Typst and other LaTeX competitors

Modern LaTeX

Article from Issue 301/2025
Author(s):

LaTeX has been the standard in technical document preparation for decades. Has a potential replacement finally arrived?

In the late 1970s, mathematician Donald Knuth brought something new into the world: a typesetting system called TeX [1]. Markup languages for typesetting documents already existed, but their output was of poor quality. They were especially poor at typesetting mathematics, a problem of particular concern to Knuth.

The result was astonishing in the beauty of the output it generated. Gordon Bell, the Vice President of Engineering at the Digital Equipment Corporation, claimed [2] that the TeX system "in terms of importance could rank near the introduction of the Gutenberg press."

TeX, free software in all senses of the term, was different not only in that it produced output on par with high-quality manual typography; it was also a programming language, albeit a tricky one to program in.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
Print Issues
Digital Issues
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Print Subs
Digisubs
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • TeXmacs

    If you need to lay out a text document, you can opt for a WYSIWYG application, like OpenOffice, or a genuine layout system such as TeX. TeXmacs combines the advantages of both approaches: premium document quality and intuitive controls.

    more »
  • Online LaTeX Editors

    Authors who publish documents or books with LaTeX can tap into online services using modern browsers, on both desktop and mobile devices, and as a collaborative tool.

    more »
  • Command Line – LaTeX

    LaTeX has a reputation for being difficult to use, but mainly it just requires patience. We provide a quick overview to get you up and running.

    more »
  • Swiss Army Knife

    Pandoc lets you convert files from one markup format to another at the command line.

    more »
  • Manim

    Manim lets you program video sequences with a few lines of Python code to present mathematical problems in an engaging and scientifically accurate way.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus