LaTeX Tutorial — Lesson 4

Lesson 4: Formatting and Styling in LaTeX

So far, you’ve learned how to write content and structure your LaTeX document. In this lesson, we’ll explore how to style your text, adjust formatting, and include images — all while keeping your document clean, professional, and consistent using only what works with pdfLaTeX (Crixet's default compiler).

Text Styling

LaTeX gives you precise control over how text appears. Here are some essential styling commands:

Tip: Use \emph{} when you mean emphasis — LaTeX can adjust it contextually.

Font Sizes

You can change font size globally or locally:

Global Font Size

Set in the document class:

\documentclass[12pt]

Local Font Size

Use size commands wrapped in braces:

Available sizes (smallest to largest):

Text Alignment

Change alignment using environments:

LaTeX fully justifies text by default (aligned left and right). Use the above environments for overrides — especially helpful for quotes, poems, or signature blocks.

Footnotes

Add notes with \footnote{...}:

LaTeX will number and place the note automatically at the bottom of the page. Keep footnotes out of section titles or captions for best results.

Including Images

Images are added using the graphicx package (usually enabled by default in Crixet).

In the Preamble

Insert an Image

\begin{figure}[h]
  \centering
  \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]

How It Works

\includegraphics{...} includes the image file.
width=0.5\textwidth scales it to half the text width.
\caption{...} and \label{...} allow you to refer to it:

Accepted formats for pdfLaTeX: .png, .jpg, .pdf. Avoid .eps (not supported by pdfLaTeX).

Colors

To use colors, include the xcolor package:

Then color text like this:

Predefined colors include: red, blue, green, gray, etc. Use sparingly in formal documents.

Page Layout and Margins

To adjust page margins, include the geometry package:

\usepackage[margin=1in]

You can fine-tune:

\usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1.2in, left=1.25in, right=1in]

Keep it simple. Crixet supports basic margin adjustments — perfect for reports or school submissions.

Line and Paragraph Spacing

By default, LaTeX indents paragraphs and does not add vertical spacing between them. If you want extra spacing or no indent, you can use the parskip package:

This disables indentation and adds vertical space between paragraphs.

To double-space text (e.g., for academic submissions), use the setspace package:

Only use this when required — LaTeX spacing is usually well-balanced by default.

Horizontal Rules

Use horizontal lines for breaks or separation:

Great for visual breaks, signature lines, or document aesthetics.

Style Consistency

LaTeX promotes consistency:

• Use structural commands like \section{} and \emph{} instead of manually styling headings or emphasis.

• Reuse styles with commands like:

  \newcommand{\important}[1]

This creates \important{...} to apply bold red styling consistently.

Recap

In this lesson, you’ve learned how to:

• Style text (bold, italics, underline, typewriter, small caps)

• Adjust font size and alignment

• Add footnotes

• Insert images with captions

• Use color

• Customize spacing and margins

Try combining these features into your existing document. Add a title image, color for highlights, or adjust your spacing. Experiment with formatting — but let LaTeX handle consistency.

What’s Next?

In Lesson 5, we’ll wrap up this course by learning how to extend LaTeX with packages and how to use templates to build full documents more efficiently. You'll learn how to create professional documents quickly and reuse your favorite setups.

Ready for the final step? Let’s go!