Packages for typesetting

These days, Lua$\TeX$ is the officially recommended  engine over pdf$\TeX$, primarily due to the Unicode support and tagging features it offers. I use Lua$\LaTeX$ whenever possible, so keep that in mind when reading this list. For users of pdf$\LaTeX$ who would like to match the feature set of unicode-math, take a look at the second section.

Package listing

Below is an alphabetical list of packages I use with sufficient regularity to suggest:

• amsthm 
  • Used for defining customizable theorem-like environments
  • \newtheorem
• biber 
  • A UTF-8 supporting backend for Bib$\LaTeX$ that reads and processes entries
• biblatex 
  • Provides Unicode-aware formatting of bibliographies entirely controlled by $\LaTeX$ macros
• booktabs 
  • Publication-quality tables
  • \bottomrule, \cmidrule, \midrule, \toprule
• cancel 
  • Places lines through cancelled terms in math equations
  • \cancel, \cancelto
• caption 
  • Improves caption alignment and allows for bold labels
• cleveref 
  • Automatic referencing for equations, figures, tables, and sections
  • \cref, \crefrange
• derivative 
  • Simple and nice-looking derivatives and differentials
  • \adif, \odif, \odv, \mdv, \pdv
• enumitem 
  • Provides additional numbering and structuring control over the enumerate, itemize, and description environments
• fancyhdr 
  • Provides tools for constructing headers and footers with all kinds of customizable options
  • \fancyfoot, \fancyhead
• float 
  • Sometimes necessary for the placement of stubborn figures and tables
• fontsetup 
  • A wrapper package which loads fontspec, unicode-math, and a font of your choice
  • Only supports Lua$\LaTeX$
• geometry 
  • Changes page dimensions and removes the unnecessarily large default margins
• graphicx 
  • Allows for graphics, images, etc. to be added
  • \includegraphics, \resizebox
• hyperref 
  • Support for external hyperlinks and internal document references
  • \href, \url
• mathtools 
  • An extension to amsmath  with various fixes and improvements
  • \cases*, \DeclarePairedDelimiterX
• minted 
  • Syntax highlighting for all sorts of source code using the Pygments  library
  • \mintinline
• mhchem 
  • Provides commands for typesetting chemical molecular formulae and equations
  • \ce
• multirow 
  • Creates cells that span more than one row in a table
  • \multirow
• natex 
  • My package for mathematics, physics, and engineering macros
  • Separate implementations for Lua$\LaTeX$ and pdf$\LaTeX$
• pagecolor 
  • Recolors the page background and text
  • \color, \pagecolor
• pgf 
  • Essential for creating great-looking .pgf plots with Matplotlib and friends
• pgfplots 
  • Draws high-quality function plots using the TikZ interface
  • Automatically loads tikz
• physics2 
  • Provides a submodule for automatic braces
  • \ab
• siunitx 
  • A comprehensive SI unit package that includes macros for scientific notation
  • \ang, \num, \unit, \qty, \qtyrange
• tcolorbox 
  • Nicely formatted and customizable boxes for examples and worked problems
• tikz 
  • A user-friendly frontend for pgf that adds support for native diagram and graph creation
  • Automatically loads pgf
• threeparttable 
  • Provides “footnotes” for tables
  • \tnote
• unicode-math 
  • A comprehensive implementation of Unicode math for Lua$\LaTeX$
  • \setmathfont
  • Only supports Lua$\LaTeX$
• xcolor 
  • Allows for defining and using colors
  • \color, \definecolor

Packages for pdf$\LaTeX$ only

When using the Lua$\TeX$ engine with unicode-math and a supported math font like New Computer Modern , the following packages are not necessary since their features are already implemented. Additionally, the Unicode variants are often much nicer since they can be directly copied into a browser or text editor and are supported by screen readers. If you must use pdf$\LaTeX$, these are nice-to-haves.

• amsfonts 
  • Adds blackboard math and Fraktur fonts
  • \mathbb, \mathfrak
• amssymb 
  • Provides an extended symbol collection and loads amsfonts; if the heirarchy of AMS packages is confusing, check this  thread out
  • \Box
• bm 
  • Bold symbols in math mode that are safer than those from \boldsymbol
  • \bm
• esint 
  • Necessary for surface, volume, and direction contour integrals
  • \iiint, \oiint, \ointclockwise
• mathrsfs 
  • Adds Raph Smith’s Formal Script font to math mode
  • \mathscr

Notes on feature parity with Unicode math

Commands provided by amssymb, but technically not by unicode-math:

• \Box, \Diamond, \leadsto
• Note that unicode-math can use the following symbols instead: □, ◇, ⇝

Commands provided by both amssymb and unicode-math:

• \barwedge, \boxdot, \boxminus, \boxplus, \boxtimes, \Cap, \Cup

Commands provided by both amsfonts and unicode-math:

• \mathbb, \mathfrak

Commands provided by both mathrsfs and unicode-math:

• \mathscr

Commands provided only by unicode-math:

• \mathbffrak, \mathbfscr, \symbfcal