Latex
Typeset all of your papers using latex.
Installation
No Install
Use Overleaf to create latex documents in a web browser.
Partial Install
Download MikTex. It includes the TeXworks editor and will download packages as you use them. This will not take up as much disk space as a full install.
Full Install
Windows
Download TexLive. This is several gigabytes since it includes all the popular LaTex packages and takes a while to install. You'll also need an editor. I recommend installing Atom with the following packages:
latexfor calling the TexLive compilerlanguage-latexfor syntax highlightingpdf-viewfor viewing the compiled pdf.
Linux
sudo apt install texlive-full
Compile tex documents with
pdflatex [mydocument.tex]
Usage
Fancy Math Font
See this answer.
% Use mathbb for the set of reals R or the set of complex numbers C
% Requires amsfonts
\mathbb{R}
Spaces
See Reference
Spaces in mathematical mode.
\begin{align*}
f(x) =& x^2\! +3x\! +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2+3x+2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\, +3x\, +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\: +3x\: +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\; +3x\; +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\ +3x\ +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\quad +3x\quad +2 \\
f(x) =& x^2\qquad +3x\qquad +2
\end{align*}
Indents
Section
\hspace*{5mm}\begin{minipage}{\dimexpr\textwidth-5mm}
Indented Section
\end{minipage}
Programming
Latex is a turing complete language.
You can use if statements and for loops in latex.
Custom Commands
You can define your own commands using \newcommand
Custom Operators
Latex packages like amsmath come with operators such as \sin and \log.
To get normal text for custom functions like arcsin, use \operatorname{arcsin}.
Below are some potentially useful math operators.
\DeclareMathOperator{\Tr}{Tr}
\DeclareMathOperator{\VCdim}{VCdim}
\DeclareMathOperator{\sign}{sign}
\DeclareMathOperator{\rank}{rank}
Useful Commands
A list of potentially useful commands
\newcommand{\degree}{\ensuremath{^{\circ}} }
\newcommand{\etal}{{\em et al. }}
Tikz
Tikz is used to draw graphs and other shapes
Drawing over images
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[anchor=south west,inner sep=0] (image) at (0,0) {
\includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{my_image.png}
};<br />
\begin{scope}[x={(image.south east)},y={(image.north west)}]
\draw[black,ultra thick,rounded corners] (0.0,0.1) rectangle (0.3,0.5);
\draw[red,ultra thick,rounded corners] (0.5,0.1) rectangle (0.8,0.5);
% \draw[help lines,xstep=.1,ystep=.1] (0,0) grid (1,1);
% \foreach \x in {0,1,...,9} { \node [anchor=north] at (\x/10,0) {0.\x}; }
% \foreach \y in {0,1,...,9} { \node [anchor=east] at (0,\y/10) {0.\y}; }
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}