Why Use LaTeX?
1.
You want high typographic quality in your documents.
Overall, LaTeX documents look great—even documents that are heavy on mathematical equations.
See an example of a document created with LaTeX.
2. LaTeX is free and open source.
Want the simplicity of working online, with a Web-based editor, and nothing to download or install? Get started for free, with
Overleaf.
Prefer working offline? You can download a free TeX distribution to install on your computer. There are TeX distros for Windows, Mac and Linux. Find from TeX distros at
The LaTeX Project.
3. Overleaf eases the learning process.
Overleaf.com is an online editing tool that makes creating LaTeX documents faster and easier. It creates a basic page for you, and simple text formatting is easy and intuitive. There's nothing to install, and it takes just a few minutes to create an account. Your documents are stored online, on the Overleaf website.
4. Very few keywords are needed for simple documents or articles.
Creating a basic article or research paper? The learning curve for you is more like a speedbump! Creating sections and a simple bibliography is easy and straightforward, with very few keywords to deal with.
5. Help is available online.
A
comprehensive guide to LaTeX is free online. LaTeX users have posted a wide variety of helpful documents and resources, such as listing of
all available packages (macros), guides to
mathematical equations, and much more.
Are There Reasons You Should NOT Use LaTeX?
1.
It's a small project and/or you have a tight deadline.
If you don't have time to learn LaTeX, and/or the document is very short and simple—no abstract, no sections, no bibliography, etc., you're better off avoiding LaTeX, at least for now.
2. The document is already written.
If the document is already complete, it would be a tedious task to cut/paste it into LaTeX. There is no automatic conversion, the way that a LaTeX document can be saved as a PDF in a few moments.
3. You like formatting content.
If you have your own format for a document in mind and are comfortable with adjusting margins, line height, leading, etc., you'll probably be better off working with a desktop publishing program, such as Adobe InDesign, or using the advanced formatting features of a word processor, like Microsoft Word.
