Developer(s) The LyX Team | Development status Active Operating system | |
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Initial release 1995; 22 years ago (1995) Stable release 2.2.2 / 15 October 2016; 4 months ago (2016-10-15) |
LyX (styled as
Contents
Since LyX largely functions as a front-end to the LaTeX typesetting system, it has the power and flexibility of LaTeX, and can handle documents including books, notes, theses, to academic papers, letters, etc. Knowledge of the LaTeX markup language is not necessary for basic usage, although a variety of specialized formatting is only possible by adding LaTeX directives directly into the page.
LyX is popular among technical authors and scientists for its advanced mathematical modes, though it is increasingly used by non-mathematically-oriented scholars as well for its bibliographic database integration and ability to manage multiple files. LyX has also become popular among self-publishers.
LyX is available for various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, UNIX, OS/2 and Haiku. LyX can be redistributed and modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License and is thus free software.
Features
History
Matthias Ettrich started developing a shareware program called Lyrix in 1995. It was then announced on Usenet, where it received a great deal of attention in the following years.
Shortly after the initial release, Lyrix was renamed to LyX due to a name-clash with a word processor produced by the company Santa Cruz Operation. The name LyX was chosen because of the file-suffix '.lyx' for Lyrix files.
Versions
Besides the main distribution of LyX which requires installation, there is also an unofficial portable version integrated with TeXLive called LyTeX.
Pronunciation
According to the project's wiki, the developers pronounce LyX as [ˈlɪks], like the English word "licks", or [ˈlʏks].