Professional Typesetting Services-LaTeX or Word? (updated)

Publishing

minute read

Publishing results of a research done are very crucial and this is the reason why considerable effort and time are invested in producing manuscripts that are to be evaluated to publish in international conferences or scientific journals. You must employ the best tools for achieving greatest possible results in terms of writing quality. This is where the importance of professional typesetting services is realized.

A reader obviously is well acquainted with Microsoft word but LaTeX may be something foreign for many. The latter is a programming language, almost like HTML. In case if you want to make a sentence in bold, you have to type a particular command contrary to Microsoft Word where selecting the needed text and stroking ‘Ctrl’ and ‘B’ simultaneously will get you the results.

Having to type commands for every task is something really cumbersome. However once you study it and overcome the learning curve, seamless benefits can be enjoyed. You can focus exclusively on text content rather than appearance. Text made in line with the demands of a particular journal can be made compatible to another by making use of a single external file.

LaTeX or word typesetting

Features of LaTex vs. Word

In the larger typesetting industry, there always is a concern of layout while getting the content to the page and LaTex is capable of addressing this issue quite effectively. It is with the intention of creating exceptionally beautiful documents that LaTex is designed and the primary output file format for LaTex is PDF. This enables the documents to be shared easily with others without any need to worry about compatibility or about the format being misplaced. This is, in fact, a great boon forever entity associated with the concerned affairs.

The default layout that LaTex offers the users enables them to create professional layout quite easily and effortlessly. With LaTex, you are also given the opportunity to effectively adjust the space between characters, which is called kerning. The said are really appreciated virtues of Latex.

However, with Word, it is, in fact, a very different ball game altogether. The user needs to learn a range of options and features to make use of this robust platform. It also helps you to more rightly format a long document the way you desire. Word also suffers from not having the citation which is a desired feature by many in the typesetting industry as it is imperative when creating longer documents for publishing where citation has significant roles to play.

Many people who are working to create the thesis for Master or Ph.D. program would be much happier to use LaTeX typesetting services. When compared to Word, LaTeX is endowed with extensive options and features for font execution and selection. Thus it can make the document look better and more professional. Further, users, who are concerned with elements such as ligature, glyph variants, and transparency, will find LaTeXmore capable to meet all of their requirements than Word is.

Summary LaTeX vs. Word comparison

In the grand scheme of typesetting industry both these applications diverse range of scope, offer different functions and cater to varied requirements. Word works best when used for a shorter document that has least extensive formatting and text processing. However, on the other hand, LaTeX is specifically conceived as a deep and comprehensive document typesetting services program which is designed to treat documents all the while keeping the content of the document detached from presentation and formatting.

Practically there may be minute incompatibilities. However, when compared to Word, it is cleaner, easier and faster.

To identify the better option among LaTex and Word for typesetting companies, several tests were conducted. One of the experiments initiated by certain professors from the University of Giessen in Germany holds relevance.

The experiment started by demanding a certain number of volunteers to typeset certain text in 30 minutes, using LaTeX or Word. For characterizing the performance in regard to different text types, three different ones were proposed- a continuous and long text, text with tables and one with a lot of equations.

On comparing efficiency in regard of swiftness, perfections, and mistakes encountered, it was indicated that Word is far better than LaTeX when it comes to publishing results of researchers. The only exception was in case of latex typesetting mathematics as there were many equations involved. It was seen that experts in Word made more mistakes while those amateurs using LaTeX performed better.

We are one of the most renowned digital prepress and pre-media companies offering LaTeX typesetting services throughout the world. To know more about the benefits you can avail by hiring us, contact us today itself.

Leon William


Working in MAPSystems as a Senior Business Strategist, Leon William has solid experience in strategizing business plans that are targeted to meet business objectives in every way possible. Leon is specifically interested in performing gap analysis and adopting special measures to take the brand to the next level by using the right communication channels. He can handle challenging situations while developing a hard-core strategy for the emerging markets and is passionate about taking the legacy forward.