LATEX is a typesetting language used to write lab reports, theses, textbooks, and things such as this document. When the time comes for you to deal with LATEX documents, you can pick up Inessential LATEX from the SIPB. The command latex processes LATEX files (suffix .tex) into DVI files (see above). Your LATEX work will most likely begin with some lab report, for which you will quite likely generate figures using Matlab. The print command in Matlab lets you generate an Encapsulated PostScript file (with the option -depsi) which you can then import into LATEX . A brief note you should recall is that there are two main versions of LATEX (Latex and Latex2e) and they differ by a few details. Versions of the latex command exist for both of these so you can make your DVI files.