The LaTeX kernel

Release 2025-06-01 pre-release 0

Overview

This bundle provides the core LaTeX kernel. In addition to this bundle, a minimal LaTeX system also needs the files contained in the

• L3 programming layer (l3kernel)
• L3 backend interfaces (l3backend)
• L3 unicode support (unicode-data)

• Packages which must be available (required). These are
  • Essential tools (tools)
  • Core graphics and color support (graphics)
  • Key mathematics support (amsmath)
  • First aid for external packages (firstaid)

This file contains a small set of pointers to other more complete documentation on installing and using a LaTeX system.

Documentation

Full documentation of the LaTeX system is provided by

• LaTeX: A Document Preparation System; Lamport, Addison-Wesley
• The LaTeX Companion, 3ed; Mittelbach and Fischer, Addison-Wesley
• Guide to LaTeX, 4ed; Kopka and Daly, Addison-Wesley

The distribution is described in files ending .txt or .md; briefly, the most significant of these files are

• README.md is this file
• manifest.txt lists all the files in this LaTeX distribution, with one line of information about the contents
• legal.txt and lppl.txt (LaTeX Project Public License) describe the LaTeX copyright, warranty and copying restrictions.
• bugs.txt describes how to submit a bug report for LaTeX

Other documentation files include files with names of the form:

<xxx>guide.tex

You will probably need to update your system before you can typeset these files. Each file needs three LaTeX runs. Some of these are also available as PDF files on CTAN.

The following files contain further information:

• ltx3info.tex gives you some historical information about the LaTeX3 project
• lamport-manual.err lists errata in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System (Lamport)
• tlc3.err lists errata in The LaTeX Companion, 3rd edition (Mittelbach and Fischer)

The files ltnews*.tex (part of the doc bundle) contain the LaTeX newsletters, the highest number being the most recent.

Installation

We no longer distribute installation instructions for the various TeX implementations. All modern TeX systems include LaTeX as-standard, and end users should in general use the release versions supplied in this way.

Release distribution is carried out only through the CTAN archives.

Requirements

The LaTeX kernel requires the ε-TeX extensions to TeX, which were finalised in the late 1990s and are available in modern TeX-derived engines. It also requires a set of common post-ε-TeX extensions, generally known as the pdfTeX additions. These are available in all modern TeX engines.

License

The contents of this bundle are distributed under the LaTeX Project Public License, version 1.3c or later.

Copyright (C) 1989-2024 The LaTeX Project
http://latex-project.org/
All rights reserved.