MacTeX - TeX Users Group
The MacTeX-2026 Distribution
Take Me There:
To download and install MacTeX without further ado, click the link
MacTeX Download Page
. MacTeX gives you
everything needed to typeset, completely configured and ready to use. It installs the full version
of TeX Live.
Page for Beginners:
If you are curious about TeX and LaTeX and would like to try it out without a massive installation, click
Easy Setup
. This page explains how to install and try TeX and LaTeX, and how to easily
remove the installation if you decide not to use it.
GUI-Applications:
The full MacTeX install package contains a subpackage called GUI-Applications, which installs
several programs in /Applications/TeX. The GUI-Applications subpackage is also
available as a separate download; see the
Page for Beginners
above. The page
GUI-Link
has a description of the contents of the package, including a link to a special version of TeXShop to be used on macOS 26, Tahoe.
Four Ways to Install TeX Live on a Macintosh:
MacTeX-2026 requires macOS 11, Big Sur, or higher and runs natively on Intel and Arm processors.
To download, click
MacTeX Download
The smaller BasicTeX-2026 also requires macOS 11, Big Sur, or higher and runs natively on Intel and Arm processors. To download, click
BasicTeX Download
You can also install TeX Live 2026 using the TeX Live Unix Install Script.
This method supports macOS 10.6, Snow Leopard, and higher and runs on Intel and Arm processors.
To download, click
Unix Download
To obtain older versions of MacTeX if you are running macOS 10.3 through 10.15, click
Older Versions
About TeX Live, MacTeX, and BasicTeX:
TeX Live is the standard distribution of TeX, LaTeX, and related programs produced by TeX Users Groups across the world. The distribution runs on the Macintosh, Windows, Linux, and Unix machines, using the same packages and fonts on all of these platforms. The binary programs are compiled separately for each platform, but from the same source code. The icon at the top right of our web pages is a link which takes you to the home page of TUG, the English language TeX Users Group.
MacTeX is a package which installs TeX Live on the Macintosh. The package is notarized by Apple and uses Apple's standard install technology. It contains native code for both Intel and Arm processors. When installation is complete, the software is fully configured and ready to use. The icon at the top left of our web pages is a link which takes you to this MacTeX home page.
The MacTeX working group inside TUG provides two install packages. One, BasicTeX, is relatively small, about 140 MB,
but fully capable of typesetting standard TeX and LaTeX documents. The other, MacTeX, is much larger and includes essentially all software available for typesetting with TeX-like systems, including TeX, LaTeX, XeTeX, LuaTeX, ConTeXt, etc.
This complete system supports almost every written language in use today, including languages of Western Europe, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and a multitude of more obscure scripts.
BasicTeX and MacTeX can coexist on the same machine, so users experimenting with TeX may reasonably install BasicTeX to try it out. The full MacTeX is recommended if you are certain that you will use TeX, even if you are a beginner, because any example in a book will automatically work and no time will be wasted adding extra missing components to the distribution.
TeX Live Utility and Keeping TeX Live Up To Date
Both the full MacTeX and the GUI-Applications package provided for BasicTeX install several
programs in /Applications/TeX: TeXShop, TeX Live Utility, LaTeXiT, BibDesk, and hintView. One of
these, TeX Live Utility, is crucial for keeping your TeX distribution up to date. When TeX Live Utility
is first opened, it lists all packages that have been updated overnight and offers to install these updates
in the distribution. But if you only open TeX Live Utility on rare occasions, it will provide all updates since it was last used.
Some users never update because they are in the middle of a project and need a completely stable platform. Others, like me, start each day with a cup of coffee, a TeX update, and a newspaper.
Recently there have been rapid tagging changes in LaTeX (see below) and users who did not update completely missed these changes.
MacTeX users may have several TeX distributions installed. For example, the directory
/usr/local/texlive might contain folders named 2025, 2026, 2026basic. Each is a full TeX distribution,
When a new distribution is installed, it becomes the "active" distribution; it is used for typesetting
and it is updated by TeX Live Utility. But TeX Live Utility also plays a crucial role when switching distributions. In the program's "Configure" menu, select "Change Default TeX Live Version".
A list of available distributions will be presented, and a new active distribution can be selected.
Features of MacTeX:
See
The LaTeX Tagging Project
for details on tagging LaTeX documents.
See
Available Tug Packages March 27, 2026
for access to all Macintosh packages on TUG as of 2026/03/27.
See
MacTeX and MacTeXtras
for a brief description of MacTeX and MacTeXtras.
Our policy on which versions of macOS to support is described in
Policy on Supported Systems
See
What's in the MacTeX package
for a complete description of what is installed, and read
Uninstalling
to uninstall MacTeX.
Changes in the 2026 version of the software are listed in
New Features in MacTeX-2026 and TeX Live 2026
The MacTeXtras curated list of documentation and links to additional TeX and LaTeX software
is available at
MacTeXtras
We are often asked about installing additional fonts in TeX Live. Important changes introduced in 2012 and modified in more recent years affect configuring TeX for these new fonts. These changes are described in
Adding-Fonts-and-Restricted-Shell-Escape
by Herbert Schulz, which also includes information on Restricted Shell Escape.
TeX Live automatically converts eps illustrations to pdf illustrations for appropriate typesetting engines.
See
Eps-Tiff-Conversion.pdf
for details.
Suggestions on keeping TeX up to date are given in
Update Schedule
. In particular, daily updates of programs in TeX Live can be obtained using
TeX Live Utility
. Installation of MacTeX-2026
does not overwrite older versions of TeX Live, and switching between these versions is
described in
Multiple TeX Distributions
The spell checker cocoAspell does not mark TeX commands as misspelled. It is not installed by MacTeX. To get it, see:
cocoAspell project
Solving Problems
For problems downloading the software, see
Downloading Issues
Other common problems specific to the Macintosh are described at
Mac-specific Complications
For help with fonts, see
Adding-Fonts-and -Restricted-ShellEscape
. See
Getting Help
for more general help.
Answers to frequently asked questions are given in
Frequently Asked Questions
For problems with dvisvgm:
About dvisvgm
For problems running ConTeXt:
ConTeXt Initialization
Learning about TeX and LaTeX
To start learning LaTeX or plain TeX:
(La)TeX help resources
For the history of TeX:
Just what is TeX?
TeX can produce documents of great beauty and complexity. Many examples are provided in the TeX Live web pages, accessed by clicking the icon at the top right of each of our pages. Early in the development of MacTeX, samples were produced specifically for our site, and while these samples are now quite old, it is fun to glance at them:
Trying Out TeX
MacTeX for Developers
Notarization and Associated Issues:
Notarization-for-Developers
MacTeX was originally conceived in 2005 by Wendy McKay and coded by Jonathan Kew. The current system is created and maintained by Richard Koch, Herbert Schulz, and Bruno Voisin.
Happy TeXing on macOS
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