Essential LaTeX Packages

LaTeX's power comes from its package ecosystem. There are over 6,000 packages on CTAN — but you only need to know a core set to handle 95% of documents well. This guide covers the most important packages by category with usage examples.

All packages listed here are pre-installed on Skozin — no configuration needed. Just add \usepackage{name} to your preamble and compile.

Document & Layout

geometry\usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry}

Set page margins, paper size, and orientation. The single most commonly used layout package.

setspace\usepackage{setspace}

Control line spacing. Provides \singlespacing, \onehalfspacing, \doublespacing, and \setstretch{1.3}.

multicol\usepackage{multicol}

Create multi-column layouts within a page. Use \begin{multicols}{2}...\end{multicols} for two-column sections.

parskip\usepackage{parskip}

Add space between paragraphs and remove paragraph indentation — the modern style preferred in many documents.

Typography & Fonts

microtype\usepackage{microtype}

Enables character protrusion and font expansion. Dramatically reduces overfull hbox warnings and improves text appearance.

fontenc\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

Use T1 font encoding for correct hyphenation of words with accented characters and proper PDF copy-paste.

inputenc\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

Tell LaTeX your source file is UTF-8 encoded. Required for pdfLaTeX when using any non-ASCII characters.

lmodern\usepackage{lmodern}

Load the Latin Modern fonts — a cleaner, scalable replacement for the default Computer Modern fonts.

Mathematics

amsmath\usepackage{amsmath}

The essential math package. Provides align, gather, multline environments, and \text{}, \operatorname{}, \DeclareMathOperator.

amssymb\usepackage{amssymb}

Extra math symbols: ℝ, ℤ, ℕ, ∅, ⊂, ≤, ≥, ∈ and hundreds more.

amsthm\usepackage{amsthm}

Theorem-like environments: \newtheorem{thm}{Theorem} creates numbered theorems, lemmas, proofs, and definitions.

siunitx\usepackage{siunitx}

Format numbers and physical units consistently: \SI{9.8}{m/s^2}, \num{3.14e6}, \ang{45}.

Figures & Tables

graphicx\usepackage{graphicx}

Include images with \includegraphics. Supports PNG, JPEG, PDF, EPS. Provides scaling, rotation, and cropping options.

booktabs\usepackage{booktabs}

Professional table rules: \toprule, \midrule, \bottomrule. Required for publication-quality tables.

subcaption\usepackage{subcaption}

Place multiple figures or tables side by side with individual sub-captions (a), (b), etc.

float\usepackage{float}

Adds the [H] placement specifier that forces a float exactly where it appears in the source.

Code & Verbatim

listings\usepackage{listings}

Syntax-highlighted code blocks for 80+ programming languages. Configure colours, line numbers, and frame style.

minted\usepackage{minted}

Superior code highlighting using Python Pygments. Requires --shell-escape compile flag. Better output than listings.

verbatim\usepackage{verbatim}

Enhanced verbatim environment and \verbatiminput{file.txt} to include a plain-text file as-is.

References & Links

hyperref\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

Makes all cross-references, citations, and URLs clickable in the PDF. Load last in preamble. hidelinks removes coloured boxes.

cleveref\usepackage{cleveref}

Smart references: \cref{fig:arch} outputs 'Fig. 1' automatically. Handles plurals: \cref{fig:a,fig:b} → 'Figs. 1 and 2'.

url\usepackage{url}

Formats and line-wraps long URLs with \url{https://...}. Safer than typing URLs in text mode.

Package Loading Order Matters

Load hyperref last

hyperref must be loaded after almost all other packages to avoid conflicts. Only packages explicitly designed for it (like cleveref) should come after.

inputenc and fontenc come first

Load encoding packages before font packages and certainly before loading document content.

amsmath before amsthm

amsthm depends on amsmath; always load amsmath first.

Avoid loading conflicting packages

Don't load both subfig and subcaption — they solve the same problem differently and will conflict. Pick one.

Experiment with packages in the editor

All packages above are available instantly — no installation needed.

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