Lout (software)
Lout is a batch document formatter invented by Jeffrey H. Kingston. It reads a high-level description of a document similar in style to LaTeX and produces a PostScript file which can be printed on most printers. Plain text and PDF output are also available. The term Lout primarily designates a document formatting programming language, while the (only) implementation of the language (by Jeffrey H. Kingston) is sometimes referred to as Basser Lout. Basser Lout is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Lout copies some of its formatting algorithms from TeX but is intended to be much easier to program due to the use of high-level functional programming language, instead of a macro language. While a typical installation of LaTeX, together with TeX binaries takes from 50 to 300 MB, Lout is about 1 MB. This is mainly due to fewer packages and tools, but might also be attributed to a C implementation instead of macro language source code. Lout comes with an easy-to-read user guide, and the basics can be learned in a couple of hours. It includes packages for creating tables, charts, equations, and diagrams, everything in one package "out of the box".