MacTeX Changelog

What's new in MacTeX 2023

Mar 24, 2023
  • Cross-engine extensions:
  • In engines except for original TeX and e-TeX:
  • special followed by a new keyword “shipout” delays expansion of the argument tokens until shipout time, as with a non-immediatewrite.
  • euptex:
  • “Raw” (u)ptex no longer built; (u)ptex now runs in e(u)ptex's compatibility mode. Same for pTeX tools, listed below.
  • New primitives: tojis, ptextracingfonts, ptexfontname.
  • For font, new syntax for JIS/UCS is supported.
  • luatex:
  • new primitive variablefam to allow math characters to keep their class while still letting the family adapt.
  • improved r2l annotation areas
  • cross-engine “late special” described above.
  • metapost:
  • Bug fixes: svg->dx and svg->dy are now double, for better precision; mp_begin_iteration updated; memory leak in mplib fixed.
  • pdftex:
  • new primitive pdfomitinfodict to omit /Info dictionary completely.
  • new primitive pdfomitprocset to control omitting /ProcSet array: /ProcSet is included if this parameter is negative, or if this parameter is zero and pdftex is generating PDF 1.x output.
  • with pdfinterwordspaceon, if the current font's encoding has a /space character at slot 32, it is used; otherwise, the /space from the (new) default font pdftexspace is used. That default font can be overridden with the new primitive pdfspacefont. This same new procedure is used for pdffakespace.
  • ptex et al.:
  • As mentioned above, ptex now runs eptex in compatibility mode instead of being built separately.
  • pTeX tools (pbibtex, pdvitype, ppltotf, ptftopl) merged into corresponding upTeX versions, running in compatibility mode.
  • xetex:
  • bug fix for topskip and splittopskip computation when XeTeXupwardsmode is active; the cross-engine “late special” described above.
  • dvipdfmx:
  • new option --pdfm-str-utf8 to make pdfmark and/or bookmark.
  • bibtexu:
  • This BibTeX variant is mostly upward-compatible with bibtex, with much better (Unicode-based) multilingual support. It's been in TL for some years.
  • This year, more features to support CJK languages have been added, some extended from the Japanese (u)pbibtex and other programs.
  • kpathsea:
  • Support guessing input file encodings for Unix-ish platforms, as on Windows; enabled for (e)p(la)tex, pbibtex, mendex.
  • tlmgr:
  • default to text interface on macOS.
  • install core packages first, retry other packages once.
  • simplistic checks for enough disk space.
  • MacTeX:
  • MacTeX and its binary folder universal-darwin require macOS 10.14 or higher (Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura). The x86_64-darwinlegacy binary folder, available only with the Unix install-tl, supports 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and later.
  • The GUI package in MacTeX now contains hintview, a macOS viewer for HINT documents (created by the hitex and hilatex engines for mobile devices; see the HiTeX web page for more). The GUI package no longer installs a folder of documents, replacing them with a short READ ME for new users and a page about hintview.
  • The Extras folder of additional TeX sofware on the DVD has been replaced with a document containing links to download sites.
  • Platforms
  • As mentioned above, the new windows binary directory contains 64-bit Windows binaries, and the bin/win32 binary directory is gone, since we cannot support 32-bit and 64-bit Windows simultaneously.
  • The i386-cygwin binary directory is gone, since Cygwin no longer supports i386.

New in MacTeX 2022 (Apr 6, 2022)

  • General:
  • New engine hitex, which outputs its own HINT format, designed especially for reading technical documents on mobile devices. HINT viewers for GNU/Linux, Windows, and Android are also available.
  • tangle, weave: support optional third argument to specify output file.
  • Knuth's program twill for making mini-indexes for original WEB programs now included.
  • Cross-engine extensions:
  • In engines except for original TeX, Aleph, and hiTeX:
  • New primitive showstream to redirect show output to a file.
  • New primitives partokenname and partokencontext allow overriding the name of the par token emitted at blank lines, the end of vboxes, etc.
  • eptex, euptex:
  • New primitives: lastnodefont, suppresslongerror, suppressoutererror, suppressmathparerror.
  • pdfTeX extension vadjust pre now available.
  • luatex:
  • Support structured destinations from PDF 2.0.
  • PNG /Smask for PDF 2.0.
  • Variable font interface for luahbtex.
  • Different radical style defaults in mathdefaultsmode.
  • Optionally block selected discretionary creation.
  • Improvements for TrueType fonts implementation.
  • More efficient fontdimen allocation.
  • Ignore paragraphs with only a local par node followed by direction synchronization nodes.
  • metapost:
  • Bug fix for infinite macro expansion.
  • pdftex:
  • Support structured destinations from PDF 2.0.
  • For letterspaced fonts, use explicit fontdimen6 if specified.
  • Always start a warning at the beginning of a line.
  • for characters with autokern (pdfappendkern and pdfprependkern), still do protrusion; likewise, autokern both implicit and explicit hyphens.
  • ptex et al.:
  • Major update of pTeX to 4.0.0 to better support current LaTeX.
  • New primitives ptexlineendmode and toucs.
  • ucs (formerly available in uptex, euptex) becomes available also in ptex, eptex.
  • Distinguish 8-bit characters and Japanese characters as discussed in a TUGboat 41:3 article by Hironori Kitagawa.
  • Related changes in related engines: eptex, uptex & euptex.
  • xetex:
  • New wrapper scripts xetex-unsafe and xelatex-unsafe for simpler invocation of documents requiring both XeTeX and PSTricks transparency operators, which is inherently unsafe (until and unless reimplementation in Ghostscript happens). For safety, use Lua(La)TeX.
  • dvipdfmx:
  • Support for PSTricks without requiring -dNOSAFER, except for transparency.
  • The -r option to set bitmap font resolution works again.
  • dvips:
  • By default, do not attempt automatic media adjustment for rotated paper sizes; the new option --landscaperotate re-enables.
  • upmendex:
  • This index-sorting program is mostly upward-compatible with makeindex, with much better (Unicode-based) multilingual support. It's been in TL for some years.
  • Experimental support for Arabic and Hebrew scripts; improved character classification and language support.
  • kpathsea:
  • First path returned from kpsewhich -all is now the same as a regular (non-all) search.
  • tlmgr:
  • use https for mirror.ctan.org by default.
  • use TEXMFROOT instead of SELFAUTOPARENT for easier relocating.
  • MacTeX:
  • MacTeX and its binary folder universal-darwin require macOS 10.14 or higher (Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey). The x86_64-darwinlegacy binary folder, available only with the Unix install-tl, supports 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and newer.
  • Platforms:
  • No changes to platform support for this year (2022). However, for next year's release (2023), we are planning to switch the Windows binaries from 32-bit to 64-bit. Unfortunately we cannot feasibly support both simultaneously.

New in MacTeX 2021 (Apr 5, 2021)

  • The major change in 2021 is full support for both Arm and Intel processors. Arm binaries are compiled on a machine with an Arm processor and Intel binaries are compiled on a machine with an Intel processor. Then these binaries are combined into a single "universal binary" file. In 2021, these binaries are in /usr/local/texlive/2021/bin/universal-darwin.
  • The same sources are used on both machines, so Arm and Intel are on a completely equal footing. This will remain true for many years to come.
  • The only exceptions are biber and xindy, which only have Intel code but run fine using Rosetta. The program biber is compiled by its author rather than by TeX Live volunteers, and is expected to become universal later in the year. The program xindy requires CLisp, and we had trouble compiling CLisp for Arm machines.
  • Ghostscript now has universal code. The four GUI programs we distribute --- TeXShop, TeX Live Utility, LaTeXiT, and BibDesk --- also have universal code and full support for Big Sur. These programs are all signed, and thus can be included in MacTeX, which is signed and notarized.
  • X11 is a windowing system created at MIT and used in the Linux world. There is a third party open source project to provide X11 on the Macintosh; see https://www.xquartz.org. This project was updated to support both Arm and Intel in late February, 2021. The previous version only supported Intel.
  • Four binaries in TeX Live require X11: pdfopen, pdfclose, xdvi-xaw. If you want to use them, install xQuartz. Users with Arm must install the new February version.
  • Ghostscript is compiled twice, once with X11 support and once without. Thus we provide two binaries for Ghostscript in /usr/local/bin, called gs-X11 and gs-noX11. At install time, we create a link in this location named gs. It points to gs-X11 if the user installed xQuartz, and to gs-noX11 otherwise. If users on Arm machines want to use gs-X11, they should upgrade to the latest xQuartz before installing Ghostscript (or update to the latest xQuartz and then install Ghostscript again).

New in MacTeX 2020 (Apr 13, 2020)

  • Applications/TeX:
  • MacTeX-2020 installs the typesetting portions of the distribution in /usr/local/texlive/2020, a location rarely seen by users. The graphical interface programs needed to access TeX are installed in /Applications/TeX. This location was simplified last year for easier use. The four GUI programs BibDesk, LaTeXiT, TeX Live Utility, and TeXShop are at the top level, and a small number of documents and spelling programs are in a folder named Docs and Spell Utilities.
  • If users installed other programs in /Applications/TeX, they will remain, of course. Old documents installed in /Applications/TeX by MacTeX will be removed because they now live in the Docs and Spell Utilities folder. The Excalibur Spell Checking program has been removed because it only has 32 bit code and the current version of macOS requires that all applications have 64 bit code.
  • Catalina now requires that install packages be notarized and programs they contain adopt a hardened runtime. MacTeX usually installs four GUI programs, but only two of them have been upgraded for notarization. Those programs, TeXShop and LaTeXiT, are installed by MacTeX.
  • The other GUI programs we usually install are TeX Live Utility and BibDesk. Since they have not been updated, they cannot be supplied by MacTeX-2000. Instead MacTeX installs a short document in /Applications/TeX listing urls where these programs can be obtained.
  • The four GUI programs we usually install are TeX Live Utility, a program to update and maintain TeX Live, BibDesk, a program to create reference databases, LaTeXiT, a program to create mathematical formulas to be dragged into applications like KeyNote and Pages, and TeXShop, a front end to TeX and LaTeX. New users should open the folder Docs and Spell Utilities and read the short document READ ME FIRST. This document explains how to create and typeset a short document using TeXShop, and then lists many ways to learn more about TeX and begin serious work.
  • Many front ends are available on the Macintosh for TeX. Some are commercial and some are free. A number of free alternatives are available in the MacTextras portion of MacTeX.
  • TeX Live Utility and the TeX Dist Pref Pane:
  • Previously, MacTeX installed a preference pane for Apple's System Preferences allowing users to select the active TeX distribution. Unfortunately, this Preference Pane was a plugin for System Preferences, and when Apple changed System Preferences, the Preference Pane needed to be recoded. Apple often made changes.
  • In 2017, the functionality of the Preference Pane was moved to TeX Live Utility and the Preference Pane is no longer provided. To see a list of TeX distributions on your machine, run TeX Live Utility and select the item "Change Default TeX Live Version" from the Configure menu. A list of distributions will appear. Select the distribution you want to activate.
  • MacTeX does not remove old Preference Panes. To remove the pane, go to /Library/PreferencePanes and move TeXDistPrefPane.prefPane to the trash.
  • Many users know that /Library/TeX/texbin is a symbolic link to the binaries of the active distribution, replacing /usr/texbin in older systems. However, neither link is changed by TeX Live Utility or the Preference Pane when switching distributions. So please avoid the temptation to "do the job yourself by rewriting /Library/TeX/texbin."
  • Miscellaneous:
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 6 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 110 megs.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by TeX Live Utility, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • Ghostscript 9.50:
  • Ghostscript-9.50 was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.50/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. As used in the Far East, the fonts are not embedded in the file processed by Ghostscript, so Ghostscript needs direct access to the fonts being used, which can be fonts installed in the user's operating system as well as TeX Live fonts.
  • Norbert Preining wrote a script to search a user's computer and configure Ghostscript to support available CJK fonts. That script supports Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and is now part of TeX Live. Users in these countries are encouraged to run it. To see the current state of the script, go to https://github.com/texjporg/cjk-gs-support. To run the script in TeX Live, open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities, type the following lines, pushing RETURN after each one, and type your password when it is requested.

New in MacTeX 2019 (May 12, 2019)

  • Applications/TeX:
  • MacTeX-2019 installs the typesetting portions of the distribution in /usr/local/texlive/2019, a location rarely seen by users. The graphical interface programs needed to access TeX are installed in /Applications/TeX. This location was simplified last year for easier use. The four GUI programs BibDesk, LaTeXiT, TeX Live Utility, and TeXShop are at the top level, and a small number of documents and spelling programs are in a folder named Docs and Spell Utilities.
  • If users installed other programs in /Applications/TeX, they will remain, of course. Old documents installed in /Applications/TeX by MacTeX will be removed because they now live in the Docs and Spell Utilities folder. The Excalibur Spell Checking program has been removed because it only has 32 bit code and the next version of macOS requires that all applications have 64 bit code.
  • The four GUI programs we install are TeX Live Utility, a program to update and maintain TeX Live, BibDesk, a program to create reference databases, LaTeXiT, a program to create mathematical formulas to be dragged into applications like KeyNote and Pages, and TeXShop, a front end to TeX and LaTeX. New users should open the folder Docs and Spell Utilities and read the short document READ ME FIRST. This document explains how to create and typeset a short document using TeXShop, and then lists many ways to learn more about TeX and begin serious work.
  • Many front ends are available on the Macintosh for TeX. Some are commercial and some are free. A number of free alternatives are available in the MacTextras portion of MacTeX.
  • TeX Live Utility and tlmgr:
  • In 2017, the TeX Live infrastructure and in particular the command line program tlmgr (TeX Live Manager) were extensively revised for added security. This support was provided by the encryption program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), and more specifically the open source version of this program Gnupg, abbreviated gpg. This program is often provided on Linux systems, but is not part of Mac OS.
  • Because some countries have legal restrictions on encryption software, gpg is not provided by TeX Live. Tlmgr will operate without security enhancements if gpg is absent.
  • Most Macintosh users don't directly access tlmgr, but instead use it indirectly through TeX Live Utility, which is installed in /Applications/TeX. TeX Live Utility has been upgraded to support the new tlmgr. When it first runs after TeX Live 2019 is installed, it displays a dialog titled ``Enable security validation of packages.". If the user clicks "Enable," gpg is downloaded from a third party site and installed inside TeX Live.
  • TeX Live Utility and the TeX Dist Pref Pane:
  • Previously, MacTeX installed a preference pane for Apple's System Preferences allowing users to select the active TeX distribution. Unfortunately, this Preference Pane was a plugin for System Preferences, and when Apple changed System Preferences, the Preference Pane needed to be recoded. Apple often made changes.
  • In 2017, the functionality of the Preference Pane was moved to TeX Live Utility and the Preference Pane is no longer provided. To see a list of TeX distributions on your machine, run TeX Live Utility and select the item "Change Default TeX Live Version" from the Configure menu. A list of distributions will appear. Select the distribution you want to activate.
  • MacTeX does not remove old Preference Panes. To remove the pane, go to /Library/PreferencePanes and move TeXDistPrefPane.prefPane to the trash.
  • Many users know that /Library/TeX/texbin is a symbolic link to the binaries of the active distribution, replacing /usr/texbin in older systems. However, neither link is changed by TeX Live Utility or the Preference Pane when switching distributions. So please avoid the temptation to "do the job yourself by rewriting /Library/TeX/texbin."
  • Miscellaneous:
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 6 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 110 megs. In the past, we provided a package named MacTeX-Additions, containing Ghostscript and the GUI apps for users of BasicTeX. In 2017, we eliminated MacTeX-Additions. Instead, we provide a Ghostscript standalone install package, and provide links to the web pages supporting the GUI apps in MacTeX.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by TeX Live Utility, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • Ghostscript 9.27:
  • Ghostscript-9.27 was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.27/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. Yusuke, Voisin, and Preining provide this knowledge for Japanese. Preliminary work has also been done for Chinese and Korean. In addition, Preining wrote a script which can search a user's machine for other fonts and add appropriate configuration files to Ghostscript. All of this is described in more detail in a document MacTeX installs in /Applications/TeX, and in a READ ME file for users in Japan by Yusuke Terada, also installed in /Applications/TeX.

New in MacTeX 20180417 (Apr 28, 2018)

  • Applications/TeX:
  • MacTeX-2018 installs the typesetting portions of the distribution in /usr/local/texlive/2018, a location rarely seen by users. The graphical interface programs needed to access TeX are installed in /Applications/TeX. This location has been simplified this year for easier use. The four GUI programs BibDesk, LaTeXiT, TeX Live Utility, and TeXShop are at the top level, and a small number of documents and spelling programs are in a folder named Docs and Spell Utilities.
  • If users installed other programs in /Applications/TeX, they will remain, of course. Old documents installed in /Applications/TeX by MacTeX will be removed because they now live in the Docs and Spell Utilities folder. But the Excalibur spell checker is a special case. It used to live in /Applications/TeX/Excalibur, but is now installed in Docs and Spell Utilities. Some users installed extra dictionaries in the old /Applications/TeX/Excalibur. If such dictionaries are found, then the old folder will also remain and users can leave it alone or merge it into the new folder as desired.
  • The four GUI programs we install are TeX Live Utility, a program to update and maintain TeX Live, BibDesk, a program to create reference databases, LaTeXiT, a program to create mathematical formulas to be dragged into applications like KeyNote and Pages, and TeXShop, a front end to TeX and LaTeX. New users should open the folder Docs and Spell Utilities and read the short document READ ME FIRST. This document explains how to create and typeset a short document using TeXShop, and then lists many ways to learn more about TeX and begin serious work.
  • Many front ends are available on the Macintosh for TeX. Some are commercial and some are free. A number of free alternatives are available in the MacTextras portion of MacTeX.
  • TeX Live Utility and tlmgr:
  • In 2017, the TeX Live infrastructure and in particular the command line program tlmgr (TeX Live Manager) were extensively revised for added security. This support was provided by the encryption program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), and more specifically the open source version of this program Gnupg, abbreviated gpg. This program is often provided on Linux systems, but is not part of Mac OS.
  • Because some countries have legal restrictions on encryption software, gpg is not provided by TeX Live. Tlmgr will operate without security enhancements if gpg is absent.
  • Most Macintosh users don't directly access tlmgr, but instead use it indirectly through TeX Live Utility, which is installed in /Applications/TeX. TeX Live Utility has been upgraded to support the new tlmgr. When it first runs after TeX Live 2018 is installed, it displays a dialog titled ``Enable security validation of packages.". If the user clicks "Enable," gpg is downloaded from a third party site and installed inside TeX Live.
  • TeX Live Utility and the TeX Dist Pref Pane:
  • Previously, MacTeX installed a preference pane for Apple's System Preferences allowing users to select the active TeX distribution. Unfortunately, this Preference Pane was a plugin for System Preferences, and when Apple changed System Preferences, the Preference Pane needed to be recoded. Apple often made changes.
  • In 2017, the functionality of the Preference Pane was moved to TeX Live Utility and the Preference Pane is no longer provided. To see a list of TeX distributions on your machine, run TeX Live Utility and select the item "Change Default TeX Live Version" from the Configure menu. A list of distributions will appear. Select the distribution you want to activate.
  • MacTeX does not remove old Preference Panes. To remove the pane, go to /Library/PreferencePanes and move TeXDistPrefPane.prefPane to the trash.
  • Many users know that /Library/TeX/texbin is a symbolic link to the binaries of the active distribution, replacing /usr/texbin in older systems. However, neither link is changed by TeX Live Utility or the Preference Pane when switching distributions. So please avoid the temptation to "do the job yourself by rewriting /Library/TeX/texbin."
  • Miscellaneous:
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 3 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 110 megs. In the past, we provided a package named MacTeX-Additions, containing Ghostscript and the GUI apps for users of BasicTeX. In 2017, we eliminated MacTeX-Additions. Instead, we provide a Ghostscript standalone install package, and provide links to the web pages supporting the GUI apps in MacTeX.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by TeX Live Utility, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • Ghostscript 9.23:
  • Ghostscript-9.23 was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.23/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. Yusuke, Voisin, and Preining provide this knowledge for Japanese. Preliminary work has also been done for Chinese and Korean. In addition, Preining wrote a script which can search a user's machine for other fonts and add appropriate configuration files to Ghostscript. All of this is described in more detail in a document MacTeX installs in /Applications/TeX, and in a READ ME file for users in Japan by Yusuke Terada, also installed in /Applications/TeX.

New in MacTeX 20170524 (Jun 5, 2017)

  • TeX Live Utility and tlmgr:
  • The TeX Live infrastructure and in particular the command line program tlmgr (TeX Live Manager) have been extensively revised for added security. This support is provided by the encryption program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), and more specifically the open source version of this program Gnupg, abbreviated gpg. This program is often provided on Linux systems, but is not part of Mac OS.
  • Because some countries have legal restrictions on encryption software, gpg is not provided by TeX Live. Tlmgr will operate without security enhancements if gpg is absent.
  • Most Macintosh users don't directly access tlmgr, but instead use it indirectly through TeX Live Utility, which is installed in /Applications/TeX. TeX Live Utility has been upgraded to support the new tlmgr. When it first runs after TeX Live 2017 is installed, it displays a dialog titled ``Enable security validation of packages.". If the user clicks "Enable," gpg is downloaded from a third party site and installed inside TeX Live.
  • TeX Live Utility and the TeX Dist Pref Pane:
  • Previously, MacTeX installed a preference pane for Apple's System Preferences allowing users to select the active TeX distribution. The Pane displayed existing TeX distributions on a computer; for instance, it might list TeX Live 2016, TeX Live 2017, and Basic TeX 2014. Clicking a button before an item in the list made that distribution active. Automatically all GUI programs and the command line shell switched to use the new distribution. Consequently, if a user encountered a crucial bug in the 2017 distribution, they could easily retreat to the 2016 distribution.
  • Unfortunately, this Preference Pane was a plugin for System Preferences, and if Apple changed System Preferences, then the Preference Pane needed to be recoded. Apple often made changes. Originally the Pane required PPC code. After the Intel transition, it required both PPC and Intel code bundled in a universal binary. When 64 bit Macintoshes were introduced, the Pane required 64 bit code using garbage collection. Then garbage collection proved too slow for the iPhone, so Apple invented a new memory management technique called Automatic Reference Counting, and they required that the 64 bit code use Automatic Reference Counting rather than garbage collection. Indeed, garbage collection is now deprecated on the Mac.
  • Handling these various versions became a nightmare. MacTex had to have copies of all the forms of the Preference Pane, and select the appropriate copy for the user's particular operating system. But if the user later updated to a new system, the Preference Pane could stop working.
  • In MacTeX 2017, the functionality of the Preference Pane has been moved to TeX Live Utility and the Preference Pane is no longer provided. To see a list of TeX distributions on your machine, run TeX Live Utility and select the item "Change Default TeX Live Version" from the Configure menu. A list of distributions will appear. Select the distribution you want to activate.
  • MacTeX does not remove old Preferencee Panes. The Pref Pane and TeX Live Utility do the same thing to switch between distributions, so if your Pane still works, you can continue to use it. To remove the pane, go to /Library/PreferencePanes and move TeXDistPrefPane.prefPane to the trash.
  • Many users know that /Library/TeX/texbin is a symbolic link to the binaries of the active distribution, replacing /usr/texbin in older systems. However, neither link is changed by TeX Live Utility or the Preference Pane when switching distributions. So please avoid the temptation to "do the job yourself by rewriting /Library/TeX/texbin."
  • Miscellaneous:
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 2 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 110 megs. In the past, we provided a package named MacTeX-Additions, containing Ghostscript and the GUI apps for users of BasicTeX. In 2017, we eliminated MacTeX-Additions. Instead, we provide a Ghostscript standalone install package, and provide links to the web pages supporting the GUI apps in MacTeX.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by TeX Live Utility, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • Ghostscript 9.21:
  • Ghostscript-9.21 was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.21/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. Yusuke, Voisin, and Preining provide this knowledge for Japanese. Preliminary work has also been done for Chinese and Korean. In addition, Preining wrote a script which can search a user's machine for other fonts and add appropriate configuration files to Ghostscript. All of this is described in more detail in a document MacTeX installs in /Applications/TeX, and in a READ ME file for users in Japan by Yusuke Terada, also installed in /Applications/TeX.

New in MacTeX 20160603 (Jul 17, 2016)

  • TEX LIVE UTILITY AND TLMGR:
  • The TeX Live infrastructure and in particular the command line program tlmgr (TeX Live Manager) have been extensively revised for added security. This support is provided by the encryption program PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), and more specifically the open source version of this program Gnupg, abbreviated gpg. This program is often provided on Linux systems, but is not part of Mac OS.
  • Because some countries have legal restrictions on encryption software, gpg is not provided by TeX Live. Tlmgr will operate without security enhancements if gpg is absent.
  • Most Macintosh users don't directly access tlmgr, but instead use it indirectly through TeX Live Utility, which is installed in /Applications/TeX. TeX Live Utility has been upgraded to support the new tlmgr. When it first runs after TeX Live 2016 is installed, it displays a dialog titled ``Enable security validation of packages.". If the user clicks "Enable," gpg is downloaded from a third party site and installed inside TeX Live.
  • LEOPARD AND TEX LIVE UTILITY:
  • MacTeX-2016 still supports Leopard on both PowerPC and Intel machines. This support is becoming more and more difficult to provide. Because Leopard has an old version of perl, the enhanced tlmgr did not run on it until the author, Norbert Preining, added code to work around these perl problems at the very end of TeX Live 2016 development.
  • Moreover, recent copies of TeX Live Utility do not run on Leopard, so MacTeX installs a very old version of that program. Source code for that version is no longer available, so TeX Live Utility on Leopard cannot be changed. Since TeX Live Utility calls tlmgr to provide actual updates, the changes in tlmgr affect its performance.
  • TeX Live Utility can install two types of updates to TeX Live: critical updates and regular updates. The program still works in TeX Live 2016 for regular updates. But for critical updates, it appears to work and then reports an error at the last moment. This error does no harm to the system, but users must then install the critical update from the command line. Open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities and type the command sudo tlmgr update --self.
  • This will install the critical update. Restart TeX Live Utility and install remaining regular updates.
  • TEX LIVE UTILITY AND THE TEX DIST PREF PANE:
  • Previously, MacTeX installed a preference pane for Apple's System Preferences allowing users to select the active TeX distribution. The Pane displayed existing TeX distributions on a computer; for instance, it might list TeX Live 2015, TeX Live 2016, and Basic TeX 2014. Clicking a button before an item in the list made that distribution active. Automatically all GUI programs and the command line shell switched to use the new distribution. Consequently, if a user encountered a crucial bug in the 2016 distribution, they could easily retreat to the 2015 distribution.
  • Unfortunately, this Preference Pane was a plugin for System Preferences, and if Apple changed System Preferences, then the Preference Pane needed to be recoded. Apple often made changes. Originally the Pane required PPC code. After the Intel transition, it required both PPC and Intel code bundled in a universal binary. When 64 bit Macintoshes were introduced, the Pane required 64 bit code using garbage collection. Then garbage collection proved too slow for the iPhone, so Apple invented a new memory management technique called Automatic Reference Counting, and they required that the 64 bit code use Automatic Reference Counting rather than garbage collection. Indeed, garbage collection is now deprecated on the Mac.
  • Handling these various versions became a nightmare. MacTex had to have copies of all the forms of the Preference Pane, and select the appropriate copy for the user's particular operating system. But if the user later updated to a new system, the Preference Pane could stop working.
  • In MacTeX 2016, the functionality of the Preference Pane has been moved to TeX Live Utility and the Preference Pane is no longer provided. To see a list of TeX distributions on your machine, run TeX Live Utility and select the item "Reconfigure Distributions..." from the Configure menu. A list of distributions will appear. Select the distribution you want to activate.
  • MacTeX does not remove old Preferencee Panes. The Pref Pane and TeX Live Utility do the same thing to switch between distributions, so if your Pane still works, you can continue to use it. To remove the pane, go to /Library/PreferencePanes and move TeXDistPrefPane.prefPane to the trash.
  • Many users know that /Library/TeX/texbin is a symbolic link to the binaries of the active distribution, replacing /usr/texbin in older systems. However, this link is NOT changed by either the Pref Pane or TeX Live Utility when switching distributions. Avoid the temptation to switch without help!
  • SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR LEOPARD:
  • The Preference Pane functionality was not added to the special version of TeX Live Utility for Leopard. Leopard users can still use the old Preference Pane if they like. It is also possible to switch active distributions on the command line.
  • Users on all systems can switch distributions using Terminal. Type "texdist --list" and push RETURN to see a list of TeX Distributions available on a computer. Type "texdist --current" and push RETURN to see the currently active distribution. Type "sudo texdist ?setcurrent=TeXLive-2016.texdist" and push RETURN to switch to TeXLive-2016, and a similar command to switch to other distributions. The exact name of a distribution is the name provided by the list command.
  • FINAL REMARKS ON LEOPARD:
  • Providing Leopard support is becoming more and more difficult, and each year there is talk of dropping that support. Old versions of MacTeX are archived at ftp://ftp.tug.org/historic/systems/mactex/ so Leopard users could always obtain the final package we provide. When accessing the archive, use the Guest password. The main disadvantage is that neither tlmgr nor TeX Live Utility could be used to update style files, pkg files, fonts, and the like, and users would have to retreat to downloading these from CTAN and installing on their own.
  • If you have an active Leopard system and want to urge continuation of support, please write one of Richard Koch, Email: < [email protected] > or Herbert Schulz, Email: < [email protected] >.
  • MISCELLANEOUS:
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 2 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 110 megs. In the past, we provided a package named MacTeX-Additions, containing Ghostscript and the GUI apps for users of BasicTeX. In 2016, we eliminated MacTeX-Additions. Instead, we provide a Ghostscript standalone install package, and provide links to the web pages supporting the GUI apps in MacTeX.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by TeX Live Utility, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • GHOSTSCRIPT 9.19:
  • Ghostscript-9.19, released just before work began on MacTeX-2016, was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.18/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. Yusuke, Voisin, and Preining provide this knowledge for Japanese. Preliminary work has also been done for Chinese and Korean. In addition, Preining wrote a script which can search a user's machine for other fonts and add appropriate configuration files to Ghostscript. All of this is described in more detail in a document MacTeX installs in /Applications/TeX, and in a READ ME file for users in Japan by Yusuke Terada, also installed in /Applications/TeX.

New in MacTeX 20150613 (Jun 16, 2015)

  • Ghostscript-9.16, released just before work began on MacTeX-2015, was extensively customized to support typesetting in the Far East. We were initially contacted by Munehiro Yamamoto about revisions for Japan. Then work was done by Kuroki Yusuke, Bruno Voisin, and Norbert Preining to perfect the configuration.
  • Ghostscript installs resources in /usr/local/share/ghostscript/9.16/Resource. By adding material to this location, Ghostscript can be enhanced without recompiling. Ghostscript comes with the "base 35" fonts required for Postscript, and this is enough for standard TeX applications like converting postscript files to pdf files, or converting eps illustrations to png illustrations. But sometimes, Ghostscript requires access to additional fonts. Two years ago, Bruno Voisin extended our Ghostscript package to give it access to many pfb font files in TeX Live.
  • In China, Japan, and Korea, more much extensive knowledge of CJK fonts is often required, depending on the typesetting engine used. Yusuke, Voisin, and Preining provide this knowledge for Japanese. Preliminary work has also been done for Chinese and Korean. In addition, Preining wrote a script which can search a user's machine for other fonts and add appropriate configuration files to Ghostscript. All of this is described in more detail in a document MacTeX installs in /Applications/TeX, and in a READ ME file for users in Japan by Yusuke Terada, also installed in /Applications/TeX.
  • Apple has not made life easy for authors of Preference Panes. When the switch was made to 64 bits, Pref Panes were required to be 64 bit snippets of code compiled using garbage collection. Later Apple deprecated garbage collection in favor of automatic reference counting, and now Pref Panes are required to use this newer memory management technique.
  • For this reason, the TeX Distribution Preference Pane did not work in Mavericks, and when a revised copy finally appeared, it broke in Yosemite. MacTeX-2015 installs a fixed version of the Pref Pane for Yosemite. This version has minor UI glitches: when a new selection is made, it asks for a password twice, and then switches the selection back to the original selection. But after that, the Pref Pane behaves normally.
  • The ability to switch the active distribution has also been added to TeX Live Utility. So two independent switching methods are now available.
  • MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live, well over 2 gigs worth of material. A smaller download, BasicTeX, is available, requiring a download of roughly 100 megs. In the past, we provided a package named MacTeX-Additions, containing Ghostscript and the GUI apps for users of BasicTeX. In 2015, we eliminated MacTeX-Additions. Instead, we provide a Ghostscript standalone install package, and provide links to the web pages supporting the GUI apps in MacTeX.
  • Both MacTeX and BasicTeX install ``TeX Distribution Data Structures'' in /Library/TeX/Distributions containing links to various parts of the distribution. This data is used by the TeX Dist Pref Pane, by TLU, by Ghostscript, and by others. Data structures from other distributions remain untouched. Our philosophy is that each distribution should control its own data.
  • But in previous years, exceptions were made for MacPorts and Fink --- we installed their data structures. We no longer do that; MacPorts, Fink, HomeBrew and others can safely write their own data. Even old packages from previous years wouldn't write over existing data for these distributions, so it is safe for MacPorts, Fink, and HomeBrew to install better data. Note that the old data will remain until overwritten.

New in MacTeX 2014 (Jan 17, 2015)

  • MacTeX-2014 installs updated versions of the GUI applications that were already in MacTeX-2013. TeXworks is no longer included, but is available for download here for OS X 10.5 [PPC & Intel], 10.6+ and 10.8+. Make sure you download the appropriate version for your OS.
  • MacTeX installs Ghostscript, 9.10, an update of the Ghostscript 9.07 in MacTeX-2013. This package is self-contained; MacTeX installs no libraries in /usr/local/lib. On Mrch 26, 2014, Ghostscript 9.14 was released, but that version has TeX-related bugs and could not be used in MacTeX..
  • In previous years, MacTeX installed the convert utility from Image Magick. This utility is no longer needed by tex4ht, and other graphic conversion programs are available in Mac OS X, including Preview and the command line program sips.
  • In previous years, MacTeX contained optional packages to make the Latin-Modern and TeX-Gyre fonts in TeX available to other Mac OS X programs. These are no longer provided because only a few users installed them, and because a better procedure is to create symbolic links in /Library/Fonts to desired opentype TeX fonts in TeX Live.
  • There was talk this year about dropping support for PowerPC. We decided to continue support so users could easily upgrade sty and cls files using TeX Live Utility or tlmgr. The PowerPC code has received only slight testing. The programs luajittex and asymptote contain only Intel code.
  • In prior years, MacTeX was provided as a zip file. Starting last year, the install file is provided as a pkg flat file which doesn't have to be zipped for a server or unzipped after downloading. The package is signed so it can be installed on Mountain Lion and Mavericks.
  • MacTeX-2014 installs a completely unmodified copy of the full TeX Live 2014 distribution. This is exactly the same distribution that runs on OS X, Windows, GNU/Linux, various BSD Unix systems, and other systems.
  • MacTeX-2014 contains two binary directories. The first, universal-darwin, contains 32 bit binaries for Intel and PowerPC; these run on Macs which have OS X 10.5 or later. The second, x86_64-darwin, contains 64 bit Intel binaries compiled on Snow Leopard; these programs run on Intel machines which are 64 bit capable and are running Snow Leopard or higher.
  • For new features in TeX Live 2014, see The TeX Live Guide for TeX Live 2014. For a brief summary see The TeX Live Pretest Page.
  • Donald Knuth patches bugs in TeX on a regular, but sparse schedule. He last previously patched in 2007 and his 2014 patches are in TeX Live 2014. He'll next look at bugs in 2020. For details on the 2014 fixes, see The TeX tuneup of 2014.

New in MacTeX 2013 (Jun 28, 2013)

  • Installs updated versions of the GUI applications that were already in MacTeX-2012.
  • MacTeX has optional packages to install two font collections (Latin Modern and TeX Gyre) in /Library/Fonts; these TeX fonts are already in TeX Live, but installing them in /Library/Fonts makes them available to standard Macintosh applications like Adobe Illustrator. By default, these fonts are not installed.
  • MacTeX installs the latest version of Ghostscript, 9.07, and an updated "Convert" from ImageMagick 6.8.3-3. These packages are self-contained; MacTeX installs no libraries in /usr/local/lib.
  • In prior years, MacTeX was provided as a zip file. The install package was rewritten last year using Apple's modern PackageMaker, so this year's MacTeX-2013.pkg is a flat file which doesn't have to be zipped for a server or unzipped after downloading. The package is signed so it can be installed on Mountain Lion.

New in MacTeX 2012 (Sep 7, 2012)

  • MacTeX-2012 installs updated versions of the GUI applications that were already in MacTeX-2011.
  • MacTeX has optional packages to install two font collections (Latin Modern and TeX Gyre) in /Library/Fonts; these TeX fonts are already in TeX Live, but installing them in /Library/Fonts makes them available to standard Macintosh applications like Adobe Illustrator. By default, these fonts are not installed.
  • MacTeX installs the latest version of Ghostscript, 9.05, and an updated "Convert" from ImageMagick 6.7.6-9. These packages are self-contained; MacTeX installs no libraries in /usr/local/lib.
  • In previous years, MacTeX was provided as a zip file. The install package was rewritten this year using Apple's modern PackageMaker, so this year's MacTeX-2012.pkg is a flat file which doesn't have to be zipped for a server or unzipped after downloading. The package is signed so it can be installed on Mountain Lion.

New in MacTeX 2011 (Aug 5, 2011)

  • Relatively few changes.
  • The Mac OS X binaries (universal-darwin and x86_64-darwin) now work only on Leopard or later; Panther and Tiger are no longer supported.
  • The biber program for bibliography processing is included on common platforms. Its development is closely coupled with the biblatex package, which completely reimplements the bibliographical facilities provided by LaTeX.
  • The MetaPost (mpost) program no longer creates or uses .mem files. The needed files, such as plain.mp, are simply read on every run. This is related to supporting MetaPost as a library, which is another significant though not user-visible change.
  • The updmap implementation in Perl, previously used only on Windows, has been revamped and is now used on all platforms. There shouldn’t be any user-visible changes as a result, except that it runs much faster.

New in MacTeX 2009 (Nov 19, 2009)

  • MacTeX-2009 installs updated versions of the GUI applications that were already in MacTeX-2008. In addition, MacTeX-2009 installs another front end named TeXworks.
  • MacTeX has optional packages to install two font collections (Latin Modern and TeX Gyre) in /Library/Fonts; these TeX fonts are already in TeX Live, but installing them in /Library/Fonts makes them available to standard Macintosh applications like Adobe Illustrator. By default, these fonts are not installed.
  • MacTeX installs the latest version of Ghostscript, 8.70, and an unpdated "Convert" from ImageMagick 6.5.2. These packages are self-contained; MacTeX installs no libraries in /usr/local/lib.