Difference between revisions of "TeX Distributions"

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<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD"><th>Name</th><th>OS</th><th>ConTeXt</th><th>Homepage</th><th>Remarks</th></tr>
 
<tr style="background-color:#DDDDDD"><th>Name</th><th>OS</th><th>ConTeXt</th><th>Homepage</th><th>Remarks</th></tr>
<tr><td><b>[[PdfTeX|pdfTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/ pdftex.org]</td><td>latest version at [http://freshmeat.net/projects/pdftex/ freshmeat] or [http://pdftex.sarovar.org sarovar]; [http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=luatex development frozen], see LuaTeX</td></tr>
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<tr><td><b>[[PdfTeX - Old Content|pdfTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://www.tug.org/applications/pdftex/ pdftex.org]</td><td>latest version at [http://freshmeat.net/projects/pdftex/ freshmeat] or [http://pdftex.sarovar.org sarovar]; [http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=luatex development frozen], see LuaTeX</td></tr>
 
<tr style="background-color:#EEEEEE"><td><b>[[LuaTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://www.luatex.org/ luatex.org]</td><td>extended version of pdfTeX using Lua</td></tr>
 
<tr style="background-color:#EEEEEE"><td><b>[[LuaTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://www.luatex.org/ luatex.org]</td><td>extended version of pdfTeX using Lua</td></tr>
 
<tr><td><b>[[XeTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=xetex sil.org]</td><td>supports OpenType and all other fonts installed on OS, Unicode, bidirectional typesetting, Mac special features; Windows version not officially released yet - see W32TeX above</td></tr>
 
<tr><td><b>[[XeTeX]]</b></td><td>"all"</td><td align="center">Yes</td><td>[http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=xetex sil.org]</td><td>supports OpenType and all other fonts installed on OS, Unicode, bidirectional typesetting, Mac special features; Windows version not officially released yet - see W32TeX above</td></tr>

Revision as of 20:02, 3 June 2020

< Installation hints | Update Hints | Installation >

Historically there were a lot of different TeX distributions. Nowadays there are only a few wide spread. We mention only those that are free and support ConTeXt:

NameOSHomepageRemarks
TeX Livea lottug.org/texliveweb2c, based on teTeX; has installer and a package manger.
teTeXLinux, Unixtug.org/tetexweb2c; not supported any more, TeX Live is recommended instead.
fpTeXWin32xemtexnot maintained any more, see XEmTeX
XEmTeXWinxemtex
MikTeXWinmiktex.orgwith GUI
proTeXtWintug.org/protextbased on MikTeX, bundled with TeX Live
W32TeXWinfsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jpwith XeTeX and the latest ConTeXt
gwTeXMacOS Xrna.nlweb2c, based on TeX Live; comfortable install and update GUI ("i-Installer"). Now unsupported
MacTeXMacOS Xtug.org/mactexweb2c, based on TeX Live; comfortable install. Actually the simplest MacOSX install.
minimal ConTeXtWin, Lin, Macpragma-ade.comweb2c
  • web2c is a common base for TeX distributions, see tug.org/web2c. It uses the kpathsea tool and its ls-R database for file searches.

web2c hints

  • use mktexlsr (same as texhash) to rebuild the file database after every install or change!
  • Beware, older web2c distributions keep ConTeXt’s (Perl/Ruby) scripts at .../context/perltk, newer at .../scripts/Perl/context! Make sure to delete the older ones! See also Update Hints

MikTeX hints

  • MikTeX has a "rebuild database" menu entry; use it after every install or change!
  • You should enable write18 in miktex.ini (MikTeX's counterpart to texmf.cnf) to get MetaPost support working.

TeX engines

TeX the program writes only DVI output; with ConTeXt we normally use pdfTeX, LuaTeX or XeTeX and generate PDF.

NameOSConTeXtHomepageRemarks
pdfTeX"all"Yespdftex.orglatest version at freshmeat or sarovar; development frozen, see LuaTeX
LuaTeX"all"Yesluatex.orgextended version of pdfTeX using Lua
XeTeX"all"Yessil.orgsupports OpenType and all other fonts installed on OS, Unicode, bidirectional typesetting, Mac special features; Windows version not officially released yet - see W32TeX above
NTSJavaNoCTANOO re-implementation of TeX in Java as a base for further enhancements; discontinued, see ExTeX
ExTeXJavaNoextex.orgmerger of NTS with eTeX, pdfTeX and Omega (pre-alpha state)
Aleph"all"?YesCTANOmega/eTeX merge (former eOmega) by Giuseppe Bilotta (beta state)