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MiKTEX vs TEX Live on Windows

There are two main free TeX systems for Windows - MiKTeX and TeX Live. While both are good options, there are some differences to consider depending on your needs: 1) MiKTeX installs only essential packages by default while TeX Live installs everything, which can impact disk space usage. 2) The indexing program xindy is only available in TeX Live, which is useful for multi-lingual indexing. 3) TeX Live has a Unix background while MiKTeX is designed for Windows, so TeX Live may be a better choice for cross-platform use.

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Damir Demirovic
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572 views1 page

MiKTEX vs TEX Live on Windows

There are two main free TeX systems for Windows - MiKTeX and TeX Live. While both are good options, there are some differences to consider depending on your needs: 1) MiKTeX installs only essential packages by default while TeX Live installs everything, which can impact disk space usage. 2) The indexing program xindy is only available in TeX Live, which is useful for multi-lingual indexing. 3) TeX Live has a Unix background while MiKTeX is designed for Windows, so TeX Live may be a better choice for cross-platform use.

Uploaded by

Damir Demirovic
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TUGboat, Volume 33 (2012), No.

1 53

TEX on Windows: MiKTEX or TEX Live? A reminder that MiKTEX and TEX Live are not
the only choices. W32TEX (Kakuto, 2012) is popular
Joseph Wright
in the far east. As well as being a TEX system in
On Windows, there are two actively-developed free its own right, it is the source of the Windows binar-
TEX systems with similar coverage: MiKTEX (Schenk, ies for TEX Live, and TEX Live acquires more CJK
2011) and TEX Live (TEX Users Group, 2011). The support from it every year. For users focussed on
good news is that there is a lot of similarity between ConTEXt, ConTEXt standalone (Pragma ADE, 2012)
the two systems, so for most users both systems is probably the best way to go (it uses the W32TEX
are equally usable, and (LA)TEX documents are port- binaries on Windows). There are also the commer-
able between them. However, there are differences cial options, for example BaKoMa TEX (BaKoMa
and depending on what you need these might be Soft., 2011) or PCTEX (Personal TEX, Inc., 2011).
important. However, for most users it comes down to a choice
between the ‘big two’.
• The default settings install everything for TEX
Live, but only a minimal set of packages for References
MiKTEX. MiKTEX will then install extra pack-
BaKoMa Soft. “BaKoMa TEX 9.77”.
ages ‘on the fly’, while TEX Live does not (there
[Link] 2011.
is a package to do that in TEX Live, but it is
aimed at GNU/Linux users). Install-on-the-fly Kakuto, A. “W32TEX”.
is useful if space is limited, but is more prob- [Link] 2012.
lematic on server setups. So this is very much Personal TEX, Inc. “PCTEX 6”.
a feature whose usefulness depends on your cir- [Link] 2011.
cumstances. Of course, there is nothing to stop Pragma ADE. “ConTEXt standalone”.
you from installing everything with MiKTEX. [Link]
• The xindy program (Schrod, 2010) is available Standalone, 2012.
only in TEX Live. For those of you not familiar Schenk, C. “MiKTEX 2.9”.
with it, xindy is an index processor, and is much [Link] 2011.
more capable of dealing with multi-lingual situ- Schrod, J. “xindy 2.4”.
ations than MakeIndex. If you need xindy, TEX [Link] 2010.
Live is the way to go. TEX Users Group. “TEX Live 2011”.
• MiKTEX is very much a Windows tool set, while [Link] 2011.
TEX Live comes from a Unix background. This
shows up from time to time in the way TEX Live
 Joseph Wright
is administered, and the fact that the TEX Live Morning Star
GUI is written based on Perl rather than as a 2, Dowthorpe End
‘native’ Windows application. Earls Barton
• As TEX Live is the basis of MacTEX, and is the Northampton NN6 0NH
TEX system for Unix, if you work cross-platform United Kingdom
and want an identical system on all of your [Link] (at)
machines, then TEX Live is the way to go. [Link]

TEX on Windows: MiKTEX or TEX Live?

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