Book Image

LaTeX Cookbook

By : Stefan Kottwitz
Book Image

LaTeX Cookbook

By: Stefan Kottwitz

Overview of this book

LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting software and is very popular, especially among scientists. Its programming language gives you full control over every aspect of your documents, no matter how complex they are. LaTeX's huge amount of customizable templates and supporting packages cover most aspects of writing with embedded typographic expertise. With this book you will learn to leverage the capabilities of the latest document classes and explore the functionalities of the newest packages. The book starts with examples of common document types. It provides you with samples for tuning text design, using fonts, embedding images, and creating legible tables. Common document parts such as the bibliography, glossary, and index are covered, with LaTeX's modern approach.You will learn how to create excellent graphics directly within LaTeX, including diagrams and plots quickly and easily. Finally, you will discover how to use the new engines XeTeX and LuaTeX for advanced programming and calculating with LaTeX. The example-driven approach of this book is sure to increase your productivity.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
LaTeX Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Coloring a table


Sometimes we see "zebra striped" tables; tables with alternating row colors. This design is intended to support horizontal reading without the need for separating lines.

While some people like the design, some say it may be harder to read. For example, while looking at a table, the eye may scan at first one color, and then need to jump back, scanning the rows with the other color. So, when we decide to go for this design, we should consider doing the following:

  • Make the color variation small to prevent the tendency of the eye to jump across even or odd rows. The information should be visually stronger than the distinction of those two layers.

  • Keep a good contrast between color and text. For example, black text with a dark gray background is hardly readable.

  • Have a different color for the header in order to emphasize it.

How to do it...

We will use the xcolor package for this task. The sample data for this table, which we will use in later recipes as well, has been taken from DistroWatch...