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TeX Live 2026 is available for download now

91 points by jithinraj

by thangalin

2 subcomments

ConTeXt often goes unmentioned in TeX threads.
https://wiki.contextgarden.net/
It's a monolithic kernel with a relatively sane collection of "setup" macros that, by and large, can accomplish much of what LaTeX and its packages can do.
If you're curious about how to build TeX from scratch, have a look at my TeX.SE answer:
https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/576314/2148
I'd imagine making a FOSS port in Rust that has non-cryptic error messages wouldn't be a multi-year project using modern GPTs.

by xvilka

3 subcomments

I wonder what's the status of LaTeX 3[1][2]. Also, it would be nice to have an automation in the style of Tectonic[3][4] (which looks like a dead project itself) out of the box.
[1] https://www.latex-project.org/latex3/
[2] https://github.com/latex3/latex3
[3] http://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/
[4] https://github.com/tectonic-typesetting/tectonic/

by sombragris

0 subcomment

Congrats to all the TeXLive team on a new release.
If you're stuck on something LaTeX related, remember there's the latest edition to The LaTex Companion. It even has an appendix explaining the (in)famously cryptic LaTeX/TeX error messages:
https://latex-project.org/help/books/
There's also, among other resources, the great LaTeX Font Catalogue: https://tug.org/FontCatalogue/
Enjoy the new release!

by gucci-on-fleek

0 subcomment

Here's the list of notable changes in TeX Live 2026 [0]. LaTeX is released independently from TeX Live, so looking through its changelog [1] is also helpful if you haven't updated recently.
[0]: https://tug.org/texlive/doc/texlive-en/texlive-en.html#x1-94...
[1]: https://www.latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews.pdf#i...

by gucci-on-fleek

1 subcomments

I'm one of the developers working on TeX Live; I'll try answer any questions in the replies.

by __mharrison__

8 subcomments

Cool. I've moved on to typst and hope to never touch latex again in my lifetime...

by deep1283

1 subcomments

If you’re installing this on a fresh machine, the network installer is usually the smoother option. The full ISO is great if you’re setting up multiple systems or need an offline install, but for most people the net install saves some headaches.

by wink

1 subcomments

This comment section has made it clear to me (and maybe others that use some of these tools every 10 years) that just finding the correct project/binary if you want to use TeX can be... interesting :)
https://www.tug.org/levels.html seems like a good start

by bombcar

1 subcomments

One thing I like about a full install of TeX Live is it comes with a large number of amazing manuals in PDF form; perfect for reading when bored on the plane without Internet access.
Look for /texmf-dist/doc/fonts/memdesign/memdesign.pdf if you want a fun non-technical one.

by theanonymousone

1 subcomments

A WASM version of (La)TeX plus a decent IDE would be amazing. I'm wondering if such a thing exists.

by kkfx

0 subcomment

Personally I use LaTeX for anything I have to write as pdf, I understand many critics but... So far is The Tool to makes good typesetting. PostScript can do nearly the same at a harder effort for the user, Typist can't match, others are just LaTeX wrappers or can't deliver anything decent.
The problem is that today we have a massive gap in development: there was a time when high-quality FLOSS development existed, followed by an era of resting on one's laurels while creating very little, mostly just stuff built on top of existing systems in an attempt to simplify things, which only resulted in making them more complex and fragile, with zero innovation.
Today, we have generations of developers who simply don't know classic FLOSS tools beyond the surface level and lack the technical background to create new ones that aren't dependent on the tech giants. This is because obsolete universities have de facto trained legions of big tech labourers rather than autonomous technicians capable of standing on their own two feet.
The issue is that there was never a real desire to give "the power of computing" to end users. Consequently, at the first opportunity, the desktop was undermined and rejected to keep everyone dependent on someone else's services. Now, young developers don't know how to evolve back towards the desktop, even though they sense, without fully understanding, that this is the right way forward.
We are losing decades of potential evolution with repercussions for centuries to come, just to feed a handful of people who profit from others' ignorance.
So, while it's true that on one hand we have excellent tools that are obsolete, clunky, and difficult to integrate today, it's also true that on the other hand we have a void. This is because the foundations of modern software are flawed and unsustainable, created solely for the interests of Big Tech. Either we move past this or we head for ruin, as has been happening for some time now; eventually, it will be impossible to carry on and we'll have to start again from scratch, with enormous costs, delays, and damage.

by dash2

1 subcomments

Great! All my projects will now break because it instantly becomes impossible to download from the previous version.

by mono442

0 subcomment

latex error messages are basically indecipherable to me which makes it unusable for anything

by shablulman

0 subcomment

[dead]

by kumarvvr

0 subcomment

For technical reporting, I recently started using html and print media css.
The system is flexible and simple.
Used TeX for the same and had to lose sanity for it to even work semi well.