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0003 <!-- This document is an unofficial reference manual for LaTeX, a
0004 document preparation system, version of November 2018.
0005 
0006 This manual was originally translated from LATEX.HLP v1.0a in the
0007 VMS Help Library.  The pre-translation version was written by
0008 George D. Greenwade of Sam Houston State University.  The
0009 LaTeX 2.09 version was written by Stephen Gilmore.  The
0010 LaTeX2e version was adapted from this by Torsten Martinsen.  Karl
0011 Berry made further updates and additions, and gratefully acknowledges
0012 using Hypertext Help with LaTeX, by Sheldon Green, and
0013 LaTeX Command Summary (for LaTeX 2.09) by
0014 L. Botway and C. Biemesderfer (published by the TeX Users
0015 Group as TeXniques number 10), as reference material.  We also
0016 gratefully acknowledge additional material appearing in
0017 latex2e-reference by Martin Herbert Dietze.  (From these references no
0018 text was directly copied.)
0019 
0020 Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013,
0021 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Karl Berry.
0022 
0023 Copyright 1988, 1994, 2007 Stephen Gilmore.
0024 
0025 Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 Torsten Martinsen.
0026 
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0028 this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
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0031 
0032 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
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0113 <a name="Starting-and-ending"></a>
0114 <div class="header">
0115 <p>
0116 Next: <a href="Output-files.html#Output-files" accesskey="n" rel="next">Output files</a>, Up: <a href="Overview.html#Overview" accesskey="u" rel="up">Overview</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="IndexDocument.html#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
0117 </div>
0118 <hr>
0119 <a name="Starting-and-ending-1"></a>
0120 <h3 class="section">2.1 Starting and ending</h3>
0121 
0122 <a name="Starting-_0026-ending"></a><a name="index-starting-and-ending"></a>
0123 <a name="index-ending-and-starting"></a>
0124 <a name="index-hello_002c-world"></a>
0125 
0126 <p>LaTeX files have a simple global structure, with a standard beginning
0127 and ending.  This is a small example.
0128 </p>
0129 <div class="example">
0130 <pre class="example">\documentclass{article}
0131 \begin{document}
0132 Hello, \LaTeX\ world.
0133 \end{document}
0134 </pre></div>
0135 
0136 <p>Every LaTeX document has a <code>\begin{document}</code> line and an
0137 <code>\end{document}</code> line.
0138 </p>
0139 <a name="index-document-class_002c-defined"></a>
0140 <p>Here, the &lsquo;<samp>article</samp>&rsquo; is the <em>document class</em>.  It is implemented
0141 in a file <samp>article.cls</samp>.  You can use any document class on your
0142 system.  A few document classes are defined by LaTeX itself, and vast
0143 array of others are widely available.  See <a href="Document-classes.html#Document-classes">Document classes</a>.
0144 </p>
0145 <a name="index-preamble_002c-defined"></a>
0146 <p>You can include other LaTeX commands between the
0147 <code>\documentclass</code> and the <code>\begin{document}</code> commands.
0148 This area is called the <em>preamble</em>.
0149 </p>
0150 <p>The <code>\begin{document}</code>, <code>\end{document}</code> pair defines an
0151 <a name="index-environment"></a>
0152 <em>environment</em>; the &lsquo;<samp>document</samp>&rsquo; environment (and no others) is
0153 required in all LaTeX documents (see <a href="document.html#document">document</a>).  LaTeX make
0154 available to you many environments that are documented here
0155 (see <a href="Environments.html#Environments">Environments</a>).  Many more are available to you from external
0156 packages, most importantly those available at CTAN (see <a href="CTAN.html#CTAN">CTAN</a>).
0157 </p>
0158 <p>The following sections discuss how to produce PDF or other output from
0159 a LaTeX input file.
0160 </p>
0161 
0162 
0163 
0164 <hr/><div class='referenceinfo'> <a href='https://latexref.xyz/'> <i>Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual</i></a></div>
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