EPPS Math Coding Camp

Quarto & LaTeX

Published

August 19, 2025

Instructor: Dongeun Kim

Quarto & LaTeX

This document will provide you a brief introduction to using Quarto and LaTeX to improve your reports and presentation of your data analyses.

Quarto is an authoring system (built on Pandoc) for multi-format documents; LaTeX is a typesetting language/engine for high-quality PDFs.

When you publish your work to PDF in Quarto, it converts your .qmd → LaTeX → PDF using a TeX engine (e.g., pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex).

Note

If you’re only targeting HTML output, then you don’t need LaTeX installed at all, but you can still write math equations in Quarto using LaTeX syntax (e.g., $y = mx + b$ -> $y = mx + b$).

Quarto

Quarto is an open-source, multi-language, next-generation version of R Markdown from Posit.

You can author in RStudio, Jupyter Notebook, VS Code, Positron, Neovim, plain text editors, or the Visual Editor, and embed executable code in R, Python, Julia, and Observable to create dynamic, reproducible content.

Like R Markdown, Quarto uses knitr to run R code and can render most existing .Rmd files without modification.

From a single source, you can publish production-quality work to HTML, PDF, MS Word, ePub and more, including: - Articles, presentations, dashboards, websites, blogs, and books - Documents complete with equations, citations, cross-references, figure panels, callouts, and advanced layouts

Quarto also supports organization-wide publishing via Posit Connect, Confluence, and other systems.

Note

Markdown: Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. It lets you write in an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain-text format, then convert it to structurally valid HTML.

Note

R Markdown: R Markdown is a file format (.Rmd) for making dynamic documents with R. An R Markdown document is written in markdown (plain text) and contains chunks of embedded R code.

Publishing

There are a wide variety of ways to publish documents, presentations, and websites created using Quarto. Since content rendered with Quarto uses standard formats (HTML, PDFs, MS Word, etc.) it can be published anywhere. Additionally, there is a quarto publish command available for easy publishing to various popular services (GitHub, Netlify, Posit Connect, etc.) as well as various tools to make it easy to publish from a Continuous Integration (CI) system.

Markdown basics

Quarto is based on Pandoc and uses its variation of markdown as its underlying document syntax. Pandoc markdown is an extended and slightly revised version of John Gruber’s Markdown syntax.

Markdown is a plain text format that is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly, easy to read.

This document provides examples of the most commonly used markdown syntax. See the full documentation of Pandoc’s Markdown for more in-depth documentation (https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#pandocs-markdown).

Text formatting

Markdown Syntax

Output

*italics*, **bold**, ***bold italics***

italics, bold, bold italics

superscript^2^ / subscript~2~

superscript² / subscript₂

~~strikethrough~~

~~strikethrough~~

`verbatim code`

verbatim code

Headings

Markdown Syntax

Output

# Heading 1

Heading 1

## Heading 2

Heading 2

### Heading 3

Heading 3

#### Heading 4

Heading 4

##### Heading 5

Heading 5

###### Heading 6

Heading 6

Link & Images

Markdown Syntax

Output

<https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/>

https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/

[UTDEPPSBootcamp](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/)

UTDEPPSBootcamp

![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png)

[![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png)](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/)

[![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png "UTE EPPS Bootcamp")](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/)

Lists

Markdown Syntax

Output

* unordered list
  + sub-item 1
  + sub-item 2
    - sub-sub-item 1

unordered list
- sub-item 1
- sub-item 2
  - sub-sub-item 1

* item 2

    Continued

item 2

Continued

1. ordered list
2. item 2
   i) sub-item 1
      A. sub-sub-item 1

ordered list
item 2
1. sub-item 1
  A. sub-sub-item 1

- [ ] Task 1
- [x] Task 2

Task 1
Task 2

(@) A list whose numbering
continues after

(@) an interruption

A list whose numbering
continues after
an interruption

::: {}
1. A list
:::

::: {}
1. Followed by another list
:::

A list

Followed by another list

term
: definition

term: definition

Note

Note that unlike other Markdown renderers (notably Jupyter and GitHub), lists in Quarto require an entire blank line above the list. Otherwise the list will not be rendered in list form, rather it will all appear as normal text along a single line.

Tables

Markdown Syntax

| Right | Left | Default | Center |
|------:|:-----|---------|:------:|
|    12 | 12   | 12      |   12   |
|   123 | 123  | 123     |  123   |
|     1 | 1    | 1       |    1   |

Output

Right	Left	Default	Center
12	12	12	12
123	123	123	123

Note

Learn more in the article on https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/tables.html.

Source code

Place your code on the line immediately after the opening chunk header (```{r}) and before the closing triple backticks (```).

Code

1 + 1

[1] 2

Code

# Load necessary packages and data
# install.packages("MASS")
library(MASS)
data("Boston")

# Display the first few rows of the dataset
head(Boston)

     crim zn indus chas   nox    rm  age    dis rad tax ptratio  black lstat
1 0.00632 18  2.31    0 0.538 6.575 65.2 4.0900   1 296    15.3 396.90  4.98
2 0.02731  0  7.07    0 0.469 6.421 78.9 4.9671   2 242    17.8 396.90  9.14
3 0.02729  0  7.07    0 0.469 7.185 61.1 4.9671   2 242    17.8 392.83  4.03
4 0.03237  0  2.18    0 0.458 6.998 45.8 6.0622   3 222    18.7 394.63  2.94
5 0.06905  0  2.18    0 0.458 7.147 54.2 6.0622   3 222    18.7 396.90  5.33
6 0.02985  0  2.18    0 0.458 6.430 58.7 6.0622   3 222    18.7 394.12  5.21
  medv
1 24.0
2 21.6
3 34.7
4 33.4
5 36.2
6 28.7

Code

summary(Boston)

      crim                zn             indus            chas        
 Min.   : 0.00632   Min.   :  0.00   Min.   : 0.46   Min.   :0.00000  
 1st Qu.: 0.08205   1st Qu.:  0.00   1st Qu.: 5.19   1st Qu.:0.00000  
 Median : 0.25651   Median :  0.00   Median : 9.69   Median :0.00000  
 Mean   : 3.61352   Mean   : 11.36   Mean   :11.14   Mean   :0.06917  
 3rd Qu.: 3.67708   3rd Qu.: 12.50   3rd Qu.:18.10   3rd Qu.:0.00000  
 Max.   :88.97620   Max.   :100.00   Max.   :27.74   Max.   :1.00000  
      nox               rm             age              dis        
 Min.   :0.3850   Min.   :3.561   Min.   :  2.90   Min.   : 1.130  
 1st Qu.:0.4490   1st Qu.:5.886   1st Qu.: 45.02   1st Qu.: 2.100  
 Median :0.5380   Median :6.208   Median : 77.50   Median : 3.207  
 Mean   :0.5547   Mean   :6.285   Mean   : 68.57   Mean   : 3.795  
 3rd Qu.:0.6240   3rd Qu.:6.623   3rd Qu.: 94.08   3rd Qu.: 5.188  
 Max.   :0.8710   Max.   :8.780   Max.   :100.00   Max.   :12.127  
      rad              tax           ptratio          black       
 Min.   : 1.000   Min.   :187.0   Min.   :12.60   Min.   :  0.32  
 1st Qu.: 4.000   1st Qu.:279.0   1st Qu.:17.40   1st Qu.:375.38  
 Median : 5.000   Median :330.0   Median :19.05   Median :391.44  
 Mean   : 9.549   Mean   :408.2   Mean   :18.46   Mean   :356.67  
 3rd Qu.:24.000   3rd Qu.:666.0   3rd Qu.:20.20   3rd Qu.:396.23  
 Max.   :24.000   Max.   :711.0   Max.   :22.00   Max.   :396.90  
     lstat            medv      
 Min.   : 1.73   Min.   : 5.00  
 1st Qu.: 6.95   1st Qu.:17.02  
 Median :11.36   Median :21.20  
 Mean   :12.65   Mean   :22.53  
 3rd Qu.:16.95   3rd Qu.:25.00  
 Max.   :37.97   Max.   :50.00

Equations

Markdown Syntax

Output

inline math: $E = mc^{2}$

inline math: $E = mc^{2}$

display math:

$$E = mc^{2}$$

display math:

\[E = mc^{2}\]

LaTeX

LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system that is widely used for producing scientific and mathematical documents. It is especially useful when your report includes complex equations, tables, and citations.

While Quarto is excellent for combining code and text, LaTeX is the go-to tool when you want full control over formatting in academic writing, especially for papers with complex equations.

It is a language for writing math and science cleanly. In Quarto, we use LaTeX syntax between $...$ (inline) or $$...$$ (display) to typeset equations; HTML needs no extra setup, and PDF uses a LaTeX engine behind the scenes.

LaTeX math in Quarto

Inline vs display

Inline: $E = mc^2$

Display:
$$
E = mc^2
$$

Inline: $E = mc^2$

Display: \[ E = mc^2 \]

Common symbols

Fractions/square roots: $\frac{a+b}{c}$, $\sqrt{x}$, $\sqrt[n]{x}$
Superscripts/subscripts: $x_i^2$, $\hat\beta$
Greek letters: $\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\pi,\Sigma,\Omega$
Functions/ops: $\sin x,\ \log x,\ \sum_{i=1}^n i,\ \int_0^1 x^2\,dx$
Vectors/matrices: $\mathbf{x},\ \vec{v},\ X^\top$

Fractions/square roots: $\frac{a+b}{c}$, $\sqrt{x}$, $\sqrt[n]{x}$

Superscripts/subscripts: $x_i^2$, $\hat\beta$

Greek letters: $\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\pi,\Sigma,\Omega$

Functions/ops: $\sin x,\ \log x,\ \sum_{i=1}^n i,\ \int_0^1 x^2\,dx$

Vectors/matrices: $\mathbf{x},\ \vec{v},\ X^\top$

Align multi-line equations

$$
\begin{aligned}
y &= \beta_0 + \beta_1 x + \varepsilon \\
\hat\beta &= (X^\top X)^{-1} X^\top y
\end{aligned}
$$

\[ \begin{aligned} y &= \beta_0 + \beta_1 x + \varepsilon \\ \hat\beta &= (X^\top X)^{-1} X^\top y \end{aligned} \]

Matrices and cases

$$
A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}
\qquad
f(x)=\begin{cases}
 x^2, & x\ge 0\\
 -x,  & \text{otherwise}
\end{cases}
$$

\[ A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \qquad f(x)=\begin{cases} x^2, & x\ge 0\\ -x, & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} \]

Reference

[Quarto] (https://quarto.org/)

[R Markdown from R Studio] (https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/)

[The LaTeX project] (https://www.latex-project.org/)

--- title: "EPPS Math Coding Camp" subtitle: "Quarto & LaTeX" instructor: "Dongeun Kim" date: "August 19, 2025" format: html: toc: true toc-depth: 3 code-fold: show code-tools: true highlight-style: github --- Instructor: `r rmarkdown::metadata$instructor` ```{r setup, include=FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE) ``` # Quarto & LaTeX This document will provide you a brief introduction to using Quarto and LaTeX to improve your reports and presentation of your data analyses. Quarto is an authoring system (built on Pandoc) for multi-format documents; LaTeX is a typesetting language/engine for high-quality PDFs. When you publish your work to PDF in Quarto, it converts your .qmd → LaTeX → PDF using a TeX engine (e.g., pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex). ::: callout-note If you’re only targeting HTML output, then you don’t need LaTeX installed at all, but you can still write math equations in Quarto using LaTeX syntax (e.g., `$y = mx + b$` -> $y = mx + b$). ::: ## Quarto ![Quarto](Quarto.png){#fig-id fig-alt="Quarto" width=100%} Quarto is an open-source, multi-language, next-generation version of R Markdown from Posit. You can author in **RStudio**, **Jupyter Notebook**, **VS Code**, **Positron**, **Neovim**, plain **text editors**, or the **Visual Editor**, and embed executable code in **R**, **Python**, **Julia**, and **Observable** to create dynamic, reproducible content. Like R Markdown, Quarto uses **knitr** to run R code and can render most existing **`.Rmd`** files without modification. From a single source, you can publish production-quality work to **HTML, PDF, MS Word, ePub** and more, including: - **Articles, presentations, dashboards, websites, blogs,** and **books** - Documents complete with **equations, citations, cross-references, figure panels, callouts,** and advanced layouts Quarto also supports organization-wide publishing via **Posit Connect**, **Confluence**, and other systems. ::: callout-note **Markdown**: Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. It lets you write in an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain-text format, then convert it to structurally valid HTML. ::: ::: callout-note **R Markdown**: R Markdown is a file format (**.Rmd**) for making dynamic documents with R. An R Markdown document is written in markdown (plain text) and contains chunks of embedded R code. ::: ### Publishing There are a wide variety of ways to publish documents, presentations, and websites created using Quarto. Since content rendered with Quarto uses standard formats (HTML, PDFs, MS Word, etc.) it can be published anywhere. Additionally, there is a quarto publish command available for easy publishing to various popular services (GitHub, Netlify, Posit Connect, etc.) as well as various tools to make it easy to publish from a Continuous Integration (CI) system. ### Markdown basics Quarto is based on Pandoc and uses its variation of markdown as its underlying document syntax. Pandoc markdown is an extended and slightly revised version of John Gruber’s Markdown syntax. Markdown is a plain text format that is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly, easy to read. This document provides examples of the most commonly used markdown syntax. See the full documentation of Pandoc’s Markdown for more in-depth documentation (https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#pandocs-markdown). #### Text formatting <style> /* two-column layout + tidy spacing */ .ex-header, .ex-row{ display: grid; grid-template-columns: minmax(360px,1fr) 1fr; column-gap: 3rem; /* horizontal gap between columns */ align-items: start; } .ex-header{ font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: .5rem; border-bottom: 1px solid #e5e7eb; padding-bottom: .4rem; } .ex-row{ padding: .6rem 0 .9rem; /* vertical spacing between rows */ border-bottom: 1px solid #e5e7eb; } /* remove theme underline & extra spacing on headings in demo cells */ .ex-row :is(h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6){ border-bottom: 0 !important; padding-bottom: 0 !important; margin-bottom: .2rem; } /* tighten inner margins */ .ex-row .sourceCode, .ex-row pre, .ex-row p{ margin: 0; } @media (max-width: 900px){ .ex-header, .ex-row{ grid-template-columns: 1fr; } } </style> <div class="ex-header"> <div>Markdown Syntax</div> <div>Output</div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown *italics*, **bold**, ***bold italics*** ``` </div> <div> *italics*, **bold**, ***bold italics*** </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown superscript^2^ / subscript~2~ ``` </div> <div> superscript^2^ / subscript~2~ </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ~~strikethrough~~ ``` </div> <div> ~~strikethrough~~ </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown `verbatim code` ``` </div> <div> `verbatim code` </div> </div> #### Headings <div class="ex-header"> <div>Markdown Syntax</div> <div>Output</div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown # Heading 1 ``` </div> <div> # Heading 1 </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ## Heading 2 ``` </div> <div> ## Heading 2 </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ### Heading 3 ``` </div> <div> ### Heading 3 </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown #### Heading 4 ``` </div> <div> #### Heading 4 </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ##### Heading 5 ``` </div> <div> ##### Heading 5 </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ###### Heading 6 ``` </div> <div> ###### Heading 6 </div> </div> #### Link & Images <div class="ex-header"> <div>Markdown Syntax</div><div>Output</div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown <https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/> ``` </div> <div> <https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/> </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown [UTDEPPSBootcamp](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) ``` </div> <div> [UTDEPPSBootcamp](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png) ``` </div> <div> ![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png) </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown [![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png)](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) ``` </div> <div> [![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png)](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown [![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png "UTE EPPS Bootcamp")](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) ``` </div> <div> [![Caption](UTDEPPSBootcamp.png "UTE EPPS Bootcamp")](https://eppsmathandcodingcamp.com/) </div> </div> #### Lists <div class="ex-header"><div>Markdown Syntax</div><div>Output</div></div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown * unordered list + sub-item 1 + sub-item 2 - sub-sub-item 1 ``` </div> <div> * unordered list + sub-item 1 + sub-item 2 - sub-sub-item 1 </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown * item 2 Continued ``` </div> <div> * item 2 Continued </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown 1. ordered list 2. item 2 i) sub-item 1 A. sub-sub-item 1 ``` </div> <div> 1. ordered list 2. item 2 i) sub-item 1 A. sub-sub-item 1 </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown - [ ] Task 1 - [x] Task 2 ``` </div> <div> - [ ] Task 1 - [x] Task 2 </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown (@) A list whose numbering continues after (@) an interruption ``` </div> <div> (@) A list whose numbering continues after (@) an interruption </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown ::: {} 1. A list ::: ::: {} 1. Followed by another list ::: ``` </div> <div> ::: {} 1. A list ::: ::: {} 1. Followed by another list ::: </div> </div>  <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown term : definition ``` </div> <div> term : definition </div> </div> ::: callout-note Note that unlike other Markdown renderers (notably Jupyter and GitHub), lists in Quarto require an entire blank line above the list. Otherwise the list will not be rendered in list form, rather it will all appear as normal text along a single line. ::: #### Tables ##### Markdown Syntax ```markdown | Right | Left | Default | Center | |------:|:-----|---------|:------:| | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | | 123 | 123 | 123 | 123 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ``` ##### Output | Right | Left | Default | Center | |------:|:-----|---------|:------:| | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | | 123 | 123 | 123 | 123 | ::: callout-note Learn more in the article on https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/tables.html. ::: #### Source code Place your code on the line immediately after the opening chunk header (\```{r}) and before the closing triple backticks (```). ```{r} 1 + 1 ``` ```{r} # Load necessary packages and data # install.packages("MASS") library(MASS) data("Boston") # Display the first few rows of the dataset head(Boston) summary(Boston) ``` #### Equations <div class="ex-header"> <div>Markdown Syntax</div> <div>Output</div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown inline math: $E = mc^{2}$ ``` </div> <div> inline math: $E = mc^{2}$ </div> </div> <div class="ex-row"> <div> ```markdown display math: $$E = mc^{2}$$ ``` </div> <div> display math: $$E = mc^{2}$$ </div> </div> ## LaTeX LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system that is widely used for producing scientific and mathematical documents. It is especially useful when your report includes complex equations, tables, and citations. While Quarto is excellent for combining code and text, LaTeX is the go-to tool when you want full control over formatting in academic writing, especially for papers with complex equations. It is a language for writing math and science cleanly. In Quarto, we use LaTeX syntax between `$...$` (inline) or `$$...$$` (display) to typeset equations; HTML needs no extra setup, and PDF uses a LaTeX engine behind the scenes. ### LaTeX math in Quarto #### Inline vs display ```markdown Inline: $E = mc^2$ Display: $$ E = mc^2 $$ ``` Inline: $E = mc^2$ Display: $$ E = mc^2 $$ #### Common symbols ```markdown Fractions/square roots: $\frac{a+b}{c}$, $\sqrt{x}$, $\sqrt[n]{x}$ Superscripts/subscripts: $x_i^2$, $\hat\beta$ Greek letters: $\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\pi,\Sigma,\Omega$ Functions/ops: $\sin x,\ \log x,\ \sum_{i=1}^n i,\ \int_0^1 x^2\,dx$ Vectors/matrices: $\mathbf{x},\ \vec{v},\ X^\top$ ``` Fractions/square roots: $\frac{a+b}{c}$, $\sqrt{x}$, $\sqrt[n]{x}$ Superscripts/subscripts: $x_i^2$, $\hat\beta$ Greek letters: $\alpha,\beta,\gamma,\pi,\Sigma,\Omega$ Functions/ops: $\sin x,\ \log x,\ \sum_{i=1}^n i,\ \int_0^1 x^2\,dx$ Vectors/matrices: $\mathbf{x},\ \vec{v},\ X^\top$ #### Align multi-line equations ```markdown $$ \begin{aligned} y &= \beta_0 + \beta_1 x + \varepsilon \\ \hat\beta &= (X^\top X)^{-1} X^\top y \end{aligned} $$ ``` $$ \begin{aligned} y &= \beta_0 + \beta_1 x + \varepsilon \\ \hat\beta &= (X^\top X)^{-1} X^\top y \end{aligned} $$ #### Matrices and cases ```markdown $$ A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \qquad f(x)=\begin{cases} x^2, & x\ge 0\\ -x, & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} $$ ``` $$ A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \qquad f(x)=\begin{cases} x^2, & x\ge 0\\ -x, & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} $$ ## Reference \[Quarto\] (https://quarto.org/) [R Markdown from R Studio] (https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/) [The LaTeX project] (https://www.latex-project.org/)