Products · Product
LaTeX
Raised as a usability problem by 266 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 195 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
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- 3Too much markup detracts from writingUnreviewed
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- 3Too much markup detracts from writingUnreviewed
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- 14Creating tables is really hardUnreviewed
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Error messages make mistakes hard to diagnoseUnreviewed
20082026- Error messages are useless, so people can't tell what went wrong2026-06-13
- Unexpected errors show TeX engine messages unrelated to the LaTeX input, so they're hard to understand2026-06-13
- LaTeX error messages are too cryptic to understand, making it unusable2026-03-06
Builds fail unpredictably, needing reruns or cleaningUnreviewed
20082026- Builds fail unpredictably, needing reruns or cleaning, with obscure fixes hard to find2025-06-23
- Builds fail unpredictably, needing reruns or git clean to work2025-06-22
- Obscure and frustrating to work with; old documents no longer compile2024-10-13
Too much markup detracts from writingUnreviewed
20082026- Markup is highly verbose, making content unclean and hard to read like plain text2025-09-29
- Too much markup is needed, which detracts from writing2024-02-02
- Markup is cryptic and mixes content with styling, so edits risk subtle breakage2023-01-24
Large compilations take a minute, slowing iterationUnreviewed
20082026- Large LaTeX compilations take a minute, so iterating on documents feels slow and discouraging2026-02-05
- Setting up a proper LaTeX document for one's use case takes many hours2025-09-27
- Documents take a long time to compile, slower than alternatives like Typst2025-04-09
Packages are incompatible, requiring hours of workaround searchingUnreviewed
20082026- Packages conflict and debugging problems from first principles is nearly impossible2024-11-04
- Too many incompatible compilers and semi-incompatible packages make the workflow frustrating2024-01-26
- Syntax, toolchain and package management feel outdated and painful to use2024-01-08
Syntax is clunky and inconsistent to write and reason aboutUnreviewed
20082026- Syntax is a confusing mess that users must decipher2024-07-20
- Syntax is clunky and inconsistent, hard to write and reason about2023-10-20
- Syntax is cluttered and gets in the way; wants it simpler like Markdown2022-05-24
Macros are hard to write correctly and debugUnreviewed
20082026- Error messages are poor because the macro design leaves no syntax tree information2024-10-13
- Fixing errors and bad output becomes a nightmare due to macro layers2020-12-07
- Hard to compose macros without deep understanding, and cryptic error messages make debugging very difficult2017-09-01
Layout is poor for creative work compared with visual editorsUnreviewed
20082026- Existing LaTeX editors are clunky and show distracting non-features in the user's face2026-09-27
- Layout is horrible for the creative process compared with visual editors2023-09-17
- Typesetting tool's user experience is awful, costing the user many hours of frustration2018-03-20
Constantly looking up commands, special characters and bracesUnreviewed
20082026- Too many special characters to escape, slow compiles, unclear compilation steps, hard to debug2021-07-06
- Errors like improper environment nesting give puzzling error messages that are hard to debug2019-05-25
- Hours wasted debugging errors from stray characters like spaces2015-03-14
Unconventional formatting needs hacky workarounds that cause errorsUnreviewed
20082026- Unconventional formatting needs hacky workarounds that often cause errors2023-03-21
- Formatting errors like overflowing lines and bad word breaks take much work to fix2020-12-09
- Slightly different formatting becomes a battle needing deep knowledge of the system2019-05-25
LaTeX PDFs are inaccessible to screen readersUnreviewed
20082026- LaTeX-generated PDFs are inaccessible and do not work with screen readers2025-03-30
- LaTeX-generated PDFs are not readable by screen readers, so blind users can't access them2021-11-07
- PDFs are not accessible: copying text breaks and screen readers cannot use them2020-10-11
Hard to spot syntax errors in big formulasUnreviewed
20082026- Deciphering messy LaTeX formulas makes it hard to find where to correct2023-01-08
- Editing LaTeX formulas means re-parsing backslash-and-brace syntax written earlier2018-02-18
- Hard to parse big formulas and spot syntax errors or typos after writing2017-09-24
Basic documents need lots of boilerplate before they workUnreviewed
20082026- Setting up a basic template from scratch is tedious2024-03-12
- Basic document needs lots of boilerplate before it works2017-08-14
- Multiple ways to do the same thing and heavy boilerplate needed to start a document2014-10-01
Creating tables is really hardUnreviewed
20082026- Hard to use for building tables programmatically; described as a mess2020-08-11
- Creating tables in LaTeX is really hard to do2020-03-24
- Getting fancy nested tables to look right and fit well is a frustrating struggle2015-01-14
Must type \frac and \left( instead of simple symbolsUnreviewed
20082026- Math notation is hard to read as plain text and requires verbose commands like \frac and \right2025-03-22
- Simple parentheses need redundant \left and \right commands, making it unpleasant to write2019-07-03
- Must type \frac and \left( instead of simple / and (, which is awkward2019-06-15
Figure placement requires trial and errorUnreviewed
20082026- Too many options cause wasted effort getting tables and figures right2022-07-24
- Figure placement requires trial-and-error across many option combinations2022-04-13
- Default figure placement is bad, so users must trial-and-error positions to get figures where they want2020-11-13
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Some simple things are hard to do and defaults are not good enough2026-10-05
- Existing LaTeX editors are clunky and show distracting non-features in the user's face2026-09-27
- LaTeX syntax is awful to write, according to the commenter2026-07-18
- Error messages are useless, so people can't tell what went wrong2026-06-13
- Global catcode changes make it impossible to know which characters a macro treats as special2026-06-13
- Unexpected errors show TeX engine messages unrelated to the LaTeX input, so they're hard to understand2026-06-13
- Took multiple days to understand a tangled LaTeX template2026-05-28
- Floating figures never appear where the author wants them2026-05-28
- Commenter finds LaTeX awful to use despite good output2026-05-07
- Takes a lot of fighting to make documents look the way you want2026-05-07
- Customizing requires brittle makeatletter hacks and unpredictable breakage from unrelated changes2026-05-07
- Hard to figure out which packages to install because transitive dependencies aren't tracked2026-05-01
- Confusing package choices, version mismatches, and jarring syntax make report generation frustrating2026-04-30
- LaTeX error messages are too cryptic to understand, making it unusable2026-03-06
- Large LaTeX compilations take a minute, so iterating on documents feels slow and discouraging2026-02-05
- Placing images is painful because you can't know where they'll end up on the page2026-01-07
- Footer with page counter silently rendered off page, took hours to debug2025-10-24
- Markup is highly verbose, making content unclean and hard to read like plain text2025-09-29
- Fighting LaTeX package dependencies is very annoying to install and manage2025-09-28
- Setting up a proper LaTeX document for one's use case takes many hours2025-09-27
- Error messages are incomprehensible and the syntax is baroque, so people only learn enough to get by2025-09-27
- A single forgotten bracket produces cryptic, hard-to-decipher error messages2025-09-27
- Too arcane to remember, so every task requires searching and copy-pasting2025-09-27
- Easy to get lost in sidequests and hard to stay in writing flow2025-09-27
- Reviewers can't preview output without a build step; small edits spiral into formatting fixes2025-09-19
- Compile errors are opaque and hard to parse, especially for beginners2025-08-27
- Hard to remember the syntax for joining PDF page ranges2025-08-25
- Steep learning curve; layout hacks are right or wrong for esoteric reasons2025-07-19
- Builds fail unpredictably, needing reruns or cleaning, with obscure fixes hard to find2025-06-23
- Builds fail unpredictably, needing reruns or git clean to work2025-06-22
- Mixing Hebrew and Russian text into Latin document is very painful2025-06-22
- Hard to figure out what went wrong when compiling2025-06-22
- Setting up LaTeX and its overall usability leave a lot of room for improvement2025-06-03
- Crude syntax and obscure compilation error messages are hard to get past2025-05-05
- Error messages are cryptic and logs are infinitely long, hard to debug2025-05-05
- Documents take a long time to compile, slower than alternatives like Typst2025-04-09
- LaTeX-generated PDFs are inaccessible and do not work with screen readers2025-03-30
- Its user experience is terrible and would drive away authors2025-03-30
- Math notation is hard to read as plain text and requires verbose commands like \frac and \right2025-03-22
- Edge-case flag combinations are hard to work out and documented poorly2025-03-16
- Commenter found LaTeX so unpleasant to use they abandoned it for Typst2025-02-14
- Must copy-paste long preamble boilerplate to get sane defaults2025-01-11
- Hard to really learn; author wrote it for years without understanding it2024-11-11
- Packages conflict and debugging problems from first principles is nearly impossible2024-11-04
- Obscure and frustrating to work with; old documents no longer compile2024-10-13
- Error messages are poor because the macro design leaves no syntax tree information2024-10-13
- Spews intermediate files everywhere and constrains the current directory2024-09-20
- Learning LaTeX feels unintuitive and nearly impossible to do anything new2024-07-31
- Syntax is a confusing mess that users must decipher2024-07-20
- Setting up dependencies to compile a thesis template takes a day of manual steps2024-06-30