TeX Live
Distribution of TeX and related software
TeX Live is a cross-platform, free software distribution for the TeX typesetting system that includes major TeX-related programs, macro packages, and fonts. It is the replacement of its no-longer supported counterpart teTeX. It is now the default TeX distribution for several Linux distributions such as openSUSE, Fedora, Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu, Termux and Gentoo. Other Unix operating systems like OpenBSD, FreeBSD and NetBSD have also converted from teTeX to TeX Live.
The project was originally started by Sebastian Rahtz in 1996 in collaboration with the TeX user groups worldwide, including the TeX Users Group. Today, it is maintained by Karl Berry, Norbert Preining, Akira Kakuto, Luigi Scarso and many other people.
Up to version 2009, TeX Live could be run directly, or "live", from a CD-ROM, from a DVD-ROM, or from any other mobile device, hence its name. As of TeX Live 2010, it was no longer possible to run the distribution from the TeX Collection DVD due to restrictions in storage space. TeX Live follows the TeX Directory Structure.
Since the 2009 release, the editor TeXworks is included for Microsoft Windows, as well as the vector graphics language Asymptote.
For macOS there is MacTeX, which comprises the full TeX Live distribution as well as some additional tools for using TeX on the Mac, most notably the editor TeXShop and the bibliography manager BibDesk. Similar to Basic MikTeX in MikTeX, a substantially smaller download, BasicTeX, can also be used for Mac as well. TeX Live can also be compiled and installed through MacPorts or Homebrew.
01Release history
| Version | Release date | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|
| Latest version: 2026 | 1 March 2026 | HiTeX exclusively uses UTF-8 input encoding. |
| Unsupported: 2025 | 8 March 2025 | Generate PDF-1.7 in all formats, both plain and LaTeX; before, it was 1.5. |
| Unsupported: 2024 | 12 March 2024 | |
| Unsupported: 2023 | 19 March 2023 | Windows version starts and only provides 64-bit binaries. |
| Unsupported: 2022 | 4 April 2022 | |
| Unsupported: 2021 | 1 April 2021 | |
| Unsupported: 2020 | 10 April 2020 | |
| Unsupported: 2019 | 19 April 2019 | New interface for TeX Live Manager. |
| Unsupported: 2018 | 28 April 2018 | Case-insensitive file name matching on Unix by default. LaTeX default input encoding now UTF-8. |
| Unsupported: 2017 | 4 June 2017 | LuaTeX 1.04. |
| Unsupported: 2016 | 5 June 2016 | LuaTeX 0.90. |
| Unsupported: 2015 | LaTeX2e now include fixes previously found in fixltx2e. LuaTeX 0.80. | |
| Unsupported: 2014 | ||
| Unsupported: 2013 | XeTeX now uses HarfBuzz for font layout. LuaTeX 0.77. | |
| Unsupported: 2012 | MorphOS port | |
| Unsupported: 2011 | biber added. LuaTeX 0.70. | |
| Unsupported: 2010 | Automatic EPS conversion for pdfTeX. PDF 1.5 output by default. XeTeX have margin kerning. LuaTeX 0.60. Can no longer be run live from a DVD. | |
| Unsupported: 2009 | TeXworks included in Windows and OSX ports. Asymptote included. LuaTeX 0.40. | |
| Unsupported: 2008 | Incremental updates over the internet. First release with LuaTeX. | |
| Unsupported: 2007 | First release with XeTeX. | |
| Unsupported: 2005 | ||
| Unsupported: 2004 | New folder structure. | |
| Unsupported: 2003 | e-TeX as default. Latin Modern included. | |
| Unsupported: 7 | 2002 | Mac OS X support |
| Unsupported: 6 | July 2001 | Finegrained collections. |
| Unsupported: 5 | March 2000 | Removed all non-free software. |
| Unsupported: 4 | 1999 | Windows support. Web2C 7.3. |
| Unsupported: 3 | 1998 | Web2C 7.2. |
| Unsupported: 2 | 1997 | |
| Unsupported: 1 | May 1996 |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “TeX Live”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Tex live screenshot.png by TeX Users Group, GPL
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