diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index 3c32cb811943..74272fa50db6 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ latex-build: generate
 	mkdir -p build/latex build/doctrees
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) build/latex $(FILES)
 	$(PYTHON) postprocess.py tex build/latex/*.tex
-	perl -pi -e 's/\t(latex.*|pdflatex) (.*)/\t-$$1 -interaction batchmode $$2/' build/latex/Makefile
+	perl -pi -e 's/LATEXOPTS =/LATEXOPTS ?= --halt-on-error/' build/latex/Makefile
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; the LaTeX files are in build/latex."
 	@echo "Run \`make all-pdf' or \`make all-ps' in that directory to" \
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 83cecc917ea8..09770535b698 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -178,15 +178,28 @@ def setup(app):
 }
 
 # Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
-latex_preamble = r'''
-\usepackage{amsmath}
-\DeclareUnicodeCharacter{00A0}{\nobreakspace}
-
+latex_elements['preamble'] = r'''
 % In the parameters section, place a newline after the Parameters
 % header
 \usepackage{expdlist}
 \let\latexdescription=\description
 \def\description{\latexdescription{}{} \breaklabel}
+% but expdlist old LaTeX package requires fixes:
+% 1) remove extra space
+\usepackage{etoolbox}
+\makeatletter
+\patchcmd\@item{{\@breaklabel} }{{\@breaklabel}}{}{}
+\makeatother
+% 2) fix bug in expdlist's way of breaking the line after long item label
+\makeatletter
+\def\breaklabel{%
+    \def\@breaklabel{%
+        \leavevmode\par
+        % now a hack because Sphinx inserts \leavevmode after term node
+        \def\leavevmode{\def\leavevmode{\unhbox\voidb@x}}%
+    }%
+}
+\makeatother
 
 % Make Examples/etc section headers smaller and more compact
 \makeatletter
diff --git a/doc/source/docs/howto_build_docs.rst b/doc/source/docs/howto_build_docs.rst
index 6deacda5cc93..f46070d78147 100644
--- a/doc/source/docs/howto_build_docs.rst
+++ b/doc/source/docs/howto_build_docs.rst
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Building the NumPy API and reference docs
 =========================================
 
 We currently use Sphinx_ for generating the API and reference
-documentation for NumPy.  You will need Sphinx 1.8.3 <= 1.8.5.
+documentation for NumPy.  You will need Sphinx >= 2.0.0.
 
 If you only want to get the documentation, note that pre-built
 versions can be found at
@@ -57,7 +57,9 @@ To build the PDF documentation, do instead::
    make latex
    make -C build/latex all-pdf
 
-You will need to have Latex installed for this.
+You will need to have Latex installed for this, inclusive of support for
+Greek letters.  For example, on Ubuntu xenial ``texlive-lang-greek`` and
+``cm-super`` are needed.  Also ``latexmk`` is needed on non-Windows systems.
 
 Instead of the above, you can also do::