TeX Live

TeX Live is a complete TeX distribution with several programs to create professional documents.

Installation
is available in Gentoo and provides several USE flags:
 * doc = Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc)
 * dvipdfm = Add support for app-text/dvipdfm to convert DVI files to PDF
 * extra = Add support for extra TeXLive packages
 * graphics = Add support for several graphics packages (pgf, tikz,...)
 * latex3 = Add support for LaTeX3 (dev-texlive/texlive-latex3)
 * luatex = Add extra support for luatex
 * png = Adds support for libpng (PNG images)
 * pstricks = Add pstricks packages (dev-texlive/texlive-pstricks)
 * publishers = Add support for publishers (dev-texlive/texlive-publishers)
 * science = Add typesetting support for natural and computer sciences (dev-texlive/texlive-science)
 * truetype = Adds support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts
 * xetex = Add support for XeTeX macros (dev-texlive/texlive-xetex)
 * xml = Add support for XML files

You can install Texlive with the following command:

Usage
Most of the time you will use TeX Live through the editor of your choice. Here a list of the different compiler to translate a .tex document into pdf. LaTeX:

XeTeX:

LuaTeX:

Editors
There are several you can choose from in Gentoo. To list a few pure TeX editors: This is by far not a complete list.
 * - KDE based editor, which lets you write in LaTeX code and then compile the document
 * - Qt based editor, which lets you write in LaTeX code and then compile the document
 * - GTK based editor, which lets you write in LaTeX code and then compile the document
 * - Qt based editor, WYSIWYM, you type directly into the LaTeX document and can edit LaTeX code afterwards

Most of the editors support LaTeX syntax highlighting like, (which supports compilation and previewing),  or  and most development IDE's provide some plugins like  and.

Programs with LaTeX support

 * - has a LaTeX plugin to display mathematical formulae
 * - has a LaTeX plugin for inserting formulae in mind maps

eselect pdftex
Gentoo would automatically clean out any previous version during upgrade. If you intentionally install several versions into different slots, there is a script that enables you to easily switch between them:

You can list available distributions with the following command:

To set the distribution:

texdoc
Shows the original TeX documentation by keywords. For example everything about article:

This should open your default pdf viewer and show you the documentation. In order to use texdoc, you need to have the doc USE flag enabled for Texlive and any module you want to have documentation about. To enable the doc USE flag on any Texlive module automatically, you could use a wildcard:

A full list of installed TeX modules can be shown with the following command:

To enable the doc USE flag only for certain modules, add them to /etc/portage/package.use. A quick way of adding them all:

Links

 * tug.org
 * Wikibooks LaTeX
 * Gentoo LaTeX Guide