Getting LaTeX on Mac OS X

When space is important, here is a way to get LaTeX on OS X with a small footprint (~50MB).
Credit: MacTeX

1) Download BasicTeX.
This will install a small subset of TeX Live on your system, but the small subset is remarkably capable, with TeX, LaTeX, pdfTeX, AMS-LaTeX, ConTeXt, XeTeX, etc.

2) Download TeXShop.

I also highly recommend LaTeXit, a program that quickly typesets LaTeX equations into PDFs. It does require Ghostscript and a few other dependencies, which is a 1-click install with a dmg file found here.

3) Download TeX Live Utility. Since you're working with a basic distribution, this streamlines installing necessary packages as needed.

That should get you started. Here is a nice page on getting LaTeX on OS X if you refer the full distribution.