Creating PDF documents without Latex

 The pdflatex and lualatex tool are both established ways to create high quality academic papers. Sometimes, it makes sense to explore alternative ways in doing the same task. What can be used instead are the following programs:
- Adobe distiller ( a printer driver which can create pdf files from any application like Quarkxpress and so on)
- Microsoft Word, Lowriter (can create natively pdf files)
- Ghostscript ( a distiller like printer driver)
- Cairo, ApacheFOP and fpdf (mostly used as report generators)

None of these programs has reached a larger market share. This might be surprising because espespecially the MS Word software is a well known software program which is installed on million of computers worldwide. The problem with MS Word is, that it is only yet another tool for creating pdf papers and is not able to dominate the market.

Basically spoken, if someone likes to explain that the latex software is obsolete he has to give possible alternatives which are not available yet. It seems that the disadvantages in pdflatex are not so large, that the users are staying away completely from the system but they have found strategies to master the learning curve. For example if a single user isn't able to adjust the page margin in latex he isn't switching back to MS Word but he is using a different latex package and stays within the latex ecosystem.

But let us take a closer look into possible latex alternative. The mentioned list of programs can be divided into two groups: open source (libreoffice, ghostscript) and closed source. The programs are acting either as a printer driver or as a MS Word like word processor. The fact that so many programs are available is a sign, that the problem of generating documents ia high complex topic. Some critics of Latex have asked why the texlive distrbution needs 10 GB Space on the harddrive. The sad answer is, that possible alternatives like Adobe Acrobat will also need 5 GB and more discspace and this doesn't include external programs like Quarkxpress. So it seems, that similar to the situatio in the 1980s, the task of desktop publshing can only be managed with dedicated DTP Workstations with endless amount of RAM.

The only software which can be mentioned as a true alternative to latex is MS Word and libreoffice. Both programs are powerful word processor programs which allows to create single column and multi column documents. In contrast to latex, they have an elaborated document file format which allows to insert images and annotate text.

Until today, word and libreoffice were not able to replace latex because of many reasons. The problems are well known and described within the latex community. It is about the poor typesetting quality in combination with the missing separation between layout and content. Both is a strength of latex which has the best typesetting quality and allows the user to focus on the content of the text.

Instead of arguing what of the programs should be used in the future the better idea is to describe first the current situation. The current situation is, that latex has the largest market share for creating academic content. It is followed by a large empty gap, and then all the minor software programs like Libreoffice and Distiller are following. The prediction is, that within the next 10 years nothing will change. That means, the Knuth software has dominated the 1990s and it will do so in the 2020s too.