## Welcome to TeX Live

The TeX Live software distribution offers a complete TeX system for a variety of GNU and Unix, Macintosh, Windows and other platforms. It encompasses programs for editing, typesetting, previewing and printing of TeX documents in many different languages, and a large collection of TeX macros and font libraries.

The distribution includes extensive general documentation about TeX, as well as the documentation for the included software packages.

For licensing information, please see the top-level LICENSE.TL and LICENSE.CTAN text files.

### Where to start

We strongly recommend that you read the TeX Live Guide before undertaking the installation. It includes step-by-step instructions, a description of the top-level directories, and more.

If you are installing from the DVD image, the Guide in English and all its translations are in the texlive-doc subdirectory.

After installation, English versions of the Guide are in the texmf-dist/doc/texlive/ hierarchy, in both html and pdf formats. Translations to other languages are also available under texmf-dist/doc/texlive.

We also provide a list of links to the available PDF and HTML documentation for the included packages and programs.

If you are installing from the Internet, the above links won't work. In that case, you can view the TeX Live documentation on the Internet.

For a list of the most important changes in this year's release, see the Release history section at the end of the documentation.

### Installation

The installation script is named `install-tl` and is at the top level of the directory tree. You can invoke it with `perl install-tl`. On Windows, you can run the companion batch file, `install-tl-windows.bat`. On Macs, you will probably want to install via MacTeX, which has its own native installer (it's also available on the DVD, next to the `texlive/` you're in now.)

`install-tl` has two operation modes:

-gui
(default on Windows and Macs) which does a simple installation by default, using a graphical interface, but allows for advanced options if desired.

-no-gui
(default on everything else) which provides for all available options, using a simplistic text interface.

Post-installation package updates and other configurations are performed with the `tlmgr` (TeX Live Package Manager) program, which likewise has both GUI and text modes.

You can give the command-line option `--help` to both install-tl and tlmgr for detailed information on both programs. See the documentation links above for (much) more information.

### Links

Finally, a few related web pages, for your reference. These are not included in TeX Live:

- tug.org/begin.html - if you are new to TeX and/or want introductory material.
- tug.org/interest.html - general list of TeX web resources, including documentation, systems, packages, fonts, and more.
- tug.org/ctan.html - one entry point into the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN), which is an online repository of all things TeX.
- tug.org/usergroups.html - list of TeX user groups around the world, with contact information. We strongly encourage you to join the user group of your choice, to support TeX Live and other TeX activities.

#### Happy TeXing!

TeX Live home page.