After you obtain the TeX Live distribution, please read the main documentation for TeX Live, which includes installation instructions for Unix and Windows. For MacOSX, we recommend installing MacTeX, which contains all of TeX Live (and more).
The TeX Live guide is available in several languages and formats:
If you don't care to read documentation, and just want to install everything, try this quick Unix install recipe, and/or installation for Windows, and/or MacTeX for MacOSX.
Separate pages describe installing/updating packages after the original installation and contributing new packages. Another page describes highlights of changes in this release.
Components of TeX Live:
TL installer (install-tl) -
TL manager (tlmgr);
and, for developers: building TL
(pdf).
Links to additional information and documentation for some of
the basic components of the TeX system:
web2c -
tds -
pdftex -
kpathsea -
dvips.
TeX Live also includes all the documentation that the individual package and program authors have provided, mostly in the texmf*/doc subdirectories. The top-level doc.html file in the distribution has a comprehensive listing, including the manuals above.
If you can help by providing binaries for systems not listed here, please see the TeX Live build information. Binaries for the following systems are included in this year's release:
aarch64-linux(*) | GNU/Linux on ARM64 |
amd64-freebsd | x86_64 with FreeBSD |
amd64-netbsd(*) | x86_64 with NetBSD |
armhf-linux(*) | GNU/Linux on ARMv6/RPi |
i386-cygwin(*) | Intel x86 with Cygwin |
i386-freebsd(*) | Intel x86 with FreeBSD |
i386-linux(*) | Intel x86 with GNU/Linux |
i386-netbsd(*) | Intel x86 with NetBSD |
i386-solaris(*) | Intel x86 with Solaris |
win32 | Windows |
x86_64-cygwin | x86_64 with Cygwin |
x86_64-darwin | x86_64 with MacOSX/Darwin current |
x86_64-darwinlegacy | x86_64 with MacOSX legacy (10.6-10.9) |
x86_64-linux | x86_64 with GNU/Linux |
x86_64-linuxmusl(*) | x86_64 with GNU/Linux with musl |
x86_64-solaris(*) | x86_64 with Solaris |
(*) Marked platforms are omitted from the DVD, but are available as usual via a network install.
The messages in the TeX Live installer and TeX Live Manager are available in various languages (when running in GUI mode only; we want to keep text mode as simple as possible). If your language is not available and you want to help by providing a translation, or if you want to review the existing translations:
Please send new files, bug reports, suggestions, and any other discussion of the translations (of both the manuals and the strings) to tldoc@tug.org.
Many people have contributed to the translations over the years. Here is a list of languages and their respective current maintainers. Volunteers for other languages are most welcome.