The Advantages of Using LaTeX for Scientific Writing

A bit of a historical introduction

LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system that is widely used in the publication of scientific documents, particularly in the fields of mathematics and computer science. It was first developed in the late 1970s by Donald E. Knuth, a computer scientist and author who was frustrated with the poor quality of the typesetting in many of the scientific papers he read.

Asynchronous composition and philosophy

LaTeX is based on the idea of separating content from presentation, which means that the author focuses on writing the content of their document, and the LaTeX system takes care of formatting it according to a set of predefined style rules. This approach has several advantages:

• It allows the author to focus on the content of their document, rather than getting bogged down in formatting details.
• It produces documents that are consistently formatted and aesthetically pleasing, with no need for the author to worry about typography or layout.
• It makes it easy to change the overall style of a document by simply changing the style rules, rather than having to manually reformat the entire document.

One of the key features of LaTeX is its ability to handle complex mathematical notation. It includes a wide range of symbols and formatting options for mathematical expressions, making it a popular choice for writing papers in fields such as mathematics, physics, engineering and economics.

Installation

To use LaTeX, you need to have a LaTeX distribution installed on your computer. There are many free and open-source LaTeX distributions available, such as TeX Live and MiKTeX. Once you have a distribution installed, you can create a LaTeX document by writing your content using the LaTeX markup language and then compiling the document. The compiler will produce a typeset document in the form of a PDF or other format, which you can then view or print.

It should be mentioned that although the full distribution still remains the best option, there is the possibility to start using LaTex even fully online thanks to the Overlaf site. The fact that no installation is required may further reduce resistance even among the most skeptical users. In any case, the site still offers excellent templates that can be downloaded and reused offline even by “traditional” users. Finally, Overlaf is in some ways better when the document is part of a project in which several users are working simultaneously.

Although there are several LaTex Editors the two most widely used (offline) remain:

1. Text Studio (Multi platform)
2. Tex Shop (Mac)

How to write your first document

Since compiling the document will produce different types of files, it is good practice to create a folder where you will go to save the body of the document .tex and any external elements you might decide to use (images, pdfs, tables…).

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

\title{An Introduction to LaTeX}
\author{John Doe}
\date{\today}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}
LaTeX is a powerful typesetting system that is widely used in the publication 
of scientific documents. It is particularly well-suited for handling complex 
mathematical notation.

\section{The Basics}
To use LaTeX, you write your document in a plain text editor and then run it 
through a LaTeX compiler to generate a formatted PDF. LaTeX uses a markup 
language similar to HTML, with commands enclosed in 
backslashes (\textbackslash). For example, to create a bold heading, 
you might use the following command:

\textbackslash textbf\{My Bold Heading\}

\section{Conclusion}
LaTeX is a versatile and powerful tool for typesetting scientific documents. 
With a little bit of learning, it can save you a lot of time and effort in 
formatting your papers and presentations.

\end{document}

This example includes a few basic LaTeX commands:

• \documentclass{article} specifies that this is an article-style document.
• \begin{document} and \end{document} mark the beginning and end of the document.
• \title, \author, and \date are used to specify the title, author, and date of the document.
• \maketitle generates the title, author, and date information at the top of the document.
• \section is used to create a new section, with the text in curly braces ({}) serving as the section title.

Make your first Beamer presentation

Beamer is a LaTeX package that allows you to create professional-quality slides for academic presentations. It is a powerful and flexible tool that offers a wide range of formatting options, including support for animations, overlays, and beamer themes.

To use Beamer, you need to have a working LaTeX installation on your computer. You can then create a Beamer presentation by using the \documentclass{beamer} command at the top of your TeX document, and then writing your content using a combination of Beamer commands and standard LaTeX.

Here is a simple example of a Beamer presentation:

\documentclass{beamer}

\title{An Introduction to Beamer}
\author{John Doe}
\institute{University of Example}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{What is Beamer?}
Beamer is a LaTeX package for creating professional-quality slides for academic
presentations. It offers a wide range of formatting options and is easy to use.
\end{frame}

\section{Creating a Basic Slide}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{The Basics}
To create a basic slide, you can use the following template:

\begin{verbatim}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{My Slide Title}

My slide content goes here.
\end{frame}
\end{verbatim}
\end{frame}

\section{Conclusion}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Summary}
- Beamer is a powerful and flexible tool for creating academic presentations.
- It offers a wide range of formatting options and is easy to use.
- With a little bit of practice, you'll be creating beautiful slides in no time!
\end{frame}

\end{document}

This example includes the following Beamer commands:

• \documentclass{beamer} specifies that this is a Beamer presentation.
• \title, \author, \institute, and \date are used to specify the title, author, institute, and date of the presentation.
• \maketitle generates the title, author, institute, and date information at the top of the first slide.
• \section is used to create a new section, with the text in curly braces ({}) serving as the section title.
• \begin{frame} and \end{frame} mark the beginning and end of a slide.
• \frametitle is used to specify the title of a slide.

Note how you can choose different themes and styles. In Beamer, a theme is a set of formatting options that determines the overall appearance of a presentation, including the layout, color scheme, and font choices. A style is a set of formatting options that affects the appearance of specific elements within a presentation, such as headings, bullet points, or code blocks.

Beamer includes a number of built-in themes and styles that you can use to customize the appearance of your presentation. To use a particular theme or style, you can include the corresponding command in your LaTeX document. For example, to use the “AnnArbor” theme, you would include the following command:

\usetheme{AnnArbor}

Similarly, to use the “default” style for bullet points, you would include the following command:

\usepackage{default}

You can also create your own custom themes and styles by defining your own formatting commands. This can be useful if you want to create a consistent look and feel for your presentations or if you need to meet specific formatting requirements.

Here are some examples of popular Beamer themes and styles:

Themes:

• “AnnArbor”
• “Berkeley”
• “Copenhagen”
• “Goettingen”
• “Madrid”

Styles:

• “default”
• “infolines”
• “sidebar”
• “tree”
• “smoothbars”

You can find more information about Beamer themes and styles in the Beamer documentation page. Also this site is an excellent source to get a general view of all the possibilities in terms of Themes and Colors.