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I want to write an answer on StackExchange using better styling for the names of the different TeX engines. The upper/lowercase approximation in text looks silly and unprofessional. (BaCtRiAnCaMeLCaSe?)

I had hoped something like $\LaTeX$ would work, but nope.

I tried images, but it doesn't appear that I can make them inline with text. For example, this doesn't work LaTeX in the middle of a sentence.

I also tried HTML tags, sup and sub, to get LATEX, but that is hardly better.

Any help is appreciated.

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You don't: we don't have MathJaX enabled on the site, and there is a longstanding convention that outside of TeX systems, the 'proper names' can be written in simple mixed case. (This was once important for TeX itself, as there was a trademark issue with another system of the same name.)

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  • Not only "once important". It's still important. See tex.meta.stackexchange.com/a/10098
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Sep 7, 2023 at 15:33
  • @barbarabeeton I meant that the likelihood of being sued by Honeywell has likely receded
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Commented Sep 7, 2023 at 15:39
  • While being sued is no longer likely, I see "tex" online and on shipping containers nearly every day, and "TEX" less often, but not never. And I won't go into what happens when searching for "latex" online. It's just a good idea to be careful and use the recommended mixed-case forms, however unattractive, when it's impractical to use the actual logos.
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Sep 7, 2023 at 15:54
  • @barbarabeeton Please pardon me for showing my ignorance, but I thought Leslie Lamport didn't like the mixed-case recommendation and explicitly said that people can capitalize Latex in whatever way they like.
    – hackerb9
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 6:11
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    @hackerb9 -- I don't remember learning that Leslie said that, but it's true that a lot of people (myself included) don't really like CaMelCase. But I feel that it's important to avoid confusion whenever possible, so will stick to the most clearly recognizable form of a name.
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 14:41
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    @hackerb9 Certainly Philipp Lehman (original author of biblatex) was of that view (as am I, really)
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2023 at 14:48
  • @barbarabeeton If you hadn't heard of it, then I will assume I am mistaken. Maybe I was conflating something else Lamport said, which was something like, The hardest thing about LaTeX is how to pronounce it and I'm not going to tell anyone how to do that.
    – hackerb9
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 0:59
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    @hackerb9 -- But he did say something about that -- "Lah-TeX or Lay-TeX, anything but Ell-ay-TeX". I've forgotten what year, but I was there when he gave an introductory presentation at a DECUS meeting in San Francisco.
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 2:49
  • Thank you, Barbara. You are a wealth of TeXnical knowledge.
    – hackerb9
    Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 2:52

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