platex(1)

platex1

Structured text formatting and typesetting

Part of latex(1).

Usage

latex [options] [&format] [ file [ more-input ] | [ \more-input ]

Overview

LaTeX is a TeX macro package (format), not a modification to the compiled TeX programs, so see tex(1) for details of the command line invocation.

The LaTeX macros encourage writers to think about the content of their documents, rather than the form. The ideal, very difficult to realize, is to have no formatting commands (like ``switch to italic'' or ``skip 2 picas'') in the document, but to use generic markup instructions: ``emphasize'', ``start a section''. The LaTeX language is described in the books and documents mentioned below, among others.

The primary source of documentation for LaTeX is the LaTeX manual referenced below.

lualatex, pdflatex, pdfcslatex, xelatex are LaTeX formats based on the respective engines. These all output PDF by default. The lualatex format is built with the luahbtex engine, the LuaTeX variant with HarfBuzz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarfBuzz) supported for glyph shaping.
platex, uplatex are Japanese LaTeX formats based on e-pTeX and e-upTeX (DVI output).
lamed is the Aleph-based LaTeX format (DVI output).
dvilualatex is LuaTeX-based and outputs DVI.
cslatex is csTeX-based (primitives integrated into pdfTeX) and outputs DVI.

On some systems, the commands latex209 and slitex may still be available for compatibility with older versions of LaTeX. These should not be used for new documents.

Releases

7 releases since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); the text changed 5 times.

  1. 5.0–6.0
  2. 10
  3. 11
  4. 12
  5. 13
  6. Arch

From texlive-doc 2026.1-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.