.TH AMSTEX 1 "5 November 2025" "Web2C 2026"
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.if t .ds TX \fRT\\h'-0.10m'\\v'0.17v'E\\v'-0.17v'\\h'-0.06m'X\fP
.if n .ds TX TeX
.ie t .ds OX \fIT\h'-0.17m'\v'+0.21m'E\v'-0.21m'\h'-0.04m'X\fP
.el .ds OX TeX
.\" BX definition must follow TX so BX can use TX
.if t .ds BX \fRB\s-2IB\s0\fP\*(TX
.if n .ds BX BibTeX
.\" LX definition must follow TX so LX can use TX
.if t .ds LX \fRL\\h'-0.36m'\\v'-0.15v'\s-2A\s0\\h'-0.15m'\\v'0.15v'\fP\*(TX
.if n .ds LX LaTeX
.if t .ds AX \fRA\\h'-0.05m'\\v'0.15v'M\\v'-0.15v'\\h'-0.05m'S\fP\*(TX
.if n .ds AX AmSTeX
.if t .ds AY \fRA\\h'-0.1667m'\\v'0.15v'M\\v'-0.15v'\\h'-0.10m'S\fP\*(LX
.if n .ds AY AmSLaTeX
.\"=====================================================================
.SH NAME
amstex \- structured mathematical text formatting and typesetting
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B amstex
.RI [ first-line ]
.\"=====================================================================
.SH DESCRIPTION
The \*(AX language is described in the book
.IR "The Joy of \*(OX" ,
available from https://ctan.org/pkg/joy-of-tex.
.PP
\*(AX is a \*(TX format (macro package), not a modification to the \*(TX
source program, so all the capabilities described in
.BR tex (1)
are present; see tex(1) for details of command-line parsing, etc.
.PP
\*(AX was developed by the American Mathematical Society, and used in
their publishing program for many years. However, it is no longer
developed or used by them. Instead, authors are encouraged to use \*(LX,
likely with the \fIamsmath\fR package among others, which provides many
useful mathematical features. The \*(AX format is still provided for the
sake of supporting existing documents.
.PP
In the past, there were also formats named \fIamslatex\fR and
\fIlamstex\fR which combined \*(AX and \*(LX in various ways. These are
no longer distributed; standard \*(LX is now what's recommended.
.PP
The \*(AX macros have extensive support for math typesetting. In
general, like \*(LX, they encourage writers to think about the content
of their documents, rather than the form. The ideal, not always
realized, is to have no formatting commands (like \(lqswitch to
italic\(rq or \(lqskip 2 picas\(rq) in the document at all; instead,
everything is done by generic markup instructions: \(lqemphasize\(rq,
\(lqstart a section\(rq.
.SH OPTIONS
See
.BR tex (1).
.\"=====================================================================
.SH ENVIRONMENT
See
.BR tex (1).
.\"=====================================================================
.SH BUGS
See
.BR tex (1).
.\"=====================================================================
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR latex (1),
.BR tex (1).
.PP
Michael Spivak,
.IR "The Joy of \*(OX" ,
2nd edition, American Mathematical Society, 1990, ISBN 0-8218-2997-1.
.br
https://ctan.org/pkg/joy-of-tex
.br
amsguide: Documentation for \*(AX.
.br
amsmath package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/amsmath
.br
\*(AX package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/amstex