3 ms·
Oh please. Don’t compare Latex to Word, compare it to InDesign. Word is word processor with some typesetting functionality crammed into it, certainly not the id
by ugh 15y ago
Oh please. Don’t compare Latex to Word, compare it to InDesign. Word is word processor with some typesetting functionality crammed into it, certainly not the ideal tool for creating beautifully typeset documents.
Latex is awesome if you stick to the (very sensible) defaults. It basically creates beautifully typeset documents for people who have no idea about typesetting. (That’s a good thing, by the way.) It’s not all that great if you want to go very far beyond that and in that respect InDesign runs circles around it.
Different tools are good at different things.
- sirclueless 15y agoI agree. I find Latex very limiting, in the sense that anything that falls outside of its (admittedly extensive) library of functionality is nigh impossible to do. Latex has a system of "environments" and a box model that satisfies the basic use case of spitting out a nicely typeset article, but it's not the tool I would turn to if I wanted to precisely justify a paragraph underneath an image (the above comment is correct: look to InDesign or something similar). Latex (or more specifically, TeX) was groundbreaking for its kerning and typeface support. It still has the most extensive system for unambiguously typesetting complex mathematical equations. It appeals to a certain kind of person who wants to have a canonical source in plaintext controlling layout. But you're kidding yourself to say that it is the most flexible and powerful tool for typesetting on the market today.