Leveraging Latex Packages For Technical And Scientific Documents
Streamlining Math Formulas
The amsmath and amssymb packages provide robust tools for displaying all manner of mathematical equations in LaTeX documents. By loading these packages with the \usepackage command, the document author gains access to a wide variety of math environments like align, gather, multiline and many others that structure displayed formulas for optimal rendering. These packages also enable many specialized math symbols and operators like \partial for partial derivatives, \infty for infinity and \neq for not equal to. Using amsmath also ensures consistent spacing around relation symbols like =, < and >.
Key Benefits
- Proper spacing around math operators and symbols
- Environments for split equations over multiple lines
- Specialized math operators like ceil and floor functions
- Automatic numbering of equations when used with equation environment
Sample Code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb}
\begin{document}
\begin{equation}
E = mc^2
\end{equation}
\end{document}
Formatting Tables and Figures
Floats like tables and figures are vital for presenting data and images in scientific papers and reports. The float and caption packages give granular control over where LaTeX places these floats and how they are presented to the reader. For example, using [H] option provided by the float package pins the table or figure right where it appears in the source document as opposed to letting LaTeX move it around during pagination. The caption package enables small caption formatting tweaks like single-spacing, italics or font size changes.
Key Benefits
- Fine-tuned positioning of floats in the output document
- Consistent styling of captions via caption package commands
- Parameters for controlling the amount of space between captions and tables or figures
Sample Code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{float, caption}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[H]
\caption{This is a sample table}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|}
\hline
Cell 1 & Cell 2\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Managing Citations and References
The biblatex package provides advanced bibliographic capabilities for LaTeX, enabling extremely customizable citation and bibliography formatting via different style sheets. For technical writing, biblatex can implement specialized style guides like those defined by ACM, APA, IEEE or other scientific organizations. Matching your documents to the required citation style is as easy as passing the compatible style option to biblatex. When used alongside the biber backend, biblatex offers full unicode support for author names, titles and other metadata in the bib file/database.
Key Benefits
- Straightforward swapping between different bibliography styles
- Custom sorting options for citation call-outs and bibliography entries
- Robust unicode support via biber for bib file data
- Granular customization of individual citation and bibliography elements
Sample Code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[style=ieee]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}
\begin{document}
Important research has shown \cite{einstein1935can} that...
\printbibliography
\end{document}
Formatting Document Structure
The titlesec and tocloft packages provide access to deeply customizable sectioning commands and table of contents generation. By adjusting parameters provided by these packages, scientific document authors can redefine defaults like the font size, spacing around and numbering scheme for chapter, section and subsection headings. Furthermore, the presentation and depth of document outlines like the table of contents and list of figures/tables can also be modified via tocloft. For example, multi-level numbering schemes, dotted/dashed leader lines and line spacing are just some of the configurable elements.
Key Benefits
- In-depth customization for section and subsection commands
- Change indentation, line spacing and text styling of TOC and similar outlines
- Set multi-level numbering format for document divisions and outlines
- Additional heading levels like paragraph and subparagraph if more granularity is needed
Sample Code
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{titlesec, tocloft}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\huge\bfseries}{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge}
\setlength{\cftsecindent}{0pt}
\renewcommand{\cftsecafterpnum}{\vskip8pt}
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\chapter{Introduction}
\section{Background}
\end{document}
Optimizing PDF Output
Aside from formatting the actual content, LaTeX packages like microtype and hyperref can greatly enhance the quality and functionality of the generated PDF files. Microtype subtly tweaks spacing at the micro typographic level to improve appearance while also preventing common errors like River effects. Meanwhile, hyperref enables linking capabilities to add active internal and external links in the compiled document. This can significantly improve navigation and reference abilities for digital distribution of technical writing.
Key Benefits
- Glyph scaling for improved line breaking and spacing
- Horizontal/vertical font size adjustments to fix spacing issues
- Quick transform LaTeX links and references into active hyperlinks
- Customization like link colors, appearance and destination behaviors
Sample Code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[pdftex]{microtype}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{colorlinks=true}
\begin{document}
For more information on optimization, see Section~\ref{sec:optimizing} or the external \href{https://www.latex-project.org}{LaTeX website}.
\end{document}
Enhancing Technical Content
Packages tailored for scientific and technical subject matter like siunitx and listings help improve reader comprehension and engagement through effective presentation of concepts, data and code. For units and numerical data, siunitx ensures consistent formatting and typesetting conventions to align with style guides. Customization options even allow slight tweak like uncertainty ranges, table alignment and more. Similarly, the versatile listings package produces clean, readable code samples with keyword highlighting and other programmer-oriented features.
Key Benefits
- Consistent typesetting units, symbols and measurement values
- Control over number grouping and uncertainty representation
- Code snippet formatting with custom styles and syntax highlighting
- Mathematical capabilities like formula alignment in code samples
Sample Code
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{siunitx, listings}
\begin{document}
\SI{80}{\percent} of users reported improvements with values ranging from \SIrange{10}{15}{\percent} (\si{\percent}).
\begin{lstlisting}[language=Python]
import numpy as np
a = np.arange(\SI{100}{\kilo\gram}).reshape(10, 10)
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}
