LaTeX Basics

Never used LaTeX before? Here's what you need to know — and why Flow makes most of it painless.

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX (pronounced "lah-tech" or "lay-tech") is a typesetting system. Unlike a word processor where you style text visually (clicking "Bold", dragging margins), in LaTeX you write commands that describe the structure of your document, and a compiler turns those commands into a beautifully formatted PDF.

It's the standard for academic papers, theses, math-heavy documents, and professional typesetting. The output quality — especially for equations, bibliographies, and cross-references — is hard to match with other tools.

The tradeoff is that you're writing markup rather than editing a visual page. Flow's job is to make that tradeoff less painful.

Document structure

Every LaTeX document has the same basic skeleton:

\documentclass{article}

% Preamble: packages and settings go here
\usepackage{amsmath}

\title{My Document}
\author{Your Name}
\date{February 2026}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}
Your text goes here.

\end{document}

\documentclass{article} — Sets the document type. Common classes: article, report, book, letter, beamer (for slides).
Preamble — Everything between \documentclass and \begin{document}. This is where you load packages and set metadata.
\begin{document} ... \end{document} — Your actual content goes between these.

Tip

You don't need to memorize this structure. Flow's templates set it up for you — just fill in the fields.

Common commands

LaTeX commands start with a backslash. Here are the ones you'll use most:

Text formatting

Command	Result	Flow shortcut
`\textbf{text}`	Bold text	`Ctrl+B`
`\textit{text}`	Italic text	`Ctrl+I`
`\underline{text}`	Underlined text	`Ctrl+U`
`\emph{text}`	Emphasized (usually italic)	—

In Flow, you can select text and press the shortcut — it wraps the selection in the appropriate command automatically.

Sections and headings

\section{Main Section}
\subsection{Subsection}
\subsubsection{Sub-subsection}

LaTeX handles numbering automatically. If you add a new section in the middle, all subsequent numbers update.

Including images

\usepackage{graphicx}   % in the preamble

\includegraphics[width=0.8\textwidth]{photo.jpg}

Put the image file in your project folder. Flow adds all subdirectories to the search path, so \includegraphics{photo.jpg} works even if the image is in a subfolder.

Math mode

This is where LaTeX truly excels. There are two ways to write math:

Inline math — Use single dollar signs: The area is $A = \pi r^2$
Display math — Use square brackets for centered equations on their own line:
```
\[ E = mc^2 \]
```

Common math commands:

Command	Output
`x^2`	Superscript (x squared)
`x_i`	Subscript
`\frac{a}{b}`	Fraction (a over b)
`\sqrt{x}`	Square root
`\sum_{i=1}^{n}`	Summation
`\int_0^\infty`	Integral

Lists

% Bullet list
\begin{itemize}
  \item First thing
  \item Second thing
  \item Third thing
\end{itemize}

% Numbered list
\begin{enumerate}
  \item Step one
  \item Step two
  \item Step three
\end{enumerate}

Tables

\begin{tabular}{l c r}
  Left  & Center & Right \\
  a     & b      & c     \\
  x     & y      & z     \\
\end{tabular}

The {l c r} part defines column alignment: left, center, right. Use & to separate columns and \\ to end rows.

Tables are one of LaTeX's more fiddly areas. For complex tables, packages like booktabs and tabularx help a lot.

Why Flow makes this easier

You don't need to learn all of this upfront. Flow helps in several ways:

Templates — Start with a template that already has the structure set up. You just fill in the content.
Ctrl+Tab — Jump between fields that need your input. No hunting through markup.
Ghost suggestions — The AI can suggest LaTeX commands and content as you type.
Formatting shortcuts — Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U wrap your selection in the right LaTeX commands.
Error explanations — When compilation fails, AI can explain the error in plain English.
Markdown import — Already comfortable with Markdown? Paste it in and Flow converts it to LaTeX.