Class and package options

In L^ATEX 2.09, only document styles could have options such as twoside or draft. In L^ATEX2_e, both classes and packages are allowed to have options. For example, to specify a two-sided article with graphics using the dvips driver, you write:

   \documentclass[twoside]{article}
   \usepackage[dvips]{graphics}

It is possible for packages to share common options. For example, you could, in addition, load the color package by specifying:

   \documentclass[twoside]{article}
   \usepackage[dvips]{graphics}
   \usepackage[dvips]{color}

But because \usepackage allows more than one package to be listed, this can be shortened to:

   \documentclass[twoside]{article}
   \usepackage[dvips]{graphics,color}

In addition, packages will also use each option given to the \documentclass command (if they know what to do with it), so you could also write:

   \documentclass[twoside,dvips]{article}
   \usepackage{graphics,color}

Class and package options are covered in more detail in The LaTeX Companion and in LaTeX2e for Class and Package Writers.