LyX combines the advantages of TeX/LaTeX with a graphical user interface. It therefore looks like a word processing programme, but LaTeX is generated in the background. It includes a formula editor and many templates for the scientific field.

LyX supports many output formats such as PDF, PostScript, DVI, HTML and OpenDocument. Latex documents can be opened and edited with it. LyX runs under Linux/Unix, Windows and Mac OS X and is translated into several languages.