1 Standard classes for text documents
There are ten standard classes that should be included with every LaTeX distribution.
1.1 article
This document class is intended for work with a small number of pages, such as essays, exercise slips and small assignments, so it does not have an automatic title page. The command for chapter \chapter is not available in article document class. If you use \chapter{what ever} within article, you will receive the following error message:
! Undefined control sequence.
l.3 \chapter
{what ever}
If no additional options are selected, the following options are automatically set for article: letterpaper, 10pt, oneside, onecolumn, final
1.2 report
The report class is suitable for texts such as seminar papers and small theses such as bachelor's and master's theses; unlike article, it has a title page.
If no additional options are selected, the following report options are automatically set: letterpaper, 10pt, oneside, onecolumn, final, openany
1.3 book
The document class book is suitable for larger documents such as books.
If no additional options are selected, the following options are automatically set for book: letterpaper, 10pt, twoside, onecolumn, final, openright
1.4 letter
This document class is suitable for creating letters, the American letter format is meant, the standard options are: letterpaper, 10pt, oneside, onecolumn, final
2 further standard document classes
The other existing document classes are partly obsolete (proc, slides) or refer to development (ltnews, ltxdoc, ltxguide and minimal).
2.1 ltnews
ltnews, the class for LaTeX News, default values like article but with two-column sentence and oneside. The following article class options are disabled: a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, letterpaper, legalpaper, executivepaper, landscape, twoside, titlepage and onecolumn.
2.2 ltxdoc
ltxdoc, the class for the documentation of the LaTeX program, values like the article class.
2.3 ltxguide
ltxguide, the class for LaTeX documentation, values like the article class.
2.4 proc
proc, for proceedings (conference report etc.), default values like article but with two-column record. The following article class options are not supported: a5paper, b5paper, onecolumn and titlepage.
2.5 minimal
minimal, test class to develop your own classes. Therefore only the size of a page and a default font size is defined.
2.6 slides
slides, for overhead transparencies with large sans serif letters.
3 Standard class options
| article documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | twoside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | titlepage, notitlepage |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | twocolumn |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| report documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | twoside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | titlepage | notitlepage |
| beginning of a new chapter | openany | openright |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | twocolumn |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| book documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | twoside | oneside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | titlepage | notitlepage |
| beginning of a new chapter | openright | openany |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | twocolumn |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| letter documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | - |
| graphics | final | draft |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| ltnews documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | | - |
| page orientation | portrait | - |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | - |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | - |
| no. of columns | twocolumn | - |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| ltxdoc documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | twoside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | titlepage, notitlepage |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | twocolumn |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| ltxguide documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | twoside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | titlepage, notitlepage |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | twocolumn |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| proc documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | portrait | landscape |
| font size | 10pt | 11pt, 12pt |
| one- or two-sided | oneside | twoside |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | - |
| no. of columns | twocolumn | - |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |
| references | - | openbib |
| minimal documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | 8in x 6.5 in | - |
| font size | 10pt | - |
| slide documentclass |
| properties | default values | further options |
| paper size | letterpaper | a4paper, a5paper, b5paper, legalpaper, executivepaper |
| page orientation | - | portrait, landscape |
| font size | - | - |
| one- or two-sided | - | - |
| graphics | final | draft |
| title page | - | titlepage, notitlepage |
| no. of columns | onecolumn | - |
| equations | - | leqno, fleqn |