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CTAN & docs

The TeX world’s packages, classes, fonts, and documentation all live in one place: CTAN (the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network). Two skills unlock its ~7,000 packages: searching CTAN, and reading a package’s documentation (with texdoc).

CTAN

CTAN (ctan.org) is the central archive of everything TeX — thousands of packages, classes, fonts, and their docs. Each package page (ctan.org/pkg/<name>) shows the description, version, documentation PDF, dependencies, and license (usually LPPL). You can search by name or by topic/functionality. CTAN is a master + mirrors network, and TeX Live and MiKTeX pull packages from it (so you normally install via tlmgr rather than downloading by hand). Authors upload new or updated packages to the master, which then propagate to the mirrors.

Package documentation — texdoc

Almost every package ships a thorough manual. Read the local copy with texdoc PACKAGE (a PDF, offline, matching your installed version), and list candidates with texdoc -l PACKAGE. The same docs are browsable at texdoc.org and on each CTAN package page. When a command or option is unclear, the package’s own manual is the authoritative answer.

terminal
texdoc booktabs      # 説明書を開く / open the manual
texdoc -l siunitx    # 候補を一覧 / list matches

The workflow

  • Find it by function → search CTAN by name/topic; check the package page for the summary, dependencies, and license.
  • Install it → tlmgr install (see “Packages & font management”).
  • Learn it → texdoc PACKAGE (see “texdoc / texfot …”).

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