web2c: Formats
5.3 Formats
===========
TeX "formats" are large collections of macros, often dumped into a
'.fmt' file (⇒Memory dumps) by 'tex -ini' (⇒Initial TeX).
A number of formats are in reasonably widespread use, and the Web2c
Makefile has targets to make the versions current at the time of
release. You can change which formats are automatically built by
setting the 'fmts' Make variable; by default, only the 'plain' and
'latex' formats are made.
Nowadays, the formats are generally installed and updated as part of
a larger TeX distribution, such as TeX Live (<https://tug.org/texlive>).
latex
The most widely used format. The current release is named
'LaTeX2e'; new versions are released approximately every six
months, with patches issued as needed. The old release was called
'LaTeX 2.09', and is no longer maintained or supported. LaTeX
attempts to provide generic markup instructions, such as
"emphasize", instead of specific typesetting instructions, such as
"use the 10pt Computer Modern italic font". The LaTeX home page:
<https://www.latex-project.org>.
context
ConTeXt is an independent macro package which has a basic document
structuring approach similar to LaTeX. It also supports creating
interactive PDF files and has integrated MetaPost support, among
many other interesting features. The ConTeXt home page:
<http://www.pragma-ade.com>.
amstex
The official typesetting system of the American Mathematical
Society. Like LaTeX, it encourages generic markup commands. The
AMS also provides many LaTeX packages for authors who prefer LaTeX.
Taken together, they are used to produce nearly all AMS
publications, e.g., 'Mathematical Reviews'. The AMSTeX home page:
<https://www.ams.org/tex>.
texinfo
The documentation system developed and maintained by the Free
Software Foundation for their software manuals. It can be
automatically converted into plain text, a machine-readable on-line
format called 'info', HTML, etc. The Texinfo home page:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo>.
eplain
The "expanded plain" format provides various common features (e.g.,
symbolic cross-referencing, tables of contents, indexing, citations
using BibTeX), for those authors who prefer to handle their own
high-level formatting. The Eplain home page:
<https://tug.org/eplain>.
slitex
An obsolete LaTeX 2.09 format for making slides. It is replaced by
the 'slides' document class, although the 'beamer' package is the
most commonly method for making slides nowadays. The Beamer page
on CTAN: <https://ctan.org/pkg/beamer>.
Info Catalog
web2c: Initial TeX
web2c: TeX
web2c: Languages and hyphenation