Objective
The objective of this article is to provide reader with instructions on how to install LaTeX on Ubuntu 18.04.
Furthermore, this article will also explain the procedure on how to compile a basic Latex document from a command line. Lastly, the reader will be introduced to some of the best LaTeX editors available on the Ubuntu 18.04 system.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
Requirements
Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo
command is required.
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of
sudo
command - $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Other Versions of this Tutorial
Instructions
LaTeX Installation on Ubuntu
Ubuntu repository consist of various meta packages from which each targets different type of a LaTeX user. Below you can find the most common installation packages for LaTeX and their approximate disk space requirements based on Ubuntu 18.04 with minimal installation selected:
- texlive-base – 136 MB
- texlive-latex-recommended – 177 MB
- texlive – 240 MB
- texlive-latex-extra – 404 MB
- texlive-full – 4714 MB
The first package texlive-base
will install just the basics to get you started with LaTeX. texlive
or texlive-latex-extra
is most likely the best way to get started for most users.
However, our package selection is only motivated by the requirement for the least disk space consumed after the LaTeX installation. If you have plenty of space and a good download speed nothing stops you to go for texlive-full
package. But be aware that this package will fetch the whole lot, including, but not limited to, eg. Japanese language pack.
Furthermore, Ubuntu offers more profession targeted package selections such as:
- texlive-publishers
- texlive-science
- texlive-pstricks
- texlive-pictures
Regardless of your package choice you can install LaTeX by use of the apt
command. The following linux command will install the LaTeX package: texlive-latex-extra
. Replace the package name with the one you wish to install, open up terminal and enter:
$ sudo apt install texlive-latex-extra
That is all.
Compile LaTeX “Hello World”
Now, that we have LaTeX installed let’s just confirm the installation by compling a simple LaTeX code.
Open up any text editor like for example gedit
, enter the following code and save as hello-world.tex
:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
Hello world \LaTeX
\url{https://linuxconfig.org}
\end{document}
Once you have the above LaTeX code saved use the pdflatex
command to compile it to PDF. If the pdflatex
command is available on your system you will need to install texlive-extra-utils
before you can use it:
$ pdflatex hello-world.tex
The above command will compile your hello-world.tex
to hello-world.pdf
. Next, start Evince PDF viewer to see the result:
$ evince hello-world.pdf
List of LaTeX editors
The following section will provide you with a list of some of the best LaTeX editors on Ubuntu 18.04 system.