[CLUE-Tech] LaTeX

[Todd A. Gibson]

> I am now hooked into learning more about LaTex.  I have managed to find
> a couple of FAQ's and tutorials online, but this is a big iceberg.

If you really want to learn it, get "A Guide to LaTeX, 3rd Edition" by
Helmut Kopka & Patrick W. Daly.  Good for learning and a great
reference.

 
> A couple of issues have already come up:
> 
> 1> how can i choose a specific font and point size?

You can set a default point size (either 10, 11, or 12 point) in the
documentclass command:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}

I believe 10pt is default.  You can easily make *relative* changes
(similar to the header commands in HTML) within a document:
\tiny
\scriptsize
\footnotesize
\small
\normalsize
\large
\Large
\LARGE
\huge
\Huge

As far as font type:
\rmfamily (Roman)
\ttfamily (Typewriter)
\sffamily (san serif)
and stuff like:
\itshape (italics)
\scshape (everything in caps & small caps)
\bfseries (boldface)
\upshape (back to normal)

All of this is part of LaTeX's "New Font Selection Scheme (NFSS)".
There are more advanced options available (e.g. selecting specific
typefaces and sizes like you do in MS Word) but I haven't explored it
much because the default stuff meets my needs pretty well.

I've become quite addicted to LaTeX.  It's nice being able to create
formatted documents using only vi.  One of the niceties is pdflatex
(rather than latex) which generates a PDF document.  For example, this
was done in LaTeX:
http://www.augustcouncil.com/~tgibson/resume/tag_resume.pdf

I've also written courseware using LaTeX, complete with embedded
screenshots and other niceties, so it's quite powerful (if arcane).
Yum, I like LaTeX.  I do wonder about DocBook.  I originally picked up
LaTeX because DocBook wasn't baked enough at the time.  I imagine it is
maturing quite nicely now.  Anybody putting DocBook through its paces
these days?

> 
> 2> is there a command switch for latex and dvips to make them run
> 'quietly'?
> 
Hmm.  I'm afraid I don't know.  
-TAG