Localization and internationalization ◾ pdfTeX, LuaTeX and XeTeX
This is the home page for Babel, the multilingual environment for LaTeX (and sometimes Plain) with the three basic engines (pdfTeX, LuaTeX and XeTeX). Its aim is to provide a localization framework for different languages, scripts, and cultures based on the latest advances in Unicode (including the CLDR), the W3C (where applicable) and other technologies.
Installation
Babel is one of the core components of LaTeX and therefore must be available on any LaTeX system. However, support for specific languages may require a separate installation in some cases.
Please, refer to the manual of the distribution you have installed,
which in Windows and MacOS usually involves configuring it with a
graphical user interface, and in Un*x systems with some command, as for
example sudo apt-get install texlive-lang-arabic for Arabic in
Ubuntu. (Note some Linux distros install outdated versions. In such a
case, it’s advisable to install TeXLive.)
Featured
- Which method for which language
When to use the old good language files and when
\babelprovideorprovide=*. - Non-standard hyphenation with luatex
Explains how to define special hyphenation rules like
ff→ff-f - Using \babelprovide to modify or extend locales Hints on how to tailor your language to your needs in some frequent cases.
- Useful links to tex.strackexchange Examples for many languages: Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, etc.
What’s new
| Version | Most relevant changes |
|---|---|
| 24.3 | Also minor changes and fixes (including spaces in French). |
| 24.2 | Minor changes and fixes. |
| 24.1 | New version numbering. interchar in \babelprovide. Spaces in French. |
| 3.99 | About 25 new locale files. |
| 3.98 | casing in ini files. Improved persian/farsi |
| 3.97 | \babelcharclass, \babelinterchar (xetex) |
| 3.96 | Improved Odia. Improved onchar |
| 3.95 | 16 new locale files (and a few fixes). |
| 3.94 | Chinese dates. New transform for kashida. New locale files. |
| 3.93 | Hebrew numerals. Chinese calendar. 6 new locale files. |
| 3.92 | A couple of fixes. |
| 3.91 | Mainly fixes and transliteration for Hebrew. |
| 3.90 | Casing. |
| 3.89 | Option modifiers.<lang>. |
| 3.88 | 37 new locale files. |
| 3.87 | Mainly fixes and minor improvements. |
| 3.86 | tabular improved. |
| 3.85 | Font-dependent transforms. |
| 3.84 | Auto-selection of encodings in pdftex. |
| 3.83 | Improved Punjabi. lscape. |
| 3.82 | Tibetan with XeTeX. Improved \babelprovide (with transforms). |
| 3.81 | Tentative Tibetan justification. Option letters for onchar |
| 3.80 | Captions for Hausa. Ethiopic calendar. |
| 3.79 | Mainly a maintenance release. |
| 3.78 | Some locales updated to the CLDR 41. |
| 3.77 | More on calendars: \today, coptic. New locale ar-SA. |
| 3.76 | Calendar converters. |
| 3.75 | \BabelEnsureInfo enabled by default. \localeinfo*. |
| 3.74 | Mainly fixes and improvements in math. |
| 3.73 | A fix. |
| 3.72 | Mainly fixes and minor improvements. |
| 3.71 | IAST transliteration for Sanskrit. |
| 3.70 | More (tentative) fixes for (ams)math (lua). |
| 3.69 | Fixes a bug with amsmath introduced in 3.68. |
| 3.68 | Fixes (Bengali, tabular and amsmath). |
| 3.67 | Transforms can be turned on ond off. |
| 3.66 | Transforms for Greek (transliteration.omega). |
| 3.65 | Fixes a severe bug with spanish. |
| 3.64 | New counters in CJK. |
| 3.63 | Fixes a severe bug with CJK and XeTeX. |
| 3.62 | Preliminary support for \AddToHook. |
| 3.61 | Transform danda.nobreak. Improved Arabic justification. |
| 3.60 | Mainly a maintenance release. |
| 3.59 | Tentative Arabic justification. |
| 3.58 | More transforms for Sanskrit, Polish, Czech, Serbian, etc. |
| 3.57 | Predefined transforms for Arabic, Greek, Hungarian, etc. |
| 3.56 | Transforms (in ini files) |
| 3.55 | Mainly internal changes. Captions in Uyghur. |
| 3.54 | Improved picture. |
| 3.53 | Templates in \setlocalecaption. Captions in Sinhala. |
| 3.52 | Improvements in \babelprehyphenation and \babelposthyphenation. |
| 3.51 | \setlocalecaption, to (re)define captions at the document level. |
| 3.50 | A bug fix release for 3.49. |
| 3.49 | ini files: enable standard LaTeX syntax as options; French spacing. |
| 3.48 | Preliminary tools for labels (for languages like Japanese and Hungarian). |
| 3.47 | ini+tex templates for about 500 languages. |
| 3.46 | Option to select languages with BCP 47 tags. |
| 3.45 | Improvements in \localedate. |
| 3.44 | Argument in \foreignlanguage to switch date and/or captions. Amharic. |
| 3.43 | Autoloading based on BCP 47 codes. |
| 3.42 | \getlanguageproperty. Syriac, Coptic, Church Slavic. |
| 3.41 | Counters and numerals (alphabetic and additive). |
| 3.40 | Locale ini files for Latin and Greek. ‘Other’ characters in hyphenation patterns. |
| 3.39 | Locale loading on the fly. |
| 3.38 | Automatic switching of locale and fonts based on script (lua). |
| 3.37 | Non-standard hyphenation, like f-f → ff-f (lua). |
| 3.36 | Polytonic Greek. Improvements in Chinese. |
| 3.35 | Shorthands work in bibs and refs even with safe=none. |