TeX Live is intended to be a straightforward way to get up and running with the TeX document production system. It provides a comprehensive TeX system with binaries for most flavors of Unix, including GNU/Linux and macOS, and also Windows. It includes all the major TeX-related programs, macro packages, and fonts that are free software, including support for many languages around the world. Many Unix/GNU/Linux operating systems provide TeX Live via their own distributions and package managers. TeX Live is supported by the TeX Users Group and many other user groups around the world.

A gentle reminder: While TeX and friends are (and always will be) free, TUG's activities, such as publishing our TeX journal TUGboat and books, organization of conferences, coordination of TeX development including TeX Live, cost money. You can help by joining TUG or, if you wish, to make a donation. The contributions may be tax deductible in the US—and are always very welcome.

• Concise instructions, per platform:
  • install on Unix/GNU/Linux
  • install on Windows
  • install on MacOS: MacTeX distribution
  You can read the full manual for all the possibilities, including automated installations and using custom repositories.
• Ways to acquire TeX Live:
  • download,
  • an ISO image or via torrent,
  • on DVD,
  • other methods.
• Documentation.
• Contact and mailing lists (you don't need to subscribe in order to post).
• Known issues and highlights of changes in the current release (details for LuaTeX, pdfTeX, XeTeX).
• Installing/updating packages after installation and full upgrade from previous years.
• Documentation of tlmgr, the TeX Live Manager.
• Portable (USB and DVD) usage of TeX Live.
• TeX Live licensing, and integration with operating system distributions.
• Development source repository, and building the sources.
• How you can help, including our policy on AI-assisted contributions.
• Current release: TeX Live 2026 is available. It was released on 1 March 2026, and ongoing updates are available.
• The GPG public key we use to sign our releases. (You can view the contents with gpg --show-keyring texlive.asc, or gpg --list-options show-keyring depending on your gpg version.)

Some starting points for using TeX are in this introduction to the TeX world.

By the way, if you prefer an alternative to TeX Live, the other major (free software) TeX distribution is MiKTeX, which also runs on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Plan for TeX Live 2027:
1feb: candidate/final sources committed, test builds begin.
7feb: TL pretest starts, CTAN updates continue there and in tlnet.
27feb: code freeze for final build, major bug fixes only.
5mar: final updates from CTAN, final doc tweaks.
7mar: release TL and MacTeX.
As of 2024, the TeX Collection DVD is no longer sent as a TUG membership benefit. Images will be available for individual download and burning: see the TeX DVD page.

TeX Live has been developed since 1996 by collaboration between the TeX user groups. TeX Live was originally perpetrated by Sebastian Rahtz. Present miscreants include Akira Kakuto, Hironobu Yamashita, Hironori Kitagawa, Karl Berry, Luigi Scarso, Max Chernoff, Mojca Miklavec, Norbert Preining, Reinhard Kotucha, Takuji Tanaka, Yukimasa Morimi, and a cast of thousands.