Latex command documentclass

The \documentclass command in LaTeX is used to determine what type of document is being created. For example,

\documentclass{article}

indicates that the template used internally by LaTeX is for a common article.

Main Options

The possible options to the documentclass command include:
• book: include the part and chapter divisions, with a format that uses front and back pages.
• report: similar to book, but assumes that only the front face of the paper is used.

Optional Parameters

The documentclass command can also receive optinal parameters that determine some formatting options for the Latex document. For example, the 11pt and 12pt options determine the size of the fonts used in the document. The following declaration:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

will generate a document using the "article" template and use fonts of size 12 points. Other options include:
• twocolumn: the document is typeset in two columns format
• leqno: the equation numbers will be set on the left side of the page.
Article created on 2008-08-21 22:35:48