LaTeX Cookbook: Over 100 practical, ready-to-use LaTeX recipes for instant solutions

I first encountered Stefan Kottwitz when I was teaching a course on Special Relativity and found several LaTeX- and TikZ-generated space-time diagrams he had posted on the web, which I incorporated into my course with minor modifications. Hence, I was excited to learn that he was about to publish the 2nd edition of his LaTeX Cookbook. The book far exceeds my already very high expectations. It is very well organized and comprehensive in its coverage, making it the ideal reference for everyone from the rank beginner to very sophisticated users.

The book has about 150 templates that can serve as the starting point for whatever task the user has in mind, ranging from very simple (e.g. writing a letter) to very complex. Many of the templates deal with scientific topics such as graph theory, making Feynman diagrams, drawing molecules and drawing recursively defined fractals. Each topic or template is explained with "How to do it", How it works" and "There's more" sections. It does an excellent job of pointing the user to easy to use packages for accomplishing the task. and it points the user to the most useful features of these packages so that he/she does not get lost looking at a multitude of options. Some of the more advanced capabilities that the book delves into include making fillable forms, sophisticated graphics with TikZ, creating animations, programming with LuaLaTeX and using Artificial Intelligence. Finally, it is worth mentioning that for those who want to delve further into graphics the author has an entire other book on LaTeX Graphics with TikZ.

My only suggestion for improvement is that, for physicists, it would be helpful to have some discussion of the features of REVTEX.

I have been fortunate enough to have Stefan help me with many different LaTeX issues over the years. His support has helped me more than I can describe. He asked me for a third time to write an honest review of his LaTeX Cookbook (2ed), which had been on my Amazon Wishlist already. I have used all three of his books and although I do not use this book as much as the other two, it is no less useful and is filled with so much material. I think what struck me first about the Cookbook was the content. It was like he took many of the most common questions from the Latex Community forum and made a simple easy to follow guide. My first use of this book came with the cool ways you can manipulate an image (provide a border, shaping and cutting the image) was particularly useful. There are some nice uses with bar and pie charts (which I could have used about 14 years ago when I was creating files for a text). These guides are easy to follow and understand.

There is some overlap with the other features, but this book, like his others is easy to follow and will help with any fear of trying to code using LaTeX. So if you're looking for help with images, diagrams, tables or even resumes, Stefan has you covered. This is a great addition to any TeX fan and I am truly glad that I have this in my library.

a great book to dive deep into LaTeX - but also this book won't take from you the needed effort to really understand and master the skills!

I like the book for great structuring all contents into meaningful chapters, which can be read independently, good examples for everything what is explained and a good layout, which makes it easier to understand what he is explaining.

This book is not for beginners - you must know already the basics of LaTeX!

I absolutely appreciate, that you get with the book a pdf-copy of the book - this makes it much easier to look into what you actually need, work on your ideas and optimize your document with the instructions from the book!

I recommend this book to people interested in improving their LaTeX skills!

Having had the opportunity to use Stefan's previous book, "LATEX Graphics with TikZ" I can confidently say that, "LaTeX cookbook-second edition" is a masterpiece. Anyone having a basic understanding of LATEX packages, and desire to upskill their knowledge should have it on their shelf.

One thing which caught my attention was the ease to write pseudcodes and optimize pdf docs. Having some experience in embedding pseudocode in a pdf doc, I am certain that the strategy provided in this book is a good life saver. And the explanations added by Stefan under the heading "How it works" is an icing. Often we just copy and paste the code from the internet without exactly comprehending the logic under the hood. But the author has taken the pains for the average user to know how the commands work.

Thanks again Stefan.

Mr. Kottwitz has done an outstanding job of distilling complicated LaTeX package manuals into a comprehensive manual. Besides a few typos and grammatical errors, there isn't anything to complain about. The topic is broad, so keeping this book under 1000 pages is a miracle!

LaTeX Cookbook gets a new user up and running quickly and then introduces concepts and tools in an ordered fashion so that great typesetting results are easily obtained. His approach is clear and approachable.

The book is well organized, with chapters and sections arranged in increasing complexity. Each topic will step a LaTeX user though the goals of the chapter and then give examples of how to accomplish the goal. What really great about the book is how the author explains what each of the commands do in a given scenario (this is very useful, especially as anyone who has had to try to digest how to read typical package manuals can attest to).

The book is a wonderful resource for experienced users and can serve as an outstanding one-stop-shop reference for new users of LaTeX. Old-hands may even find obscure things LaTeX can accomplish (automatically generating a list of acronyms!?) and new comers will be delighted to get up and running writing letters and making nice CVs.

If you're looking for a single place to learn and understand LaTeX or look up some obscure topic, you don't have to look any more; LaTeX Cookbook will guide you along the way.

This is an outstanding resource. LaTeX is a complex program with a large number of features, options and packages and so a reference such as this greatly simplifies obtaining the background through ready usable, understandable and tailorable examples. The text is clear, comprehensive and applicable to a wide range of needs where a professional typeset quality product is required or desired. It is relevant to all levels of LaTeX users including first time users new to the program. The first chapter provides an overview and roadmap for the specific applications that are then developed fully in the other chapters. In addition, it includes content about how to assemble an environment – all available open source -- and identifies links to additional online resources. I am a relatively advanced user having used LaTeX since the late 80’s for its incomparable utility for producing reports, articles and presentations with advanced mathematics. In going through the portions most relevant and interesting to me, I learned of several advanced features, packages, etc., that I have now adopted and incorporated as part of my environment. From the PDF version (free as part of the print version purchase), the examples can be cut-and-pasted to provide a foundation to build from. Many advanced features for integrating graphics use the TikZ package and so I recommend also getting the author’s other outstanding book: "LaTeX Graphics with TikZ" that will serve as a highly useful companion.

With countless practical examples of LaTeX in action, "LaTeX Cookbook" is a must buy for for enthusiasts or those looking to level up their document processing. The book is intelligently organized, allowing readers to quickly find the section applicable to their use case. A motivated beginner with clear intention can rely on this book to accomplish their goal, broadening and deepening their LaTeX skills along the way.

Particularly appealing to me is the conversational style of the book, with code snippets interspersed between English. Stefan presents a problem, and then tells you "How to do it...". The sequencing of topics builds on itself, allowing the book to be readable in addition to quickly accessible. The "There's more..." sections allow for further exploration.

Overall, I recommend it.

This is the book I needed during the last couple of years, as an author struggling to master LaTeX.

Not being a noob with LaTeX, I'm still struggling with formatting, tables, fonts, bibliography, and setting it all up in general.

This book helps me solve all my problems, so I fell in love with it. Yes, there is another book, over 1000 pages, really almost impossible to navigate. This one, navigation is a breeze.

The book is well-structured, so that one can use it as a reference, or read chapter after chapter,

learning and mastering the language.

I found especially helpful the chapters covering building an index and a table of contents; then, the chapters that teach you how to include graphics, especially diagrams, both commutative diagrams and Feynman diagrams.

The last chapter give you a pretty timely advice on how to use AI (e.g. chatGPT) to build well-formed LaTeX content, both stylistically and graphically.

In short, if you produce a rich content: technical books, articles, presentations, you will need this book.

“The LaTeX Cookbook - Second Edition” by Stefan Kottwitz provides over 100 recipes for LaTeX writers within approximately 400 pages. It caters to readers of all levels, whether beginners or experienced users, by offering useful step-by-step instructions.

The book follows the structure of a traditional cookbook, where Kottwitz lists the ingredients needed to complete each recipe, provides instructions on how to follow the recipe, and often displays the final product. He also explains how each LaTeX command works, so readers can customize the recipe to their needs.

For those interested in learning more, there is a "There's more…" section that explains how to further customize the result and provides valuable links to external resources for deeper understanding.

The book is highly structured, and the examples provided are restricted to what readers need to understand the mechanisms thoroughly. The examples can be downloaded, making them immediately usable and increasing productivity. Additionally, Kottwitz provides tips for further research on the internet for readers who want to delve deeper into the subject.

The book covers a wide range of topics, including creating simple text documents, developing theses, building posters, creating mathematical plots, building word clouds, presenting parts of a periodic table, and much more. The author even includes a chapter discussing the use of AI and finding help on the internet.

After just a few days with the book, my productivity has significantly increased, and my understanding of LaTeX has improved greatly.

Excelente

Il libro è molto ampio con 424 pagine e molti esempi interessanti. Alcune cose sono utili per la vita quotidiana, altre sono impressionanti dimostrazioni, soprattutto le grafiche. È bene che sia stampato a colori. Il sito web del libro con gli esempi di codice è davvero utile e fa risparmiare tempo. Tuttavia, è possibile trovare il codice anche su GitHub.

Excellent for learning programming language used in math research.

Wer LaTeX kennt, wird in diesem Buch sehr viele Tipps zu Themen oder Aufgabenstellungen finden, die nicht alltäglich sind. Für alle anderen, denen LaTeX nichts sagt, kann dieses Buch eine wichtige Einstiegshilfe in den Textsatz sein. Aber mann muss schon recht gut englisch sprechen, lesen und verstehen können - oder auf die deutsche Ausgabe warten.