MacTeX Technical Working Group Homepage

Please see the MacTeX web pages for current information about TeX on macOS.
This page remains for historical purposes.

The MacTeX Technical Working Group (mTWG) was formed in Hawaii in July 2003 at TUG 2003: the Silver Anniversary -- 25 years! -- of TeX, the 24th Annual Meeting and Conference of the TeX Users Group (TUG). Its goal is to work on action items that would enhance current and future development of TeX on Mac OS X. Apple Computer Inc. was a sponsor at TUG 2003 and provided computers, wireless networking, and technical support that enabled TUG to have its first remote live presentation from the Netherlands to an audience in Hawaii.

The MacTeX Lion drawing by Duane Bibby, created to celebrate the success of TeX on Mac OS X, was presented to the Grand Wizard, Don Knuth in January 2004. It is available in screensaver sizes here.

About TeX on Mac OS X

What is TeX?
TeX on Mac OS X
Trying Out TeX on Mac OS X
TeX on Mac OS X Resources

General TeX References
Typography References
Some Real World Applications
Who Uses TeX?

News

2008 - TeX Live Utility by Adam Maxwell

The TeX Live Utility (mactlmgr) is a Macintosh GUI front end to the TeX Live 2008 distribution updater, TeX Live Manager (tlmgr), for easily updating the MacTeX distribution of TeX Live. It can be downloaded here.

- MacTeX Wiki by Joseph Slater (Chief Editor)

The MacTeX Wiki is an attempt to centralize all information about TeX on Mac.

- MacTeXtras by Herb Schulz

MacTeXtrasconsists of everything Mac from the TUG DVD except the MacTeX distribution itself. There are duplicates of some applications that come with MacTeX but additional and alternative applications that users of TeX on the Mac may find useful.

2007 - Special Award to Gerben Wierda

A TeX Lion Drawing Award was presented to Gerben Wierda (in absentia) at the TUG 2007 banquet on Thursday July 19, 2007 at San Diego State University, California, USA, in gratitude for bringing TeX on MacOS X to new levels of usability and maintainability.

- MacTeX Distributions

A new MacTeX-2007.dmg installer was released based on the full TeX Live 2007 distribution in February 2007. This was followed by a BasicTeX-2007 release on May 18, 2007.

2006 - gwTeX Distributions

From the middle of 2000 to 2006, Gerben provided the gwTeX (re)-Distribution of TeX using his i-Installer, which helped TeX users on MacOS X to make the transition from OS 9 seamlessly. This redistribution was initially based on teTeX, but Gerben rapidly moved to basing it on a mixture of teTeX and TeX Live with his own personal additions. Later all of the binaries in his distribution came from TeX Live, and indeed Gerben provided the Macintosh binaries to TeX Live.

In late 2006, Gerben constructed a new distribution, gwTeX, based entirely on TeX Live with his personal additions. He announced ending support for the earlier re-distribution at the TUG 2006 Conference and no longer provides email support for either distribution.

He still maintains his new distribution for his personal use and has made it available to the TeX community

2005 - The MacTeX Distribution

In December 2005, the MacTeX Distribution was included on TeXLive for the very first time. TeXLive is distributed on DVD and CD to members of most TeX User Groups as a principal part of the TeX Collection. The MacTeX Distribution is an Easy-to-Install Package, which contains a complete and up to date TeX system from Gerben Wierda's gwTeX (re)distribution. It also adds XeTeX and a few extra applications (at present, TeXShop, BibDesk, Excalibur, and i-Installer). It is for those who wish to easily obtain a full, mature TeX working environment on the Macintosh platform at the click of a mouse.

The installer program package was written by Jonathan Kew (XeTeX) and is maintained by Richard Koch (TeXshop). A brief overview about The MacTeX Distribution, written by Herb Schulz (Editor), is published in TUGboat Volume 26(3), [2005]. In the same volume, there is an article by Gerben Wierda on the: i-Installer: The evolution of a TeX install on XeTeX.

2004 - Sponsorships: Our thanks and gratitude to Apple Computer Inc. who sponsored the loan of several iBooks, Powerbooks, and a G5 Mac for the workshops and internet cafe at the TUG meeting,
Practical TeX 2004: Training and Techniques
Workshops and Presentations on LaTeX, TeX, ConTeXt, AMS-LaTeX
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, July 19-22, 2004.; Thanks also to Marratech, who sponsored an e-meeting for the MacTeX-TWG Special Interest Group (SIG) Discussion Session during the same meeting.

2003 - MacTeX Technical Working Group: This group was started at the TUG 2003 Annual Meeting and Conference, July 20-24, 2003, held at the The Waikoloa Beach Marriott, an Outrigger Resort on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island , Hawaii. At the Tuesday Happenings, Gerben Wierda gave a remote presentation from the Netherlands to the users of Tex on the Mac, and Dick Koch gave a presentation of The New Features of TeXShop.

2002 - ADA Winner: Apple Design Award:
Best Mac OSX Open Source Port
TeXShop 1.19, Richard Koch, Mathematics Department, University of Oregon

--- TeXShop and Aqua: Mathematically, The Right Choice
Aqua Success Stories