The Full MacTeX
The full MacTeX-2025 install package contains four pieces
TeX Live 2025: the full distribution with over 4 gigabytes
of material.
GUI Applications: front ends, utilities,
and a small amount of startup documentation.
Ghostscript 10.04.0
Ghostscript 10.04.0 Extras
A Smaller Distribution, Basic TeX
TUG recommends the full MacTeX, even for beginners. It contains all files most users ever need. Beginners using it don't face
the daunting task of searching for missing components and figuring out how to install them in the TeX distribution.
BasicTeX is a much smaller alternate TeX Distribution for users who do not want to download the full TeX Live, or have unreliable internet connections. It contains all of the standard tools needed to write TeX documents, including TeX, LaTeX, pdfTeX, MetaFont, dvips, MetaPost, and XeTeX. BasicTeX does not overwrite the full distribution; it is installed in /usr/local/texlive/2025basic.
BasicTeX only contains the TeX Live piece of the full distribution; it does not contain GUI programs or Ghostscript. To use TeX on the Mac, it suffices to install BasicTeX and a front end. To make life easier for users who want to use BasicTeX instead of the full TeX Live, we include links below to various pieces of
MacTeX that can be added as needed.
Click the following link to obtain Basic TeX:
BasicTeX.pkg.
BasicTeX.pdf (Basic TeX documentation).
The Size is
117M - 08 March 2025
The MD5 sum is
dc75c2ff418a71228e4a9f798dfda8a7
The SHA512 sum is
dbd680d1760a2ab3d413c415e3ba96835cd1dbf464472966ba1c3101dce73d9e7a86f2df1ba13cb151972204e07599ba4830b919db435da03f1f2d71b97d4e1f
GUI Programs and Documentation from MacTeX
The GUI section of MacTeX contains four front ends and utilities.
These programs are often updated, so it is best to get them directly
from their respective web pages. Here are links:
TeXShop, a front end: TeXShop.
LaTeXiT, a package which typesets equations to be pasted into Keynote, etc.: LaTeXiT.
TeX Live Utility, a program to update and maintain TeX Live: TeX Live Utility.
BibDesk, a program to handle bibliographies: BibDesk.
Ghostscript 10.04.0 from MacTeX
Ghostscript is not required to run TeX (pdfLaTeX, XeTeX, etc.), but is often
useful for converting eps illustrations to other formats, or processing
dvi files. This link gives the full install package:
Ghostscript.pkg.
The Size is
44M - 10 February 2025
The MD5 sum is
ee043cbca4a5b4ad00bbc47608ec9733
The SHA512 sum is
3b90d797e988efd1867473fd2b9c7c8f7a36cf76bed907f828d09f030425914d8726d8cf071d506081fecdd245d0fca28040f5f08ec96c8821cc21e57c777c1a
Ghostscript-Extras 10.04.0 from MacTeX
The program dvisvgm requires the Ghostscript Library libgs and an extra binary called mutool. These pieces are an optional install in the full MacTeX package. They are available in a separate install package named Ghostscript-Extras 10.04.0. The link below gives this install package:
GhostscriptExtras.pkg.
The Size is
67M - 10 February 2025
The MD5 sum is
452a22002a044a1e736a45965d699f31
The SHA512 sum is
a7abfd695a113aa6ebf519b879060800706f894297ada1f03e26ea5ed1b56ff86c8a6f6f40e5b82b44937c2aa9b7d7c034b679d7dcd70578d4dc74dd149974f1
