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The definitive user manual and reference manual for TeX. Also published in hardcover as Computers & Typesetting, Volume A.
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The definitive user manual and reference manual for METAFONT. Also published in hardcover as Computers & Typesetting, Volume C.
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These volumes form the complete documentation of the TeX and METAFONT systems for digital typography. Volumes A and C are hardcover versions of the paperback user manuals.
Volumes B and D contain the source code for TeX and METAFONT, respectively, written with the literate programming methodology. ``Never before has a computer program of this size been spelled out so clearly and completely.''
Volume E contains precise definitions of about 500 letters, numerals, and other symbols, all described with METAFONT. This method of description produces an essentially infinite variety of well-hinted fonts from a single collection of specifications. Readers learn how to make their own personal variations, simply by changing a few parameters. Special symbols that are needed for unusual applications can also be created by using the many examples in this book as a model. The details captured in these METAFONT programs reveal many previously unpublished tricks that type designers have been learning during the past centuries.
Thus, the five volumes of Computers & Typesetting belong to the class of sets of books that describe precisely their own appearance.
All seven books are available from the publisher, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
The first 26 printings of The TeXbook and the first 9 printings of The METAFONTbook each contained dozens of revisions, based on feedback from readers; but the present printings are ``stable'' and need not be changed further. Very few errors of any significance are known in the current editions. Those that have been reported can be found in the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN), a large collection of freely available material about TeX and METAFONT that appears in dozens of mirror sites through the world. The official errata lists appear in subdirectory systems/knuth/errata. File errata.tex in that subdirectory lists the errors in the current printings; other files errata.one, errata.two, ..., errata.ten give information about older printings. Files tex82.bug, mf84.bug, and cm85.bug contain records of all past changes to TeX, METAFONT, and Computer Modern. (A detailed history of all errors in TeX can be found in chapters 10 and 11 of the book Literate Programming and in chapter 34 of the book Digital Typography.) The 20th printing of The TeXbook and the 6th printing of TeX: The Program, in April 2000, incorporate corrections to all errors known to exist in those books at that time.
The complete electronic source for The TeXbook is file texbook.tex in CTAN subdirectory systems/knuth/tex; the complete electronic source for The METAFONTbook is file mfbook.tex in subdirectory systems/knuth/mf. The complete sources for the TeX and METAFONT programs are respectively systems/knuth/tex/tex.web and systems/knuth/mf/mf.web. The complete sources for the Computer Modern fonts are fonts/cm/mf/*.mf. All of these files contain up-to-date information, including all corrections in the errata lists.
If you're in too much of a hurry to wade through the CTAN archives, here's a current errata list in compressed PostScript, last updated 18 March 2008 (94K bytes).
If you think you have found a mistake that still persists in the current sources, please do not send it directly to me; I completed my work on TeX, METAFONT, and Computer Modern many years ago, and I'm working full-time on quite different things these days. Send purported error reports to bnb@ams.org; it will then be redirected to various people who have volunteered to vet such bug reports. Although everybody wants these systems to be outstanding examples of correctness, please submit reports only if you're quite sure that the error is real --- these TeX helpers are probably even busier than I am. After your submission has been certified, it will be put into a queue of things for me to look at, and I will study it in due time.
I still take full responsibility for the master sources of TeX, METAFONT, and Computer Modern. Therefore I periodically take a few days off from my current projects and look at all of the accumulated bug reports. This happened most recently in 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2002, and 2007; following this pattern, I intend to check on purported bugs again in the years 2013, 2020, 2028, 2037, etc. The intervals between such maintenance periods are increasing, because the systems have been converging to an error-free state. The latest and best TeX is currently version 3.1415926 (and plain.tex is version 3.141592653); METAFONT is currently version 2.718281 (and plain.mf is version 2.71). My last will and testament for TeX and METAFONT is that their version numbers ultimately become $\pi$ and $e$, respectively. At that point they will be completely error-free by definition.
If you do succeed in finding a previously undiscovered bug in the programs for either TeX or METAFONT, I shall gladly pay you a reward of $327.68. Corrections to errors in The TeXbook or The METAFONTbook are worth $2.56, as in all my other books.
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A special printing of all five volumes of Computers & Typesetting was produced at the end of 2000, containing ``ultimate'' editions that even include errata not mentioned in the CTAN archives. Here is the publisher's description:
Donald E. Knuth's five volumes on Computers & Typesetting comprise the definitive user guides and thoroughly documented program code for the TeX and METAFONT systems. This open-source software is widely used around the world by scientists, mathematicians, and others to produce high-quality, aesthetically pleasing text, especially where technical content is included.
TeX and METAFONT have now reached a state of maturity that few pieces of software have ever been able to achieve. The start of the Millennium is a perfect time to offer users and libraries the opportunity to fill their reference shelves with an up-to-date and comprehensive collection of Knuth's work, as well as to encourage a broad audience of software developers to learn from the complete, robust, and portable systems built by a master programmer.
This Millennium Boxed Set---five elegantly printed books that describe their own method of creation---celebrates Knuth's monumental coupling of programming and typography. Originally published in 1986, each volume has changed so much in subsequent printings that nearly every page has been touched in some way. Improvements to the books have followed developments in digital printing technology; they also reflect corrections submitted over the years by thousands of volunteers. The volumes in this box are the latest and most accurate versions yet published.
If you have earlier printings of Knuth's books, or holes in your collection, the Millennium Boxed Set makes updating easy. If you have none of the books, you now can conveniently get them all at once. Whether your work requires that you generate superbly formatted text, or that you hone the skills needed for writing your own successful programs, you will find these volumes to be an immediately valuable resource, as well as a treasure for future generations.
The source file texbook.tex for The TeXbook has been available for many years, and it begins with the following lines:
% This manual is copyright (C) 1984 by the American Mathematical Society.
% All rights are reserved!
% The file is distributed only for people to see its examples of TeX input,
% not for use in the preparation of books like The TeXbook.
% Permission for any other use of this file must be obtained in writing
% from the copyright holder and also from the publisher (Addison-Wesley).
\loop\iftrue
\errmessage{This manual is copyrighted and should not be TeXed}\repeat
From time to time, however, people have flagrantly violated these instructions, and posted PDF files of The TeXbook on the Internet.
Which of the words in those perfectly clear instructions do the people who do such things fail to understand? Please, if you happen to see illicit copies of these books, send a note to board@tug.org so that our user community can apply peer pressure and/or legal action to those who are unfairly exploiting our open-TeX approach.
Your best source of current information about all aspects of TeX and METAFONT is the international TeX Users Group (TUG), together with local organizations in China, the Czech and Slovak republics, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scandinavia, Slovenia, Spain (Catalan), Spain (Spanish), the UK, Vietnam, and possibly other countries; an up-to-date list appears at http://tug.org/usergroups.html. Send email to board@tug.org.
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