LaTeX – A document preparation system

LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is not a word processor but Instead, LaTeX encourages authors not to worry too much about the appearance of their documents but to concentrate on getting the right content.

LaTeX is not a stand-alone typesetting program in itself, but document preparation software that runs on top of Donald E. Knuth's TeX typesetting system.