Typesetting with LaTeX


Yanyan Jiang

Overview

Always produce high quality documents

  • Characters, words, formulas, paragraphs
  • Figures and plots
  • Tables

A Brief History of Typesetting

Typesetting in the Pre-Computer Age (1)

By hand, of course

(The Rosetta Stone)

Typesetting in the Pre-Computer Age (2)

Or by a typesetting machine

Typesetting in the Pre-GUI Age (2)

By programming languages!

  • troff/nroff (based on runoff)
    • translates a document to printer commands
  • Example: \d/\u to move down/up for half line
    • Jan 26\u\s-2th\s+2\d is a sample.

Typesetting Today

PostScript (1984)

  • A low-level (assembly) DSL for describing vector drawings

PDF is today's standard

  • A supserset of PostScript
  • A container of fragments
    • like MP4

But nobody wants to code in assembly!

What is TeX/LaTeX?

A high-level programming language (and toolchain) for typesetting

  • produces a lower-level language (PostScript, HTML, ...)

Less user-friendly (e.g., compared with Microsoft Word)

Better flexibility

Use It Now!

Cloud editors tex.nju.edu.cn or overleaf.com

  • The editor supports Vim/Emacs key bindings!
  • Let's do it!

Texlive binary

  • Binary install package (Windows/macOS)
  • apt install texlive-full (Linux)

Characters

Fonts

Sans Serif vs. Serif

Widely used fonts

  • acmart: Linux Libertine
  • LaTeX Default: Computer Modern Roman (CMR)
    • $\textrm{Computer Modern Roman}$

Font Modifications

When to use them?

Words

Kerning and Ligatures

TeX system has nearly perfect kerning

Fixed-width fonts (Fira Code, Cascadia Code, ...)

Formulas

TeX is for Scientists

Beautiful formulas

(Needs a lot of tuning)

Follow Conventions

  • $History.append(nextState(currentState));$
  • $H \leftarrow H :: \delta(\sigma)$
    • follow the natural meanings of symbols
      • $\alpha$, $\beta$, $\varepsilon$, ..., $\Delta$, $\Phi$, ...
      • $M$, $t$, $\mathbf{X}$, $\mathbb{N}$, $\mathcal{F}$
      • $\prec$, $\succ$, ...
  • texdoc symbols

Read (PL) papers carefully

Paragraphs

Word Breaks

Words may not properly break

  • Most of the time, use \-
  • \hyphenation, \babelhyphenation may be useful
  • Search the friendly Web

For Those Picky Guys

Use microtype!

  • subliminal refinements towards typographical perfection

Quick quiz:

  • Use what algorithm to find optimal word wrap?

LaTeX Typesetting: Fun Facts

It's an iterative algorithm

  • Each iteration leaves some results (aux, bbl, ...)
  • Next iteration uses these results
    • e.g., a fresh build has “??” and no references

LaTeX does not guarantee a fixed point

  • Table of contents (your thesis)
    • blank → correct TOC → correct TOC pages
  • There can be documents without a fixed point

Figures and Tables

Why Use Figures?

Help readers understand the flow of (dense) technical contents

Tips for figures

  • Be informative
    • don't just list a few boxes (text explains this well)
  • Be self-contained
    • figures + captions = everything

TikZ

Examples

Perfectly integrates with the TeX system

  • Example: connecting two document parts

Why Use Tables?

List a lot of objects

  • Experimental subjects, results, ...

Tips for tables

  • Be readable
    • use visual signals to help readers identify your message
  • Be self-contained
    • same as figures
  • (minor) Fine tune your tables

Summary and More Tips

LaTeX is a Programming Language

Write readable code!

  • Split code into files
  • Use macros

Host your code on Overleaf/Git

  • Collaborate with your teammates

There is LaTeX diff

  • See how your advisor revise your document

Generate Plain Text

Text is useful to other tools (e.g., Grammarly)

pandoc \ # use another compiler
  --wrap=none main.tex -t plain | \
  python3 run.py > main.txt

# run.py
import sys, re
print(re.sub(r"\s+([,.])", r"\1", \
      re.sub(r"(\s)+", r"\1", \
      sys.stdin.read())))

Other Useful Tricks

Command-line tools

  • texdoc - manpages
  • pdfcrop - very useful when your figures are PowerPoint
    • PowerPoint has COM API for automation

Packages

  • microtype
  • xpsace - compare \tool{} with... → compare \tool with...
  • cleveref - Figure~\ref{fig:example} → \Cref{fig:example}
  • Any more?

End.