Appendix B — Appendix B: Essential LaTeX Packages

This appendix lists the packages used throughout this book, organised by purpose. For each package, the table shows the recommended loading position (early = before most packages; late = after most packages), a brief description, and the chapter where it is covered in depth.

All packages listed here are included in a standard TeX Live or MiKTeX installation. Install any missing package with tlmgr install packagename.

B.1 Page layout and geometry

Package	Load	Description
`geometry`	Early	Page dimensions, margins, paper size. Replaces manual `\hoffset`/`\voffset` settings. See Chapter 8.
`fancyhdr`	After geometry	Running headers and footers. Provides `\pagestyle{fancy}` with `\fancyhead`, `\fancyfoot`, `\fancyhf`. See Chapters 8, 20, 22.
`titlesec`	Any	Section heading formatting. Replaces `\@startsection`. Provides `\titleformat` and `\titlespacing`. See Chapter 19.
`setspace`	Any	Line spacing via `\setstretch{factor}`, `\onehalfspacing`, `\doublespacing`. Prefer `\linespread` for small adjustments.
`parskip`	Any	Replaces paragraph indentation with vertical space. Suitable for documents with short paragraphs.
`multicol`	Any	Multiple columns with automatic balancing. More flexible than the `twocolumn` class option.
`wrapfig`	Any	Wrap text around figures. Use with caution near page boundaries. See Chapter 23.

B.2 Typography and fonts

Package	Load	Description
`fontenc`	Early	Output font encoding. Always use `[T1]` for Western European documents with pdfLaTeX.
`inputenc`	Early	Input encoding. Use `[utf8]` with pdfLaTeX. Not needed with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX.
`fontspec`	Early	Font selection by name for XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX. Provides `\setmainfont`, `\setsansfont`, `\setmonofont`. See Chapters 3, 12.
`microtype`	After fonts	Microtypography: character protrusion, font expansion, tracking. Major quality improvement. See Chapter 26.
`csquotes`	Any	Language-aware quotation marks. `\textquote{...}` and `\enquote{...}`. Integrates with `babel`/`polyglossia`. See Chapter 25.
`textcomp`	After fontenc	Additional text symbols: `\texteuro`, `\textdegree`, `\textregistered`. Often loaded automatically.

B.3 Mathematics

Package	Load	Description
`amsmath`	Any	Extended math environments: `align`, `gather`, `multline`, `cases`. Improved `\frac`, operators. Essential for any mathematical document. See Chapter 12.
`amssymb`	Any	Additional mathematical symbols: `\mathbb{R}`, `\square`, `\therefore`, etc.
`amsthm`	Any	Theorem environments. Provides `\newtheorem` with `plain`, `definition`, and `remark` styles. See Chapter 12.
`mathtools`	Any	Extends `amsmath`. Adds `\underbrace`, `\overbrace` improvements, paired delimiters.
`siunitx`	Any	Physical quantities and units: `\qty{300}{dpi}`, `\num{1234567}`. See Chapter 12.

B.4 Tables

Package	Load	Description
`booktabs`	Any	Professional table rules: `\toprule`, `\midrule`, `\bottomrule`, `\cmidrule`. See Chapter 23.
`longtable`	Any	Tables spanning multiple pages with repeating headers. Required in any Pandoc LaTeX template. See Chapter 23.
`multirow`	Any	Cells spanning multiple rows: `\multirow{n}{width}{text}`. See Chapter 23.
`tabularx`	Any	Tables that stretch to text width with auto-sizing `X` columns. See Chapter 23.
`array`	Any	Enhanced column specifications. Provides `>{\cmd}`, `<{\cmd}`, `!{\cmd}` for column-level formatting.
`tabularray`	Any	Modern table package with key-value interface. Combines functionality of `booktabs`, `longtable`, `multirow`, `tabularx`. Requires recent TeX Live.

B.5 Figures and floats

Package	Load	Description
`graphicx`	Any	Include images: `\includegraphics[options]{file}`. Standard for all figure inclusion. See Chapter 20.
`float`	Any	Adds `H` placement specifier (here, definitely). Use sparingly.
`caption`	Any	Customise caption formatting. `\captionsetup{font=small, labelfont=bf}`.
`subcaption`	After caption	Subfigures and subtables with individual captions. `subfigure` and `subtable` environments. See Chapter 20.
`wrapfig`	Any	Figures with text wrapping. See Chapter 23.

B.6 Lists

Package	Load	Description
`enumitem`	Any	Full control over list formatting. Spacing, labels, indentation. Replaces `enumerate` and `itemize` for customisation. See Chapter 12.
`etaremune`	Any	Reverse-numbered list (counts down from N). Used for publication lists in CVs. See Chapter 19.

B.7 Cross-references and hyperlinks

Package	Load	Description
`hyperref`	Late	PDF hyperlinks, bookmarks, metadata. Load late (second-to-last). See Chapters 8, 12.
`cleveref`	After hyperref	Smart cross-references: `\cref{fig:x}` produces “Figure 1”. Load after `hyperref`. See Chapters 12, 20.

B.8 Bibliography

Package	Load	Description
`natbib`	Any	Author-year and numeric citation styles for BibTeX. `\citet`, `\citep`, `\citealt`. See Chapters 12, 22.
`biblatex`	After fontenc	Modern bibliography system with Biber backend. More flexible than natbib. See Chapter 22.

B.9 Code and verbatim

Package	Load	Description
`listings`	Any	Syntax-highlighted code blocks with line numbers, frames, captions. See Chapter 20.
`minted`	Any	Higher-quality syntax highlighting via Pygments. Requires `--shell-escape`. See Chapter 20.
`verbatim`	Any	Extended verbatim environment. `\verbatiminput{file}` for external files.
`fancyvrb`	Any	Customisable verbatim environments. Used by `minted`.

B.10 Colour and boxes

Package	Load	Description
`xcolor`	Any	Extended colour support: named colours, colour mixing, shade definitions. `\textcolor{red}{text}`, `\colorbox{yellow}{text}`.
`tcolorbox`	Any	Highly customisable coloured boxes, callouts, listings integration. Provides `\newtcolorbox`. See Chapter 23.
`mdframed`	Any	Framed and shaded environments that break across pages. Simpler than `tcolorbox` for basic cases.

B.11 Language support

Package	Load	Description
`babel`	Early	Multilingual support for pdfLaTeX: hyphenation patterns, localised strings, language environments. See Chapter 25.
`polyglossia`	Early	Multilingual support for XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX. Better integration with `fontspec`. See Chapter 25.
`xeCJK`	After fontspec	Chinese, Japanese, Korean typesetting with XeLaTeX. See Chapter 25.
`luatexja`	After fonts	Japanese typesetting with LuaLaTeX. Implements JIS X 4051. See Chapter 25.

B.12 Indexing

Package	Load	Description
`makeidx`	Any	Basic indexing: `\makeindex`, `\index{entry}`, `\printindex`. Requires external `makeindex` run. See Chapter 22.
`imakeidx`	Any	Enhanced indexing: multiple indexes, automatic `makeindex` invocation with `latexmk`. See Chapter 22.

B.13 Diagrams and graphics

Package	Load	Description
`tikz`	Any	Programmatic vector graphics. Extremely capable. Loads with `\usetikzlibrary{...}` for extensions. See Chapter 17.
`pgfplots`	After tikz	Data plots within LaTeX: function curves, scatter, bar charts, coordinate axes.

B.14 Document classes (not packages)

Class	Description
`article`	Standard articles, papers, reports without chapters.
`report`	Longer documents with chapters but without book front/back matter.
`book`	Full book with parts, chapters, front matter, back matter.
`scrartcl`	KOMA-Script article. More flexible than `article`, better European defaults.
`scrreprt`	KOMA-Script report.
`scrbook`	KOMA-Script book.
`memoir`	Comprehensive class combining article, report, and book. Large feature set.
`beamer`	Presentation slides. See Chapter 21.
`letter`	Standard correspondence. See Chapter 18.
`scrlttr2`	KOMA-Script letter. Superior to `letter` for professional correspondence. See Chapter 18.
`standalone`	Single-element documents (diagrams, equations). See Chapter 17.

B.15 Recommended minimal preambles

Article (pdfLaTeX):

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[protrusion=true,expansion=false]{microtype}
\usepackage{geometry}\geometry{margin=25mm}
\usepackage{booktabs,longtable,graphicx}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{cleveref}

Article (XeLaTeX):

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{EB Garamond}
\usepackage[protrusion=true]{microtype}
\usepackage{geometry}\geometry{margin=25mm}
\usepackage{booktabs,longtable,graphicx}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{cleveref}

Book (XeLaTeX, two-sided):

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,twoside,openright]{book}
\usepackage{fontspec}\setmainfont{EB Garamond}
\usepackage[protrusion=true]{microtype}
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{a4paper,inner=30mm,outer=25mm,top=30mm,bottom=25mm,bindingoffset=10mm}
\usepackage{fancyhdr,booktabs,longtable,graphicx}
\usepackage{makeidx}\makeindex
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage{cleveref}