Tools

LATEX on Mac OS X

LaTeX lion

For my work I use LATEX on a Mac. My toolbox contains the following software, designed for Mac OS:

  • XeTeX – A typesetting system based on Donald Knuth’s TEX and supporting expert fonts. Runs on Mac OS, Linux and most Unix-like systems. [Common Public License]
  • fontspec – A package for XƎTEX that provides an interface to Mac OS X fonts with access to advanced AAT and OpenType features. [LATEX Project Public License]
  • TeXShop – A free graphical frontend for the LATEX typesetting system, with support for different engines including XƎTEX [GPL License]
  • BibDesk – A graphical BibTeX bibliography database manager for Mac OS X [BSD License]
  • SIL Fonts – An amazing collection of free Unicode fonts to use in conjunction with XeTeX to produce documents in virtually any writing system. Gentium and Doulos SIL are fabulous fonts that can be used for general purpose typesetting. [Open Font License]

XƎTEX, fontspec, Bibdesk and TeXShop plus the standard LATEX engine and packages come nicely packed and ready to install in the fabulous MacTeX distribution.

All the above are licensed as free and open source software, which means that their code is publicly available to the community of users and can be freely adapted, modified and redistributed under the terms of the license.

LaTeX ramblings

[latex]The Beauty of LATEX
A comparison of typographic accuracy in LATEX vs ordinary word processors.

[latex]Typesetting an academic CV in LATEX
Templates to compile an academic curriculum vitae or resume using XƎTEX and expert fonts.

[latex]Accessing OpenType font features in LATEX
How to access advanced OpenType font features in XƎTEX via the fontspec package.

[latex css logos]Pure CSS TEX logos
A simple hack to generate TEXLATEX and XƎTEX logos in plain CSS.