Recently I’ve been interested in learning a bit about the typesetting system known as LaTeX. But all of the articles I’ve found with regard to getting up and running on OSX were long winded, and seemed to be more interested in converting me to the TeX faith than helping me get started. So here is a list of what you will need to get up and running with LaTeX on OSX.
- First we need the TeX subsystem, choose from and install one of the following.
- MacTeX: A very popular package comes with front ends such as TeXShop, Excalibur, and BibDesk. Great for the people that want an All-In-One LaTeX package.
- MacPorts:TeTeX: Requires MacPorts be installed as your package manager.
- Fink:TeTeX: Requires Fink be installed as your package manager.
- Now, if you don’t already have one, you should probably get yourself a TeX enabled text editor.
- TeXShop: A very popular TeX specific editor, it makes things very easy for beginners(such as myself).
- iTeXMac: Another TeX front end, a bit more complex than TeXShop, but still a popular choice.
- Vim: The venerable Unix text editor also does TeX highlighting, though not quite as friendly, it is certainly a viable option.
- TextMate: A popular addition to the OSX gui editors, TextMate has a high level of configurability with LaTeX.(see here for details)
- That’s it! Now just find a decent tutorial, and you are ready to go!