Install LaTeX

This guide explains how to install LaTeX in Ubuntu Linux. LaTeX is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be used for almost any form of publishing.
LaTeX is not a word processor! Instead, LaTeX encourages authors not to worry too much about the appearance of their documents but to concentrate on getting the right content.

How to install LaTeX in Ubuntu

In Ubuntu Linux, you have to first install LaTeX to use it. This is how LaTeX is installed in Ubuntu.

$ sudo apt-get install texlive

The above command will install a basic subset of TeX Live’s functionality. To install all the packages in the LaTeX distribution, you have to run the following command.

$ sudo apt-get install texlive-full

Gedit LaTeX Plugin

Gedit has a plugin for LaTeX which converts Gedit into a LaTeX editor. You can install the Gedit LaTeX plugin as follows :

$ sudo apt-get install gedit-latex-plugin

Once you install the plug-in, you will have to enable the plug-in in Gedit to begin using it. This is achieved by opening Gedit Preferences (GEdit > Edit > Preferences). Then clicking on the Plugins tab and turning on the “Gedit LaTeX plugin”. Now when ever you open a TeX file, you will have access to the LaTeX menu in Gedit.

Recommended LaTeX Packages

• latex-beamer – Beamer package is used to create presentations. It is an excellent LaTeX class that supports dynamic effects.
• TeXPower – Is a bundle of style and class files for creating dynamic online presentations with LaTeX.
• Prosper – A LaTeX class for writing transparencies.
• texlive-pictures – This is a LaTeX package for drawing graphics. It contain several classes such as ‘curve’ (for creating resumes), ‘bardiag’ (for bar graphs), ‘pmgraph’ (poor man’s graphics) and so on.
• texlive-latex-extra – This is a large collection of addon packages for LaTeX. The full list of classes in this package are listed here.

This is the full command I used to install LaTeX on my machine running Ubuntu Linux.

$ sudo apt-get install gedit-latex-plugin texlive-fonts-recommended latex-beamer texpower texlive-pictures texlive-latex-extra texpower-examples imagemagick