of main font for the document. If no option is
specified, 10pt is assumed. This memo uses 12-point type.

twocolumn Produces two-column pages.

titlepage Causes the \maketitle command to generate the title page on a separate
page for the article class. This option is not necessary for the book and report
classes, as they print separate title pages by default.

leqno Puts equation numbers on left side. (They are on the right by default.)

fleqn Left-aligns equations. (They are centered by default.)

twoside Formats for printing on both sides of paper. (Whether the document is actually
printed two-sided depends on the printer.) Twoside is the default for the book class,
but not for any of the other classes.

openright If the twoside option is in effect, chapters will begin on right hand pages.
This is the default for the book class. It does not apply to the article class,
which does not contain chapters. (The opposite of openright is openany.)

2.3 Packages
There are a large number of LATEX packages available that provide many additional
features. Some packages are distributed with LATEX; others are provided by expert users
worldwide. If you sometimes find that the features of standard LATEX do not provide the
special formatting you want, chances are good that you can find a package to meet your
needs. A package generally consists of one or more files that contain extra definitions
and macros. Some packages are simple; others are complex and can contain options.
The file names usually have the extension .sty.
You load a package with the \usepackage command, which should come immediately
after the \documentclass command in your input file. The command has the form:
\usepackage[options ]{package }
Each package may be included with its own \usepackage command, or you may use
one command to load several packages by separating their names with commas. For
example, if you are inserting PostScript graphics in your document (see section 7.4), the
package graphicx will make this easier for you. The beginning of your input file might
look like:
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
The \usepackage command above instructs LATEX to read the file graphicx.sty.

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In addition to graphicx, there are many other packages available on RCS at
Rensselaer including packages to rotate text, use PostScript fonts, and customize
such things as headers and footers, citations and captions. To see a cur-
rent list of packages with brief descriptions, look at the file package-summary
in the RCS directory /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages. Under that direc-
tory are various subdirectories containing documentation for the individual packages.
For example, documentation for including PostScript graphics is in the directory
/campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Graphics.

2.4 Making a Title Page

If you are using the article, report, or book class, you may want a title page for your
document. To do this, you need to supply text for the title, author, and date, and then
tell LATEX to generate the title page with the command \maketitle. In your LATEX
input file, following the \begin{document} command, type commands such as the ones
below:
\title{This is the Title}
\author{My Name}
\date{the date}
\maketitle
This is illustrated in the example of using the report class later in this chapter. If there
are several authors, you can separate their names with \and, or you can separate them
with \\ if you would like each name centered on a separate line. If you omit the \date
command, LATEX will use the current date. If you want no date at all, use \date{}.
In the report and book classes, the title information appears on its own page. In the
article class, it appears at the top of the first page of text. You can instruct the
article class to make a separate page by using the class option titlepage.

2.5 Making a Table of Contents

The command \tableofcontents, usually placed in the input file right after the
\maketitle command, creates a table of contents using the information in the sec-
tion headings (part, chapter, section, etc.). Since this information is taken from the
previous run, you will need to run LATEX twice on a new document for the entries in the
table of contents to show up.

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2.6 Behind the Scenes
2.6.1 Auxiliary Files
Part of the convenience of LATEX is its ability to do forward references (see section 4.11)
and to create a table of contents, a list of tables, and a list of figures.
Forward reference numbers, as well as page numbers for sections, figures and tables, are
unknown when LATEX is first processing the input file. LATEX stores this information
in auxiliary files as it processes the job. A second run allows LATEX to extract the
information from its auxiliary files and complete the table of contents, etc. Therefore all
information used by LATEX for tables of contents, etc. is from the previous run. The only
way to be sure that all this material is correct is to format the file twice after making
any changes. Usually for drafts, the difference between runs is not enough to matter,
but for final versions you should remember to run LATEX twice before printing.
The auxiliary files have the same “root” name as the LATEX input file, but different
extensions. For example, all documents need an AUX file. If the input file is named
myfile.tex, the AUX file will be named myfile.aux. Other auxiliary files (see the list
below) are needed only if you are producing a table of contents, etc. Most computer
systems automatically create the auxiliary files as they are needed.
filename.aux always needed
filename.toc for table of contents
filename.lot for list of tables
filename.lof for list of figures

2.6.2 How a Page is Built

When TEX or LATEX builds a page, it considers all the parts (words, lines, paragraphs,
etc.) to be different sized boxes. It starts with a simple box, an individual letter, and
then builds words, which are considered to be hboxes (horizontal boxes). The words
are then put together with glue to form a line, which is a larger hbox. A group of
hboxes stacked together vertically (with glue between them) form a vbox (vertical box).
A page is a large vbox made up of several smaller ones. You do not normally need to be
concerned with this, but sometimes (such as when an error message refers to an “overfull
hbox,” meaning a line is too long and sticks out into the margin) it is helpful to know
how TEX works.

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2.7 Example: Report Class
\documentclass[11pt]{report} % Report class in 11 points
\raggedright % Do not right-justify
\parindent0pt \parskip10pt % make block paragraphs

\begin{document} % End of preamble, start of

% document text.
\title{\bf An Example of Report Class} % Supply information
\author{for \LaTeX\ Class} % for the title page.
\date{\today} % Use current date.
\maketitle % Print title page.
\pagenumbering{roman} % Roman page number for toc
\setcounter{page}{2} % Make it start with "ii"
\tableofcontents % Print table of contents

\chapter{A Main Heading} % Print a "chapter" heading

\pagenumbering{arabic} % Start text with arabic 1
Most of this example applies to the article and book classes
as well as to the report class. In article class, however,
the default position for the title information is at the top
of the first text page rather than on a separate page.

A blank line starts a new paragraph. \textit{Note this: it will be

printed in italic type.}

\section{A Subheading} % Print a "section" heading

The following sectioning commands are available:\\
part \\ % \\ Forces a new line
chapter \\
section \\
subsection \\
subsubsection \\
paragraph \\
subparagraph

But note that---unlike the book and report classes---the article

class does not have a ‘‘chapter" command.

\end{document} % The required last line

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2.8 Example: Letter Class
\documentclass[12pt]{letter} % letter class, 12 points

\address{555 Main St.\\Sometown, NY 12345} % Return address

\signature{My Name\\My Title} % Name for signature

\begin{document} % End of preamble

\begin{letter}{Mr.~Smith\\ President, % Begin letter by giving

Big Name Co.\\Bigburg, MI 45678} % recipient’s address
\opening{Dear Mr.~Smith:} % Name for salutation

This is the letter class. It provides a format for standard parts

of a business letter. As you can see, it uses many commands that
do not exist in the article, report, and book classes.

This is a new paragraph.

\closing{Sincerely,} % Format for the closing.

% The name is taken from
% \signature command above.
\cc{My Boss} % Name(s) of those
% receiving copies

\end{letter} % End of letter

\end{document} % The required last line

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Chapter 3. Document Layout
Defaults for all aspects of the document layout are set by the document classes. However,
if you want to change the defaults, there are commands that enable you to do so.
Commands controlling features that apply to the whole document should be placed in
the preamble2.

3.1 Line Spacing

The default is single spacing. If you want larger interline spacing for your document, you
can use the \linespread command in the preamble. The following command produces
a document with double spacing:
\linespread{1.6}
For “line and a half” spacing, use the value 1.3. The default spread is 1.
An alternative and more flexible way to control the linespacing is to use the package
setspace. With this package, footnotes, figures, and tables remain single-spaced. The
package also defines a new environment called singlespace, which you can use to include
single-spaced sections within your document. To use the setspace package to produce
a double-spaced document, include after the \documentclass command:
\usepackage{setspace}
and, in addition, put the command
\doublespacing
somewhere in the preamble.
You could use \onehalfspacing instead of \doublespacing, or you could use the com-
mand \setstretch{n} (specifying your own value for n—usually between 1 and 2) to
set the spacing to whatever you want.

3.2 Paragraphs
To start a new paragraph, either leave a blank line or use the control sequence \par.
By default, paragraphs are indented by 1.5em, which means 1.5 times the point size of
the document. No extra blank space is inserted between paragraphs. The commands
\parindent and \parskip control paragraph indentation and paragraph separation. To
get block paragraphs, for example, include in the preamble the commands:
\parindent=0in
\parskip=10pt
2
the section between the \documentclass command and the \begin{document} command

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3.3 Text Justification
By default, LATEX justifies your text horizontally so that both left and right margins are
smooth. If you prefer “ragged right” text, you can use the declaration:
\raggedright
Note that this has the side-effect of wiping out the paragraph indentation. (It assumes
you want everything flush left.) If you want indented paragraphs, you must specifically
request it (i.e., \parindent=1.5em) after the \raggedright declaration.
Vertical justification is controlled by using either \flushbottom or \raggedbottom.
\flushbottom makes all text pages the same height, adding extra vertical space if nec-
essary. \raggedbottom allows the height to vary a bit from page to page. \flushbottom
is the default for the book class and for the twoside option in the article and report
classes; otherwise \raggedbottom is the default.

3.4 Margins
Top and left margins are set in reference to a value of one inch (which means that
setting these margins equal to 0 produces one-inch margins). Therefore, setting a top
margin of .5in will actually make a top margin of 1.5 inches, and setting a top margin
of -.5in produces a top margin of .5 inches. The opposite margins (bottom and right)
are determined indirectly by setting the height and width of the text area.
to set margin use the command
top margin \topmargin
bottom margin \textheight
left margin (for odd pages or single sided) \oddsidemargin
left margin (for even pages, if using twoside) \evensidemargin
right margin \textwidth
The command names controlling the margins are called lengths, and the “official” way to
set lengths in LATEX is with a command such as: \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{.5in}.
However, it is easier to borrow from plain TEX and use commands like those below:
\topmargin=-.5in % topmargin is 1/2 inch (note negative value)
\oddsidemargin=0in % left margin is 1 inch on right-hand pages
\evensidemargin=0in % same for left-hand pages in a 2-sided document
\textwidth=6.5in % leaves 1 inch for the right margin
\textheight=9in % 9 inches reserved for the text
LATEX also leaves .5 inch at the top of the page for a header and about .6 inch at the
bottom of the page for a footer. You must take this into account when choosing a value
for textheight. The values in the examples above leave one inch between the paper
edge and the text on all four sides. (The spaces for the header and footer are controlled
by the lengths headheight, headsep, and footskip. You can change these values too
if you wish, but it is not usually necessary.) For a quick and easy way to set one-inch
margins all around, you can use the package fullpage.
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3.5 Headers, Footers, and Page Numbering
The output page consists of the head, the body and the foot. Header and footer material,
such as page numbers and/or section titles, appear in the head or the foot. All the
classes (except letter) print at least the page number by default.
If you don’t like the default action of the document class, you can determine what infor-
mation goes into the head and foot by using the pagestyle command. This command
is often placed just after a \chapter or a similar command. There are four standard
page styles:
\pagestyle{plain}: The page number is in the foot and the head is empty. This is
the default page style for the article and report document classes.

\pagestyle{empty}: The head and foot are both empty.

\pagestyle{headings}: The page number and current section heading (the level of
the heading is determined by the document class) is put in the head; the foot is
empty. This is the default for the book class.

\pagestyle{myheadings}: Similar to the headings page style, except you specify the
information (other than the page number) that goes in the head by using the
markboth and markright commands. markboth is used for two-sided docu-
ments, and markright is used for one-sided:
\markboth{leftheader }{rightheader }
\markright{rightheader }

\thispagestyle{style}: Changes the page style for the current page only. For example,
to have nothing in the head and foot for the current page without affecting the
style for the rest of the pages, use \thispagestyle{empty}.
You can also specify arabic (the default) or roman page numbering either in the preamble
or in the text. It is common to put \pagenumbering{roman} before the text begins and
\pagenumbering{arabic} after the first \chapter command. These commands also
set the page number to 1. You can change the page number counter yourself with a
command such as \setcounter{page}{2}.
If the above pagestyle commands don’t do what you want, there is a package called
fancyhdr that allows you to customize your headers and footers in an easy way. With
this package you can define three-part headers and footers (left, right, and center), multi-
line headers and footers, separate headers and footers for even and odd pages, and more.
To use it, include the following commands in the preamble:
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\pagestyle{fancy}
For simple use, you need only to include the following 6 commands in your preamble, sup-
plying your text inside the {} in each case: \lhead{}, \chead{}, \rhead{}, \lfoot{},
cfoot{}, \rfoot{}. For more information, see the documentation for fancyhdr in the
RCS directory /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Contrib.

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Chapter 4. Within the Text
Within the text, there will always be certain sections that require special treatment—
such as a different size of type, indentation, or special placement on the page. Some
specialized areas of text (particularly those that require indentation) are formatted with
the help of LATEX environments.

4.1 Section Headings

Since documents of any length are usually divided into sections, the classes article,
report, and book have a set of commands which take the name of the section as an
argument. The author uses these commands in the proper order, providing the section
name, and LATEX takes care of formatting the headings (boldface, larger typesize, etc.)
and numbering them appropriately. The sectioning commands are:
\part \section \paragraph
\chapter \subsection \subparagraph
\subsubsection
The first two, \part and \chapter, are not available in article class. The \part
heading is rarely used. It divides a very large document into parts, and does not affect
the numbering used for the other headings. In most document classes, headings made
with the lowest level headings, \paragraph and \subparagraph, are not numbered.
If you include the command \tableofcontents at the beginning of your document,
LATEX takes the section headings and page numbers from the previous run of the docu-
ment and inserts a table of contents at the place the command was issued. (Note that
you need to process the document through LATEX twice to ensure an up-to-date table of
contents.)
Normally section headings appear in the table of contents exactly as they do in the text.
However, if a heading is too long to fit nicely into the table of contents, you can provide
a shorter version as an optional argument:
\section[A short heading for the TOC]{This is a much longer
heading that will appear in the text of the document}
You can make less formal headings by using the sectioning commands with a star (*)
appended to the command names listed above. In this case, the section headings will
not show up in the table of contents and will not be numbered. For example, to make a
section heading called “Introduction” that is not numbered and does not appear in the
table of contents, use the command:
\section*{Introduction}

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4.2 Changing Type Style and Size
Sometimes you may want to change the style or size of text that is not a section heading.
The following LATEX commands change the style of the text you supply as an argument:
\textit{...} italic Italic shape, used mostly for emphasis
\textsl{...} slanted Slanted shape, a bit different from italic
\textsc{...} Small Caps Small caps shape, use sparingly
\textup{...} upright Upright shape, usually the default
\textbf{...} boldface Boldface series, often used for headings
\textmd{...} medium Medium series, usually the default
\textrm{...} roman Roman family, usually the default
\textsf{...} sans serif Sans Serif family, used for posters, etc.
\texttt{...} typewriter Typewriter family, fixed-pitch characters
\emph{...} emphasized Use for emphasis, usually changes to italic
These commands can be combined, provided the font thus requested actually exists. For
example, the command \textbf{\textit{This is bold italic}} produces: This is
bold italic.
The following commands cause subsequent output to be printed in a different type size.
The actual size produced by each command depends on the initial point size selected for
the document. The default document size is 10 points. Therefore \normalsize means 10
points for a document in which no size option has been included. This memo is printed
in 12 points, so in this case, \normalsize is 12 points. (Note that when normalsize
is 12 points, there is no difference between huge and Huge. They are both the largest
size—25 points.)
\normalsize normal size \large large
\small small \Large larger
\footnotesize smaller than small \LARGE larger still
\scriptsize smaller still \huge huge
\tiny tiny \Huge hugest
The size-changing commands are declarations, and therefore they are usually used within
a group (i.e., braces) to delimit the range of their action. For example:
{\small This type will be small} produces This type will be small.
To change both type size and style at the same time, commands can be used together.
For example, the command \textbf{\large This will be big and bold} produces:
This will be big and bold.

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4.3 Starting New Lines and New Pages
Normally LATEX decides where to start a new line and a new page, always trying to pick
the most aesthetically pleasing break points. But sometimes you want to force the start
of a new line or page. The command \\ will force a new line. For example,
This will be on one line\\ this will be on the next line
If you want extra space between two lines, do not use two \\ commands in a row.
Instead use an optional parameter (given inside square brackets) to specify the amount
of blank space. For example, the following command will leave an extra space of 10
points between the lines:
This will be on one line\\[10pt] this will be on the next line
To force a new page, the simplest command is \newpage, which starts a new page
immediately. There is also the command \clearpage, which acts like \newpage except
that it also forces any leftover figures or tables to print before starting the new page.
With the twoside style option, the command \cleardoublepage produces a blank page,
if necessary, to ensure that the new page starts on a new sheet of paper.

4.4 Leaving Horizontal and Vertical Space

The commands \hspace and \vspace leave horizontal and vertical space in your text.
Both commands take a mandatory parameter—the amount of blank space you want to
leave. For example, \vspace{3in} will leave 3 inches of blank space in your text. (If
vertical space is requested in the middle of a paragraph, the space will appear after the
current line has ended.)
Space requested by the \hspace and \vspace commands disappears if it falls at the
beginning or end of a line or page. To create space that remains no matter where it
falls, use the variations \hspace* and \vspace*. For example, the following lines:
This text starts at the left margin\\
\hspace*{1in}This text starts a new line after a one-inch space
produces:
This text starts at the left margin
This text starts a new line after a one-inch space

4.5 Drawing Rules

To draw a line (horizontal or vertical) on the page, use the \rule command:
\rule[lift]{width}{height}
width is the horizontal dimension, height is the vertical dimension, and the optional
parameter lift is the amount raised above the baseline. For example, the line below was
drawn with the command \rule{\textwidth}{1pt}.

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4.6 Footnotes
Footnotes are numbered automatically by LATEX. The command \footnote{footnote
text} should be placed exactly where you want the footnote number to appear, with no
extra space between the \footnote command and the text before it. For example:
This is text with a note.\footnote{This is the note text.
Here it is at the bottom of the page.}
produces:
This is text with a note.3

4.7 Centering
If you have only one line to center, it’s easiest to use the plain TEX command
\centerline:
\centerline{This line is centered}
If you have several lines to be centered horizontally, the center environment is conve-
nient. The example below produces three lines, each horizontally centered.
\begin{center}
This is line one. \\
This is line two. \\
This is line three.
\end{center}

4.8 Quotations
The quote environment begins a new line and indents text from both sides. It
is delimited with \begin{quote} and \end{quote}. Any special effects (such
as changes to the type size or style) started within the quote environment
are terminated by \end{quote}.
New paragraphs are block style: that is, no indent and a blank line as sepa-
ration. This section is inside a quote environment.

There is also a very similar environment called quotation. The only difference is that
paragraphs in the quotation environment are indented with no blank line between.

3
This is the note text. Here it is at the bottom of the page.

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4.9 Reproducing Text As-Is
To reproduce new lines and spaces exactly as they are in your input file, you have a
choice of several methods.
The verbatim environment prints its text in typewriter-style type and sets it off from
the rest of the document with blank lines before and after. (It does not indent.) To use
it, surround the text with the commands \begin{verbatim} and \end{verbatim}. The
only LATEX command obeyed inside this environment is \end{verbatim}. For example,
the following input
\begin{verbatim}
All spacing is displayed in verbatim as entered.
So are special characters ! @ # & * ( ) _ } ] \ | > <
Verbatim is used to display LaTeX commands in this document.
\end{verbatim}

produces:

All spacing is displayed in verbatim as entered.

So are special characters ! @ # & * ( ) _ } ] \ | > <
Verbatim is used to display LaTeX commands in this document.

A variation on the verbatim environment, called the alltt environment, is provided by

a user-written package. It is used in the same way as the verbatim environment and
works the same, in that spaces and lines are retained from the input file. The difference
is that LATEX commands are recognized inside this environment. It cannot be used to
reproduce LATEX commands, but it is very useful for special effects, such as printing
in roman or italic type instead of typewriter. Before you can use this environment,
you must include the command \usepackage{alltt} following the \documentclass
command.
If the text is short enough to be contained on one input line and should not be set off,
you can use the \verb command. For example,
\verb+This is inside the \verb command+
produces:
This is inside the \verb command
(Note that the “+” is used to delimit the verbatim text. Actually any character except
the “*” can be used as the delimiter.)

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4.10 Lists
The three LATEX list environments are demonstrated in the following examples showing
both the output and the input used to create them. All three environments use the
\item command to start new items in the list.
The enumerate environment numbers items sequentially, the itemize environment puts
a bullet in front of each item, and the description environment puts a boldface word
or phrase in front of each item.
Example of Enumerate
\begin{enumerate} 1. This is the first item.
\item This is the first item.
\item This is the second item. 2. This is the second item.
\item This is the third item.
\end{enumerate} 3. This is the third item.

Example of Itemize
\begin{itemize} • This is the first item.
\item This is the first item.
\item This is the second item. • This is the second item.
\item This is the third item.
\end{itemize} • This is the third item.

Example of Description
\begin{description} enumerate Puts numbers in front
\item[enumerate] Puts numbers of the items
in front of the items
\item[itemize] Puts bullets itemize Puts bullets in front of the
in front of the items items
\item[description] Puts words
in front of the items description Puts words in front of
\end{description} the items
Below is an example of nesting list environments to achieve a different format.
Here are some useful environments: Here are some useful environments:
\begin{itemize} • center environment
\item center environment
\item quote environment • quote environment
\item the three list environments:
• the three list environments:
\begin{enumerate}
\item enumerate (uses numbers) 1. enumerate (uses numbers)
\item itemize (uses bullets) 2. itemize (uses bullets)
\item description (uses words) 3. description (uses words)
\end{enumerate}
\end{itemize}

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4.11 Cross References
In longer documents, there are often cross references to sections, figures, tables, or
equations. LATEX provides the following commands for cross referencing:
\label{marker } set a marker for future reference
\ref{marker } include the number of the section, figure, etc. of the cor-
responding \label command
\pageref{marker } include the page number of the corresponding \label com-
mand
marker is an identifier that you choose—it may contain letters, numbers, or other
characters (except for LATEX’s special list of characters). It can be helpful (but not
necessary) to start the marker name with a tag that identifies what is being marked:
for example, sec: for sections, eqn: for equations, fig: for figures, etc. (See the
example below.) The \label command should be placed immediately after a sectioning
command, within an equation environment, or inside a figure or table environment
immediately following the caption command.
\label{sec:xrefs}
For information on cross references, see
For information on cross references,
section 4.11 on page 21.
see section~\ref{sec:xrefs} on
page~\pageref{sec:xrefs}.
Note that LATEX uses the numbers from the .aux file produced by the previous run, so
it will take two runs (sometimes more) to get the cross references correct.

4.12 Placing Figures and Tables on the Page

If you have figures or tables in your document, you need to make sure that they are not
broken across pages. To accomplish this, LATEX provides two environments, figure and
table, which “float” material inside the environment to a later page if it does not fit on
the current page. Meanwhile, LATEX fills the current page with text to avoid half empty
pages. The commands to use these two environments look like:
\begin{figure} \begin{table}
... figure material ... ... tabular material ...
\end{figure} \end{table}
There are also “starred” versions of these environments (table* and figure*), which,
in 2-column text, place floats across both columns. Note that these environments have
nothing to do with actually preparing your figures or tables (discussed later in this
memo); they only ensure that whatever material is inside gets “floated” and is not
broken between pages.
By default, LATEX first tries to put the figure or table at the top of the current page.
If it doesn’t fit there, it next tries the bottom of the current page, then the top of the
next page. Failing that, it will try to place the figure or table on a page containing only

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floated material (no text). Usually, the default behavior places the floats satisfactorily.
However, if you wish, you can supply an optional parameter to specify a list of preferred
locations; for example, if you begin a table:
\begin{table}[htp]
A
LTEX will first try to place the table “here”—that is, at the spot you gave the
\begin{table} command, then the top of the next page, and finally on a page con-
taining only floats (which often means on a page by itself). The possible positioning
parameters are:
h here: at the place in the text where the environment occurs.
t top: at the top of a text page.
b bottom: at the bottom of a text page.
p page: on a special page containing only floats.

4.12.1 Making a Caption

Within the figure or table environment, you can use the command \caption{caption
text} to supply a caption. Usually the caption for a table is typed above the table and
the caption for a figure below the figure. The table environment prefixes the caption
text with “Table n:” (where n is the number of the table supplied by LATEX); the figure
environment prefixes the text with “Figure n:”. In fact, the caption prefix is the only
difference between the figure and table environments. The \caption command also
supplies information for a List of Figures and/or a List of Tables. To print out such a
list at the beginning of your document, simply place the command \listoftables or
\listoffigures after the \tableofcontents command.
If your caption is very long and you do not want the whole thing repeated in the list
of figures or tables, you can use an optional parameter (specified in square brackets) to
supply a shorter version for the List. For example, a table caption might look like:
\caption[A short caption for the list of tables]{This is a very
long caption for this table, requiring lots of explanation.
It could go on for several lines.}
You can also use the \label command (see section 4.11 on cross referencing) so that
you can refer to your figure or table elsewhere in the document. Note that the \label
command must immediately follow the caption command. If it precedes the caption,
the number used in the reference will be incorrect.

4.12.2 Example
The example below produces a figure, which LATEX places “here” because there happens
to be room for it. Note that you can put anything inside the figure environment: it can
be blank space created with the \vspace command, or it can be an imported PostScript

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graphic (see section 7.4). Likewise, a table environment can contain any LATEX com-
mands or text, but usually contains tabular material inside the tabular environment
(see section 5.2).

\begin{figure}[htp]
\begin{center}
\fbox{\parbox[t][2in][c]{4in} %top, 2in deep, v-centered, 4in wide
{\centerline{This space intentionally left blank}}}
\end{center}
\caption{What an Interesting Picture!}
\label{fig:space}
\end{figure}

This space intentionally left blank

Figure 1: What an Interesting Picture!

4.12.3 Overcoming Problems with Float Placement

When placing floated material, LATEX follows certain rules, explained in detail in Lam-
port’s LATEX User’s Guide and Reference Manual, section C.9. If you find that your
table or figure is not appearing where you think it should, it could be that LATEX’s con-
straints on how much of a text page can be taken up by floats are getting in the way.
You can override these constraints by including a ! in the optional argument containing
the positioning parameters. For example, if you use \begin{table}[!htp], LATEX will
try extra hard to place the float where you want it.
Do NOT give only one possible placement parameter (e.g., h), because if the float cannot
be placed where you specified, it will be pushed to the end of the section or document
with all subsequent figures or tables behind it.
LATEX has room in its memory to hold only a certain number of floats. If you want
to include many figures or tables together, without intervening text, you can avoid
problems by including the command \clearpage after every approximately 10 floats.
This command prints all queued floats and starts a new page.

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Chapter 5. Tables
There are two environments in LATEX for making tables: the tabbing environment,
which uses \begin{tabbing}. . . \end{tabbing}, and the tabular environment, which
uses \begin{tabular}. . . \end{tabular}.
The tabbing environment works in a manner similar to a typewriter—you set the tabs
and then move from one to another. Tab stops may be reset on any line. Page breaks
within the table are allowed since each line is processed individually.
The tabular environment allows you to construct a much fancier looking table: for
example, you can specify the alignment of each column and use horizontal and vertical
lines. However, these tables cannot be broken across pages because LATEX reads in the
entire table at once to establish correct column widths.

5.1 Tabbing
Tabbing uses the following commands:
\= Set a tab stop

\> Move right to the next tab stop

\\ Terminate a line

Tabs are usually set in the first line but may also be added in later lines. A special line
ending with the command \kill may be used to set tabs but not print the line. Below
are two examples of tabbing. Note that the last entry does not require a \\ to end the
line.

Example 1: A Very Simple Case

\begin{tabbing}
Column 1 \= Column 2 \= Column 3 \= Column4 \\
Col 1 \> Col 2 \> Col 3 \> Col 4 \\
one \> two \> three \> four
\end{tabbing}
Produces:
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4
Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4
one two three four

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Example 2: A Little More Complex
\begin{tabbing}
\hspace{2in} \= \hspace{2in} \= \kill
First column \> Second column \> Third column \\
\> Second \> Third \\
\hspace{1in} \\ % make a blank line
This Text extends past tab 1 \>\> Third column \\
\> Text spans columns two and three \\
xxxxxxxx \= xxxxxxxx \= xxxxxxxx \= \kill % set up new tab stops
Col 1 \> Col 2 \> Col 3 \> Col 4
\end{tabbing}
Produces:
First column Second column Third column
Second Third

This Text extends past tab 1 Third column

Text spans columns two and three
Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4

5.2 Tabular
The tabular environment requires an additional argument that specifies the alignment
of each column (centered, left justified, etc.):
\begin{tabular}{align}
You may substitute any combination of the following symbols for the align argument:
l Left-justified column entry

c Centered column entry

r Right-justified column entry

p Paragraph column entry

| Vertical rule column

|| Double vertical rule column

The width necessary for each column is determined automatically from the widest entry.
Inside the tabular environment, use the tab character (&) to move to the next column,
\\ to end each line (except the last one), and \hline to insert a horizontal line.
The following examples illustrate the tabular environment. Note that you can center
a table by enclosing the tabular environment inside a center environment.

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5.2.1 A Simple Ruled Table

\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|r|} % 3 cols (left, ctr, right); vert. lines
\hline % draw horizontal line
Name & Oblateness & Diameter \\
\hline
Mercury & 0 & 3,100 \\
Venus & 0 & 7,700 \\
Earth & 1/297 & 7,927 \\
Mars & 1/192 & 4,200 \\
Jupiter & 1/15 & 88,700 \\
Saturn & 1/9.5 & 75,100 \\
Uranus & 1/14 & 32,100 \\
Neptune & 1/40 & 27,700 \\
Pluto & ? & 3,600\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
Produces:

Name Oblateness Diameter

Mercury 0 3,100
Venus 0 7,700
Earth 1/297 7,927
Mars 1/192 4,200
Jupiter 1/15 88,700
Saturn 1/9.5 75,100
Uranus 1/14 32,100
Neptune 1/40 27,700
Pluto ? 3,600

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5.2.2 Using Paragraph Columns, Spanning Columns
The following example illustrates making paragraphs within a table and placing text
across multiple columns using the \multicolumn command. This command has the
form:
\multicolumn{n}{pos}{item}
where n is the number of columns to be spanned, pos specifies the alignment of the item,
and item is the text.
This example is inside the table environment, which ensures that the table will be
“floated” rather than broken across a page (see section 4.12) and also provides the
opportunity to supply a caption. In this example, the optional parameter [hb] specifies
that the table should appear “here” or at the bottom of the page.
To center tabular material inside the table environment, you can use the declaration
\centering, which has the same effect as the center environment. (The centering
action will be confined to inside the table environment.)

\begin{table}[hb] % place table ‘‘here’’ or at bottom of page

\centering
\caption{More Things You can Do With Tabular}
\bigskip
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|p{2.5in}|}
\hline
\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Text in columns 1 and 2}
& A paragraph 2.5 inches wide \\
\hline
Column 1 & Column 2 & This text is a paragraph. It will wrap
around to the next line if necessary. \\
Column 1 & Column 2 & The paragraph column \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Table 1: More Things You can Do With Tabular

Text in columns 1 and 2 A paragraph 2.5 inches wide

Column 1 Column 2 This text is a paragraph. It will
wrap around to the next line if nec-
essary.
Column 1 Column 2 The paragraph column

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5.2.3 Aligning on the Decimal Point
Although LATEX does not provide a way to align numeric columns on a decimal point,
it is possible to accomplish this by using two columns (the first right-aligned and the
second left-aligned) and changing the column separator to be a decimal point.4
LATEX allows you to change the column separator with the command @{...}, which
replaces the usual intercolumn space with whatever you put inside the curly braces.
Therefore, if you use @{.} in the \begin{tabular} line, a “.” will be placed between
columns. When you enter the data, you must replace the decimal point in your numbers
with a column separator (&). The example below illustrates how to do this.
\begin{tabular}{c r @{.} l}
Pi expression &
\multicolumn{2}{c}{Value} \\ Pi expression Value
\hline π 3.1416
$\pi$ & 3&1416 \\ ππ 36.46
$\pi^{\pi}$ & 36&46 \\ (π π )π 80662.7
$(\pi^{\pi})^{\pi}$ & 80662&7 \\
\end{tabular}

5.2.4 Suppressing Leading or Trailing Space

Another creative use of the @{...} command is to suppress leading or trailing space in
a table. In this case the command would be @{}, indicating no space should be inserted:

\begin{tabular}{@{} l @{}}
\hline
no leading or trailing space\\ no leading or trailing space
\hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{l}
\hline
leading space left and right\\ leading space left and right
\hline
\end{tabular}

4
For an another method, see the dcolumn package, provided as part of the LATEX “tools” bundle.

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Chapter 6. Mathematics
One of the greatest strengths of LATEX is its ability to typeset formulas and equations. To
make it easier to enter mathematical text, LATEX has defined several hundred Greek sym-
bols, mathematical symbols, delimiters, and operators. These are listed in Appendix A
of this memo.
LATEX has several modes for setting math text, which are described below. When in
math mode, LATEX sets type differently than when in text mode. For example, all letters
are set in the math italic typeface, and spaces in the input are ignored because LATEX
uses its own “mathematically correct” spacing. Therefore, if you want to use normal
text or retain spaces while in math mode, you must enclose this text with an “mbox”:
\mbox{this is normal text}. Also, new paragraphs are not allowed within math
mode, so be sure not to leave any blank lines.
If your mathematical expressions are particularly complex or sophisticated, you may
want to look at AMS-LATEX, a collection of packages that provides extensions to LATEX’s
mathematical capabilities.5

6.1 In-line Math

The in-line math environment allows you to place mathematical formulas in the midst
of ordinary text. Typically such mathematical formulas are roughly the same size as the
text they’re embedded in. This environment can be invoked in one of three ways:

$ ... $ (Used in plain TEX)

\( . . . \)
\begin{math} . . . \end{math}

The following paragraph is typical of the use of in-line math:

The quadratic equation $ax^2+bx+c = 0$ has two roots
whose nature depends on the sign of the discriminant
$d = \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}$. If $d>0$, then there are
two distinct real roots; if $d=0$, then there are two
real and equal roots; and if $d<0$, then the two roots
are conjugate complex numbers.
produces:
The quadratic equation ax2 + √ bx + c = 0 has two roots whose nature depends on the
sign of the discriminant d = b2 − 4ac. If d > 0, then there are two distinct real roots;
if d = 0, then there are two real and equal roots; and if d < 0, then the two roots are
conjugate complex numbers.
5
AMS-LATEX is available on RCS; for more information, see the section starting “AMSLATEX” in
the file /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/package-summary.

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6.2 Display Math (for unnumbered equations)
The displaymath environment puts space before and after equations and centers
them by default. For left-justified equations, include fleqn as an option in the
documentclass command: for example, \documentclass[fleqn]{article}. Like in-
line math, displaymath can be invoked in one of three ways:
$$ . . . $$ (Used in plain TEX)
\[ . . . \]
\begin{displaymath} . . . \end{displaymath}
The next paragraph illustrates the solution to the quadratic equation:
The quadratic equation $ax^2 + bx + c = 0$ has two roots
$$ x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a} $$
where the nature of the roots is determined by the sign
of the discriminent $b^2 - 4ac$.
produces:
The quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 has two roots
√
−b ± b2 − 4ac
x=
2a
where the nature of the roots is determined by the sign of the discriminent b2 − 4ac.

6.3 Equation Environment (for numbered equations)

The equation environment is exactly like the displaymath environment except that an
equation number in parentheses is placed to the right of the displayed formula. (For
left-side numbering, include leqno as an option to the \documentclass command.)
The environment is invoked with \begin{equation}. . . \end{equation} as illustrated
below:
The derivative of the function $f(x)$ at the point $x_0$ is
\begin{equation}
f’(x_0) =
\lim_{x \rightarrow x_0}
\frac{f(x) - f(x_0)}{x - x_0}
\end{equation}

produces:
The derivative of the function f(x) at the point x0 is
f(x) − f(x0 )
f 0 (x0 ) = x→x
lim (1)
0 x − x0

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6.4 Eqnarray Environment (for multiline equations)
The eqnarray environment builds a three-column array of numbered equations, with
the first column right-justified, the second centered, and the third left-justified. It is
used mainly for displaying multi-line formulas. It numbers each line by default, but you
can include the command \nonumber on any line to suppress the equation number. (Or
you can use the alternative environment eqnarray*, which does not number any lines.)
The following example illustrates this environment. Note that you can use the \label
and \ref commands to refer to equation numbers in the text.
These three products can be expanded and simplified to
produce these equations:
\begin{eqnarray}
(a + b)(a + b) & = & a^2 + ab + ba + b^2 \nonumber \\
& = & a^2 + 2ab + b^2 \label{eq:simp1} \\
(a + b)(a - b) & = & a^2 - ab + ba - b^2 \nonumber \\
& = & a^2 - b^2 \label{eq:simp2} \\
(a + b)^3 & = & a^3 + 3a^2b + 3ab^2 + b^3 \label{eq:simp3}
\end{eqnarray}
The results after simplification are shown in equations
\ref{eq:simp1}, \ref{eq:simp2}, and \ref{eq:simp3}.

produces:
These three products can be expanded and simplified to produce these equations:

(a + b)(a + b) = a2 + ab + ba + b2
= a2 + 2ab + b2 (1)
(a + b)(a − b) = a2 − ab + ba − b2
= a 2 − b2 (2)
3
(a + b) = a3 + 3a2 b + 3ab2 + b3 (3)

The results after simplification are shown in equations 1, 2, and 3.

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6.5 Array Environment (for matrices, etc.)
The array environment is not itself a math environment; it must be enclosed within a
math environment of your choosing. It is used for building rectangular arrays of numbers,
matrices, etc. array is the math equivalent of tabular and uses the same syntax.
Here is an example of the array environment used to build a 5 × 5 magic square:
$$
\begin{array}{ccccc}
17& 24& 1& 8& 15\\
23& 5& 7& 14& 16\\
4& 6& 13& 20& 22\\
10& 12& 19& 21& 3\\
11& 18& 25& 2& 9
\end{array}
$$
produces:
17 24 1 8 15
23 5 7 14 16
4 6 13 20 22
10 12 19 21 3
11 18 25 2 9

Here is an example for a general matrix:

\begin{equation}
A = \left(
\begin{array}{cccc}
a_{1,1} & a_{1,2} & \ldots & a_{1,n} \\
a_{2,1} & a_{2,2} & \ldots & a_{2,n} \\
\vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\
a_{m,1} & a_{m,2} & \ldots & a_{m,n}
\end{array}
\right)
\end{equation}
produces:  
a1,1 a1,2 . . . a1,n
 
 a2,1 a2,2 . . . a2,n 
A=  .. .. ..  (4)
 .. 
 . . . . 
am,1 am,2 . . . am,n
Section 6.6.6 (Large Delimiters) on page 35 has more examples of arrays.

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6.6 Building Mathematical Expressions
6.6.1 Superscripts and Subscripts
In math mode, the symbols ‘ˆ’ and ‘ ’ are used to make superscripts and subscripts. If
more than one character is to be used as a superscript or subscript, enclose the characters
in braces. For example:
$$ 2^{2^2} = 2^4 = 4^2 $$
$$ a^2_{i_1} = b^2_{i,j} $$
$$ _2F^1_3 $$
$${}_2^1P{}^3_4 $$
produces:
2
22 = 24 = 42
a2i1 = b2i,j
1
2 F3
1 3
2P 4

6.6.2 Spaces in Math Mode

In math mode, LATEX ignores blanks typed in the input. However, the following symbols
allow you to add (or subtract) small amounts of space in your equations:
\; thick space \: medium space \, thin space \! negative space
In addition, you can make a larger space (about the width of an “M”) with the command
\quad. The command \qquad provides twice as much space.

6.6.3 Dots, Braces, and Bars

The commands \ldots, \cdots, \vdots, and \ddots are used to produce a string
of three dots on the base line, on the math centerline, vertically, or on the diagonal,
respectively. The commands \overline, \underline, \overbrace, and \underbrace
are used to build horizontal groups. For example:
\begin{eqnarray*}
2^n & = &\overbrace{2\times2\times\cdots\times 2}^{\mbox{n terms}}\\
k\cdot x & = &\underbrace{x + x + \ldots + x}_{\mbox{k terms}}
\end{eqnarray*}
produces:
n terms
z}| {
2 = 2 × 2× ··· × 2
n

k·x = x
|
+ x +{z. . . + x}
k terms

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6.6.4 Fractions
The ‘/’ can be used to make simple fractions, but the \frac commmand is used for most
fractions; its two arguments are the numerator and denominator. Two variations of a
fraction are provided by the commands \atop and \choose.
$$ \frac{a}{b} \qquad \frac{a/b}{c/d}
\qquad {a\atop b} \qquad {a\choose b} $$
$$ 1 + 2 + 3 + \ldots + n = \frac{n(n+1)}{2} $$
$$ \lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{1}{n}=0
\qquad y’’=\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} $$
produces: !
a a/b a a
b c/d b b
n(n + 1)
1+2 +3+... +n =
2
2
1 dy
lim =0 y 00 = 2
n→∞ n dx

6.6.5 Radicals, Integrals, and Summations

The \sqrt command creates a square root sign for its mandatory argument. An optional
argument for the radicand allows you to construct cube roots, nth roots, etc. The sign
automatically grows to fit the argument, as these examples show:
$$ \sqrt{2}=1.4142 \qquad c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}
\qquad \sqrt[3]{8}=2 \qquad \sqrt{\frac{n(n+1)}{2}} $$
produces: s
√ √ √
3 n(n + 1)
2 = 1.4142 c = a 2 + b2 8=2
2

Integral signs are produced with the \int command, and summation signs are produced
with the \sum command. These symbols are often used with superscripts and subscripts:
$$\sum^{\infty}_{n=1} \qquad \int^b_a e^{x^2}\,dx $$
$$\sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^{n}i} \qquad \sum_{\stackrel{i=1}{j=2}}^{\infty}$$
$$\sum \Delta V=\int\!\!\!\int\!\!\!\int_V dv $$
produces:
∞
X Z b 2
ex dx
n=1 a
v
u n ∞
uX X
t i
i=1 i=1
j=2
X ZZZ
∆V = dv
V

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6.6.6 Large Delimiters
The commands \left and \right are used to put large delimiters (such as ( ) [ ]) in
displayed formulas. (For braces, use \{ and \}). See Appendix A for a complete list
of delimiters. There must be a \right for every \left and vice versa for each output
line, although the left and right delimiters need not be the same type. You can even
use a period to create an invisible delimiter—very useful if you need an odd number of
delimiters. Large delimiters are often used with the array environment. Below are two
examples of large delimiters. (For another example, see Section 6.5 on page 32.)
$$
\mbox{det} = \left|
\begin{array}{lllll}
c_0 & c_1 & c_2 & \ldots & c_n \\
c_1 & c_2 & c_3 & \ldots & c_{n+1} \\
c_2 & c_3 & c_4 & \ldots & c_{n+2} \\
\vdots & \vdots & \vdots && \vdots \\
c_n & c_{n+1} & c_{n+2} & \ldots & c_{2n}
\end{array}
\right| > 0.
$$

produces:
c0 c1 c2 . . . cn
c1 c2 c3 . . . cn+1
det = c2 c3 c4 . . . cn+2 > 0.
.. .. .. ..
. . . .
cn cn+1 cn+2 . . . c2n
$$
\mbox{signum}(x)=\left\{
\begin{array}{rl}
1 & \mbox{if $x>0$} \\
0 & \mbox{if $x=0$} \\
-1 & \mbox{otherwise}
\end{array} \right.
$$

produces: 

 1 if x > 0
signum(x) =  0 if x = 0

−1 otherwise

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Chapter 7. Special Topics
7.1 Managing a Large Document
If you are preparing a book, thesis, or any document with multiple parts, it’s convenient
to work on the different chapters or sections separately. To do this, create a separate .tex
file for each section, and create a “root” .tex file that contains the \documentclass
command, the preamble material, the \begin{document} and \end{document} com-
mands, and multiple \include commands. The \include commands tell LATEX to read
the separate .tex files that contain the text of the document. Each \include command
starts a new page in your output. Note that the individual section files do not include
\begin{document} and \end{document} commands.
The command, \includeonly, which must go in the preamble, can be used to select
from the \include list only certain file(s) to be processed.
As an example, the root file for a book with 6 chapters might be called mybook.tex,
and the files for the chapters might be named chap1.tex, chap2.tex, etc. The root file
mybook.tex, which is the file on which you run LATEX, would look something like:
\documentclass{book}
\includeonly{chap1,chap2} % only these files will be processed
\begin{document}
\include{chap1}
\include{chap2}
\include{chap3}
\include{chap4}
\include{chap5}
\include{chap6}
\end{document}

7.2 Preparing a Bibliography

To prepare a bibliography, the first step is to cite various works within your text using
the \cite{key} command. key is a reference keyword of your choosing that identifies
the work. For example your document might include, at the appropriate places, the
commands: \cite{lamport} \cite{kopka} \cite{goossens}.
These commands place numbers (enclosed in square brackets) in the text that match
the numbers which will be automatically generated in the bibliography. (Remember to
run LATEX twice to get correct numbers in the text!)
To include an item in the bibliography without citing it in the text, use the \nocite
command; for example: \nocite{smith,jones}.
Then, at the end of the document, you can format the bibliography using the a special
environment called thebibliography.

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Below is an example of a thebibliography environment, followed by the output it
produces. On the \begin{thebibliography} line, the width of the item in the second
pair of braces determines the indent of the entries. This item is usually a dummy number
with as many digits as the highest-numbered entry. In this case, the number 9 indicates
there are fewer than 10 entries. If there are 10 or more entries but less than 100, use
the number 99.
Within this environment, each entry starts with the \bibitem command. The argument
for this command is the same keyword used in the corresponding \cite command in
the text. The \bibitem commands automatically generate a number in square brackets
before each entry. The first entry in the list will be numbered 1.
Note that in the book and report classes, Bibliography is used as the chapter title;
in the article class, References is used as the section heading.

\begin{thebibliography}{9}
\bibitem{lamport} Leslie Lamport. \textit{\LaTeX\ -- A Document
Preparation System}. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2nd edition, 1994.
\bibitem{kopka} Helmut Kopka and Patrick W.~Daly. \textit{A Guide
to \LaTeXe}. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1995.
\bibitem{goossens} Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach
\& Alexander Samarin. \textit{The \LaTeX\ Companion}.
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
\end{thebibliography}

References
[1] Leslie Lamport. LATEX – A Document Preparation System. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA,
second edition, 1994.
[2] Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly. A Guide to LATEX 2ε . Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA,
1995.
[3] Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach & Alexander Samarin. The LATEX Companion. Addison-
Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.

If you prefer, you can choose a label to identify the work in both the text and in the
bibliography, instead of the number assigned by LATEX. You do this by including an
optional label on the \bibitem command. (The \cite command doesn’t change.) For
example, to refer to the third book as “companion,” its entry in the thebibliography
environment would be:
\bibitem[companion]{goossens} Michel Goossens, Frank Mittelbach
\& Alexander Samarin. \textit{The \LaTeX\ Companion}.
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
For more information, including how to use the BibTEX program to generate a bibliog-
raphy from a database, see any of the above three references.

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7.3 Generating an Index
It is relatively easy to generate an index by using LATEX commands combined with
the support program MakeIndex. This memo covers just the basics of MakeIndex; de-
tails are in the documentation accompanying the program, found on RCS in the file
/campus/doc/text/makeindex.dvi.
Suppose your LATEX input file is called myfile.tex. To make an index, you need to do
the following things in that file:
1. Load the package makeidx with the command: \usepackage{makeidx}
2. In the preamble, place the command: \makeindex
3. At the place you want the index to appear (usually the end of the document), put
the command: \printindex
4. Put index entries throughout the text (as close as possible to the actual word or
phrase being indexed) using the command \index{entry}, where entry is the index
entry. Examples of various index entries are shown in the table at the bottom of
the page.
Now, generate the index by running LATEX, then running MakeIndex, and finally rerun-
ning LATEX, as shown below. (Note that including the extensions .tex and .idx on the
file names is optional.)
latex myfile.tex LATEX generates the file myfile.idx, containing all the
index entries and page numbers.
makeindex myfile.idx MakeIndex produces the file myfile.ind, which contains
the LATEX commands to format the index.
latex myfile.tex When LATEX finds the \printindex command, it reads in
the file myfile.ind. The resulting .dvi file includes the
formatted index.
If you change your document after producing the .ind file, be sure to run MakeIndex
again to create an up-to-date .ind file before running LATEX for the final time.
The package showidx, which comes with LATEX, prints all index entries in the margin of
the text. This is a useful tool for checking the index in draft copies.

Examples of Index Entries

LATEX Input Index Entry Comments
\index{colors} colors, 14 Main entry
\index{colors!blue} blue, 14 Subentry under “colors”
\index{colors!blue!navy} navy, 15 Subsubentry
\index{gnu@\textsl{gnu}} gnu, 22 Formatted text
\index{gnat|\textbf} gnat, 25 Formatted page number

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7.4 Including and Manipulating PostScript Graphics6
The easiest way to put graphics into your LATEX document is to first create the graphic
using a software package (such as xfig, Gnuplot, MATLAB, CorelDraw, etc.) and save
the graphic in EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format.
You can then include the graphic in your document by using the LATEX graphicx package
(part of the LATEX graphics bundle) and the PostScript printer driver dvips. To include
EPS graphics, first put in your preamble the command:
\usepackage{graphicx}
The graphicx package provides the command \includegraphics, which allows you
to specify the name of the PostScript file as well as optional arguments for scaling or
rotating the graphic. The command (which you will normally put inside the figure
environment, described in section 4.12) will look something like:
\includegraphics[width=4in]{myfigure.eps}
Inside the [...], you can specify a number of optional arguments, separated by commas.
In this case, width=4in will scale the width of graphic to four inches. Since no height is
specified, the height will be scaled so that the figure remains in proportion. The most
commonly used arguments are:
width scale graphic to the specified width
height scale graphic to the specified height
scale scale graphic by scale factor. (scale=2 makes the graphic twice as large
as its natural size; scale=.5 makes it half as large.)
angle rotate graphic by specified number of degrees. A positive number in-
dicates the counter-clockwise direction. (angle=90 rotates 90 degrees
counter-clockwise.)
Note that in the following example, the graphic is first rotated counter-clockwise by 90
degrees and then scaled to a width of 8 inches:
\includegraphics[angle=90,width=8in]{myfigure.eps}
Complete documentation for the graphics bundle is in the file
/campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Graphics/grfguide.dvi
You can view it with xdvi; information on the graphicx package is in section 4.4.
To print an entire figure, including the caption, in landscape orientation, use the
rotating package in addition to graphicx. Load it as usual with the \usepackage
command:
6
This section assumes you are using the PostScript driver dvips and have a PostScript printer
available. Alternatively, if you have a PC with a non-PostScript printer, you can still include EPS
graphics if you have both dvips and Ghostview installed.

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\usepackage{rotating}
This package defines two new environments, sidewaysfigure and sidewaystable (the
latter used for placing wide tables in landscape orientation), which you then use in
place of the standard LATEX environments figure and table, described in section 4.12.
For example, to make a landscape page containing a rotated graphic and caption, use
commands such as:
\begin{sidewaysfigure}
\includegraphics{myfigure.eps}
\caption{Turn the page sideways to look at this figure.}
\end{sidewaysfigure}
After you have put the appropriate commands for including EPS graphics into your
LATEX file, create the .dvi file as usual by running LATEX. It is important to note here
that the .dvi file does not actually contain the graphics; it only contains commands
that the printer driver, dvips, subsequently uses to include the graphics. Even so,
much of the time xdvi is able to display the included PostScript graphics (by calling
the ghostview program). However, there are some cases, for example if the graphic
is in landscape orientation, where xdvi does not display the graphic properly. In this
case, you can use dvips to put the output in a PostScript file and then call ghostview
directly to view it. Assuming your dvi file is called myfile.dvi, issue the commands:
dvips myfile -o use -o option to put output in file myfile.ps
ghostview myfile.ps view the PostScript output on the screen
Since ghostview has menus, it is quite easy to use. However, there is also a man page
for more information.
In the RCS directory, /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Contrib, there are ex-
amples of using both the graphicx and the rotating packages to include PostScript
figures and landscape tables. To see the LATEX commands, use an editor to look at the
file exrotating.tex; to see the results after running latex and dvips, use ghostview
to view the file exrotating.ps:
ghostview exrotating.ps
(If the landscape figures disappear after they are initially displayed, click the “Orienta-
tion” button and select “Landscape.”)
For an extensive treatment of EPS graphics, see the document Using EPS Graphics
in LATEX2e Documents by Keith Reckdahl of Stanford University. It includes all you
would ever want to know with many examples. On RCS, this 53-page PostScript doc-
ument is in the directory /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Graphics, in the file
epslatex.ps. To view it, first change to this directory and then use the ghostview
program:
ghostview epslatex.ps

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7.5 Accents and Special Characters
LATEX provides commands that allow you to print accents required by many European
languages. The table below shows how to apply a variety of accents to the letter o. Of
course, any other letter can be used in place of o.
If you want to place an accent on top of an i or a j, however, you need to print them
without their dots. You can print a dotless i or j by typing \i and \j. For example, ı̆ is
formed by typing \u{\i}.
ò \‘{o} ó \’{o} ô \^{o} õ \~{o}
ō \={o} ȯ \.{o} ö \"{o} o̊ \r{o}
ŏ \u{o} ǒ \v{o} ő \H{o} o̧ \c{o}
o. \d{o} o \b{o} oo \t{oo}
¯
Note that the accent commands that are control symbols (i.e., they consist of just one
non-letter) can also be used without braces. For example \^o and \^{o} both produce
ô.
The special letters that are part of European languages can be generated with the
following commands:
œ {\oe} Œ {\OE} æ {\ae} Æ {\AE}
å {\aa} Å {\AA} ø {\o} Ø {\O}
ß {\ss} SS {\SS} l {\l} L {\L}
¡ !‘ ¿ ?‘
For example:
na\"{\i}ve, r\’esum\’e, {\AA}ngstr{\o}m, se\~norita, stra{\ss}e
produces:
naı̈ve, résumé, Ångstrøm, señorita, straße

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Appendix A
Mathematical Symbols
All the following symbols (except the “non-mathematical symbols” listed on the next
page) must be used in math mode. To use one of the symbols in ordinary text, put it
in math mode by surrounding it with dollar signs: $\alpha$ → α.
The package amssymb, available on RCS, provides additional symbols. For a list, use xdvi
to view the file /campus/doc/text/Latex2e/Packages/Amslatex/amssymblist.dvi.

Greek Alphabet
α \alpha ι \iota % \varrho
β \beta κ \kappa σ \sigma
γ \gamma λ \lambda ς \varsigma
δ \delta µ \mu τ \tau
 \epsilon ν \nu υ \upsilon
ε \varepsilon ξ \xi φ \phi
ζ \zeta o o1 ϕ \varphi
η \eta π \pi χ \chi
θ \theta $ \varpi ψ \psi
ϑ \vartheta ρ \rho ω \omega
Γ \Gamma Ξ \Xi Φ \Phi
∆ \Delta Π \Pi Ψ \Psi
Θ \Theta Σ \Sigma Ω \Omega
Λ \Lambda Υ \Upsilon
Capitals not shown are produced with English capital letters.
1
An ordinary “o” looks Greek when used in a math environment: $o$ → o.

Miscellaneous Symbols
ℵ \aleph 0 \prime ∀ \forall
h̄ \hbar ∅ \emptyset ∃ \exists
ı \imath ∇
√ \nabla ¬ \neg
 \jmath \surd [ \flat
` \ell > \top \ \natural
℘ \wp ⊥ \bot ] \sharp
< \Re k \Vert or \| ♣ \clubsuit
= \Im 6 \angle ♦ \diamondsuit
∂ \partial 4 \triangle ♥ \heartsuit
∞ \infty 3 \Diamond ♠ \spadesuit
0P \mho 2Q \Box \
`
\backslash
R \sum H \prod \coprod
\int \oint 1 \Join
The symbols whose names are underlined require latexsym, a standard LATEX package.
Load it with the command: \usepackage{latexsym}.

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Non-Mathematical Symbols
These symbols can be used in either text mode or math mode:
† \dag ‡ \ddag § \S ¶ \P c \copyright £ \pounds

Function Names
When using function names in a math environment, you can prefix them with a \ so
that they will print as normal text rather than in italics:
\arccos \arcsin \arctan \arg \cos \cosh
\cot \coth \csc \deg \det \dim
\exp \gcd \hom \inf \ker \lg
\lim \liminf \limsup \ln \log \max
\min \Pr \sec \sin \sinh \sup
\tan \tanh

Delimiters
The following symbols can expand in size to “fit around” the expressions they delimit. To
make a delimiter the right size, use it with the \left ... \right commands described
in section 6.6.6.
( ( ) ) b \lfloor c \rfloor
[ [ ] ] d \lceil e \rceil
{ \{ } \} h \langle i \rangle
| | k \| ↑ \uparrow ⇑ \Uparrow
/ / \ \backslash ↓ \downarrow ⇓ \Downarrow
l \updownarrow m \Updownarrow
Relational Operators
≤ \le or \leq ≥ \geq ≡ \equiv
≺ \prec  \succ ∼ \sim
 \preceq  \succeq ' \simeq
 \ll  \gg  \asymp
⊂ \subset ⊃ \supset ≈ \approx
⊆ \subseteq ⊇ \supseteq ∼
= \cong
< \sqsubset = \sqsupset ⊥ \perp
v \sqsubseteq w \sqsupseteq ./ \bowtie
∈ \in 3 \ni ∝ \propto
` \vdash a \dashv |= \models
.
^ \smile | \mid = \doteq
_ \frown k \parallel
6 < \not< 6 > \not> 6= \not=
Note that \not before a relation will negate it.
The symbols whose names are underlined require the latexsym package.

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Binary Operators
± \pm ∩ \cap ∨ \vee
∓ \mp ∪ \cup ∧ \wedge
\ \setminus ] \uplus ⊕ \oplus
· \cdot u \sqcap \ominus
× \times t \sqcup ⊗ \otimes
∗ \ast / \triangleleft \oslash
? \star . \triangleright \odot
 \diamond o \wr † \dagger
◦ \circ \bigcirc ‡ \ddagger
• \bullet 4 \bigtriangleup q \amalg
÷ \div 5 \bigtriangledown
\lhd
 \unlhd  \unrhd  \rhd

The symbols whose names are underlined require the latexsym package.

Math Accents
â \hat{a} ǎ \check{a} ă \breve{a}
á \acute{a} à \grave{a} ã \tilde{a}
ā \bar{a} ~a \vec{a} ȧ \dot{a}
ä \ddot{a} xd −y \widehat{x-y} g
xyz \widetilde{xyz}

Arrows
← \leftarrow ←− \longleftarrow ↑ \uparrow
⇐ \Leftarrow ⇐= \Longleftarrow ⇑ \Uparrow
→ \rightarrow −→ \longrightarrow ↓ \downarrow
⇒ \Rightarrow =⇒ \Longrightarrow ⇓ \Downarrow
↔ \leftrightarrow ←→\longleftrightarrow l \updownarrow
⇔ \Leftrightarrow ⇐⇒\Longleftrightarrow m \Updownarrow
7 → \mapsto 7−→ \longmapsto % \nearrow
←- \hookleftarrow ,→ \hookrightarrow & \searrow
( \leftharpoonup * \rightharpoonup . \swarrow
) \leftharpoondown + \rightharpoondown - \nwarrow
*
) \rightleftharpoons ; \leadsto
The symbols whose names are underlined require the latexsym package.

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Appendix B
Error Messages

Most files need some debugging before they print properly. This section describes some
common errors and shows how to correct them.

Errors About Boxes

The most common errors refer to an underfull hbox (or vbox). These errors are
harmless and may be safely ignored. They simply mean there is more blank space on a
line (or page) than LATEX thinks is aesthetically pleasing. (LATEX is very fussy.)
Sometimes underfull hbox messages are the result of using the linebreak command (\\)
inappropriately. For example, LATEX will generate this error message if you use \\ just
before or after a new paragraph or before starting an environment that begins on a new
line anyway.
Errors that refer to “overfull hboxes” mean that a line is too long. For example, you
might get a message such as this one:
Overfull \hbox (19.45158pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 1206--1215
LATEX is warning you that a line sticks out into the margin. It was forced to do this
because otherwise the line would contain unacceptably wide white spaces. Depending
on how the output actually looks, you may or may not want to correct the problem.
To correct it, you could reword the sentence so that it breaks better, or instruct LATEX
how to hyphenate a certain word. Suppose LATEX doesn’t know how to hyphenate the
word “environment” that occurs in the line. You can make LATEX put the hyphens in
“environment” temporarily or permanently. To do it permanently, put the following
command in the preamble (note: more than one word can be added in the command if
words are separated by spaces):
\hyphenation{en-vi-ron-ment}
For a temporary fix, put discretionary hyphens \- in the offending word where it appears
in the text. This is a one-time fix, and unused discretionary hyphens do not show up in
the text:
en\-vi\-ron\-ment

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Other Common Errors
• You misspelled a command, and LATEX doesn’t recognize it.

• You failed to match delimiters. For example, you have a $ with no matching $.

• You used a special or math character in ordinary text. The most common
problem character is &. Others are $, #, and %.

• You inserted too many tabs on the line before the \\.

• Whatever you \begin{...}, you must \end{...}. This includes braces: { ... }.

• A command wasn’t given all its arguments and is trying to use the rest of the file
for an argument.

Errors Relating to Memory

Sometimes LATEX complains that it’s out of memory, but it usually isn’t. The symptoms
listed below can be fixed as described:

It won’t do all your tables Put \clearpage between them.

It won’t do a three-page table That’s right, it must be broken up.
You just want one big paragraph Sorry, LATEX needs breaks.
You are using tabular Did you leave out a \\
or have more too many tabs on a line?
You used some &’s or $’s in text Enter them as \& or \$
It won’t take the caption Use \caption[short list entry]{Big huge long caption}
to trim size for listoftables/figures entry
You have nested environments Are they in First-In, Last-Out order?

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