About

This document is for non-expert on Latex, and especially for newbes, and those who use latex only occasionally. The whole document composes of tips I found when writing Latex documents. I hope it can help the others like me.

Tips

Go to Index

Page Layout

• Simple template for report/survey/notes [Example]
  

  \documentclass[11pt,letter]{article} % 11pt - font size; letter - paper size; article - document type
  \usepackage[top=3cm, bottom=3cm, left=3cm, right=3cm]{geometry} % page margin, optional
  \title{Survey}                 % optional
  \date{May 27, 2011}            % optional
  \author{Your Name}             % optional
  \begin{document}
  \maketitle                     % optional
  \section{Title of section}     % optional
  Your contents for this section
  \end{document}

• Set paragraph space
  \setlength{\parskip}[0.1in]
  It will set the distance between two paragraphs to be 0.1in.


• Set page margin
  \usepackage[top=3cm, bottom=3cm, left=3cm, right=3cm]{geometry}
  The four properties top, bottom, left, right set the page margin along four boundary respectively.


• Start a new page, from weak to strong
  

  \newpage                       % may not work when there are large figures
  \pagebreak[number]             % 0 to 4
  \clearpage \newpage            % force to clear appeared content, and start new page
                                 % There will be a pagebreak right where you write this command



• First paragraph indent
  \usepackage{indentfirst}


• Mini page (multiple columns in single column layout page)

  \begin{minipage}{0.3\linewidth}
  column 1 (30\%)
  \end{minipage}
  \begin{minipage}{0.2\linewidth}
  column 2 (20\%) very narrow \\
  auto text wrap
  \end{minipage}
  \begin{minipage}{0.5\linewidth}
  \centering
  column 3 (half width, centring)
  \end{minipage}

  There should be *NO* empty line between two minipages, otherwise they will not be on the same line. The empty line works as line break.


• Hyphenation

  \hyphenpenalty=1000

  Sometimes the Latex makes the document look weird by breaking too many words, even leaving one letter at the start of the next line. Increase the hyphenation penalty will help solve this problem, for example, number 1000 results acceptable hyphenation.

Table & Figure

• Set cell colors How to define colors?
  

  \usepackage[table]{xcolor}     % include this before \begin{document}
  \cellcolor[gray]{0.9}          % insert this command to the table cell your want to define this color
  \cellcolor{red}                % cell color will be set to red



• Long table
  Use the command longtable other than table
  More at http://users.sdsc.edu/~ssmallen/latex/longtable.html


• Figure position Frequently used options:
  t -- top of page
  b -- bottom of page
  h -- (here) approximately the current position
  H -- (Here) exact the current position (\usepackage{float})


• Image crop (viewport)
  

  \begin{figure}[pt]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{@{\hspace{0mm}}c@{\hspace{0.5mm}}c@{\hspace{0mm}}}
   \includegraphics*[viewport=0 20 201 160,width=0.49\linewidth]{figures/example} &
   \includegraphics*[viewport=0 0 201 140,width=0.49\linewidth]{figures/example_2} 
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Image crop using command \viewport}
  \end{figure}

  The for parameters (x,y,x1,y1) used for viewport is bottom-left corner (x,y) and upper-right corner (x1,y1) of the cropped out area to show.


• Table cell with multiple columns/rows (multicolumn, multirow)
  

  \usepackage{multirow}
  ...
  \multicolumn{2}{c}{cell occupying 2 columns, with center alignment}
  \multirow{3}{*}{cell occupying 3 rows}
  

  More ...


• Rotaing text by 90 degress in table (sideways)
  

  \usepackage{rotaing}
  ...
  \begin{tabular}{|r|r|}\hline 
  \begin{sideways}Paper\end{sideways} & \begin{sideways}Static\end{sideways} \\
  \hline
  HAR1994j & Journal \\
  SWRT1996c & Conference \\
  \hline
  \end{tabular}
  

  More ...


• Place figures side by side in a row.
  

  % --------- Method 1: using subfigure ---------
  \begin{figure}
  \centering
  \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{image1}
    \caption{A subfigure}
    \label{fig:sub1}
  \end{subfigure}%
  \begin{subfigure}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{image1}
    \caption{A subfigure}
    \label{fig:sub2}
  \end{subfigure}
  \caption{A figure with two subfigures}
  \label{fig:test}
  \end{figure}
  
  % --------- Method 1: using minipage (The one I prefer) ---------
  \begin{figure}
  \centering
  \begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{image1}
    \captionof{figure}{A figure}
    \label{fig:test1}
  \end{minipage}%
  \begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=.4\linewidth]{image1}
    \captionof{figure}{Another figure}
    \label{fig:test2}
  \end{minipage}
  \end{figure}
  

  More...

Math Equations

• Alignment
  There are three environments, i.e. split, eqnarray, align, that are widely used for differenment purpose. Examples are given below
  

  \usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsfonts}
  . . .
  \begin{align}
  \frac {\partial E} {\partial \alpha(\textrm{x})} 
  = & \; 2 \alpha(\textrm{x})\Big(L(\textrm{x}) - D(\textrm{x})\Big) \nonumber\\
    & \; + \; 4 \lambda_1 \sum_{\textbf{y}} \Big(\alpha(\textrm{x})-\alpha(\textrm{y})\Big) \\
  = & \; 2\bigg(\Big(L(\textrm{x}) - D(\textrm{x})\Big)^2
       + 2\lambda_1 W\bigg) \alpha(\textrm{x}) 
  	 + 2\Big(L(\textrm{x}) - D(\textrm{x})\Big)\Big(I(\textrm{x}) - L(\textrm{x})\Big) \nonumber\\
    & \; - \; 4 \lambda_1 \sum_{\textrm{y}} \alpha(\textrm{y}) \nonumber\\
  = & \; 0.\nonumber
  \end{align}
  

• Force limits to appear above and below the sum sign
  In LaTeX equations, when using the sum sign in an inline equation, the limits do not appear above and below the sign but on its right side. If you want the limits above and below, place the \limits command after the sum command as follows:

  $\sum\limits_{k=1}^n k$

  It works for both inline and display-mode equations.
  In a display equation, you do not need this \limits command: the limits are displayed above and below. Similarly if you use a displaystyle environment:

  $\displaystyle \sum_{k=1}^n k$

Other Topics

• Rome numbering
  \uppercase\expandafter{\romannumeral 1}
  The result looks like: [Large Image]
  
  


• Define colors
  \definecolor{name}{model}{colour specification}
  

  \defineColor{Myorange}{cmyk}{0,0.42,1,0}
  \definecolor{Myblue}{rgb}{0.8,0.85,1}
  \definecolor{Mygrey}{gray}{0.75}
  \definecolor{Mygreen}{named}{SpringGreen}
  

  black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow are predefined colors.


• Font color
  {\color{red}{ red text }}
  or
  {\textcolor{blue}{ blue text}}

---

Index

Page Layout

indent first	new page	page margin
paragraph space	simple template	mini page
Hyphenation

Table & Figure

cell color	long table	Figure position
Viewport (image crop)	multirow & multicolumn	rotating text
Side by side figures

Math Equations

Alignment

Limits (sub/supscript)

Other Topics

define colors

rome numbering

font color

Other Useful Links

• Arbitrary Latex Reference


• LaTeX and Miscellaneous


• A LaTeX Short Course by Arthur Spirling (University of Rochester)
  Please search "LaTeX" in your browser for the exact place of the related content.


• How to add border for an image?


• LaTeX/Importing Graphics

---

qyan AT cse.cuhk.edu.hk Last update: May. 30, 2012