This example shows what a typical letter might look like. It uses the texfonts option for the header and the body of the letter. The texfonts option calls for use of TeX's Computer Modern fonts. The body has the typewriter typeface with a point size of 12.

Remember that LaTeX interprets a blank line as the start of a new paragraph, and that any of the special characters #,$,%, &, {, and } must be preceded by a backslash. To produce double quotes in typewriter typeface, use the " key on your keyboard. To produce double quotes in Roman typeface, use `` and '' instead.

The file named lettest.tex that was used to print this letter can be used as a template to write your own letters. All of the preamble commands that can be used by LaTeX letters are shown in lettest.tex. Many of the commands are commented out. They can be activated by removing the % at the beginning of the line.

The spacing and indentation of the preamble commands make the file easier to read; the outcome of your file is not affected. The preamble begins with the \documentstyle command and continues to the \begin{document} command where the document section starts. Your file must have a \end{document} command to indicate the end of the letter.

The texfonts option was chosen for the header of this letter because the Computer Modern fonts are available on any installation of TeX. Use the postscript, lafonts, or letterpaper options in the \headerfonts command to obtain a good looking header.

There is a draft version of the LaTeX Letter Reference on CFS in any subdirectory of /latexletter. It is an stexted, ASCII file that can be viewed on any screen or printed on any printer. The final version of the LaTeX Letter Reference will be available from the Computer Information Center in September or October.

See LaTeX, A Document Preparation System by Leslie Lamport to learn all about the LaTeX commands that you can put in the body of your letter.