MacTeX
Distribution of TeX typesetting software for Mac computers
title: "MacTeX" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-tex-software", "tex-software-for-macos"] description: "Distribution of TeX typesetting software for Mac computers" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacTeX" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Distribution of TeX typesetting software for Mac computers ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | MacTeX Distribution |
| logo | |
| screenshot | |
| developer | MacTeX TeXnical working group |
| released | |
| latest release version | MacTeX 2024 |
| latest release date | |
| latest preview date | |
| operating system | |
| platform | Arm and Intel |
| size | 5.7 GB |
| language | English |
| genre | TeX Live redistribution |
| license | Mixed free licenses |
| website | |
| AsOf | March 2024 |
| :: |
| name = MacTeX Distribution | logo = | screenshot = | caption = | collapsible = | author = | developer = MacTeX TeXnical working group | released = | latest release version = MacTeX 2024 | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | programming language = | operating system = | platform = Arm and Intel | size = 5.7 GB | language = English | genre = TeX Live redistribution | license = Mixed free licenses | website = | AsOf = March 2024
MacTeX is a free redistribution of TeX Live, a typesetting environment based on TeX. While TeX Live is designed to be cross-platform (running on Unix, macOS, and Windows), MacTeX includes Mac-specific utilities and front-ends (such as TeXShop and BibDesk). It is also pre-configured to work out-of-the-box with macOS, as it provides sensible defaults for configuration options that, in TeX Live, are left up to the user to allow for its cross-platform compatibility.
Details
MacTeX is packaged and distributed by the MacTeX TeXnical working group, a subgroup of TeX Users Group (TUG). TeX Live is distributed by the TUG, making MacTeX less a fork of TeX Live than a customised repackaging.
The full MacTeX install package contains three subpackages:
- TeX Live
- GUI applications
- Ghostscript (an open source version of PostScript)
A substantially smaller version of MacTeX, BasicTeX, which does not contain Ghostscript or the aforementioned GUI programs, can be used instead along with a TeX editor as well.
References
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::