GenTeX

Generate LaTeX images

This project is deprecated, because the exact baseline of the SVG images was hard to determine causing the equations not to be aligned properly with the rest of the text and because adding LaTeX to a CI build will cause the build to be much longer. Also, cross-references were not supported yet. Alternatives:

• for pre-rendering LaTeX without using LaTeX but with excellent output, see Franklin.jl
• for inserting Tikz, see TikzPictures

The package has not been removed from the Julia Registries, because that is not possible.

This is a wrapper around pdflatex, pdfcrop and dvisvgm (to obtain SVG images) and is based on latex-formulae. Benefits of rendering LaTeX to images are to

• allow full LaTeX capabilities, such as using TikZ and
• avoid JavaScript on the client-side.

Generating LaTeX images is slow. Therefore, this project implements a in-memory cache which is also stored to disk. This is useful for speeding up local development and GitHub workflows.

For most use-cases, I would advise

Installation

In the Julia REPL, GenTeX can be installed by hitting ] to enter the Pkg mode:

julia> ]

pkg> add GenTeX

Alternatively, use

using Pkg
Pkg.add("GenTeX")

Syntax

The full LaTeX syntax is supported since the math expressions are passed into pdflatex. However, it is quite tricky to detect which parts of a string need to be interpreted as LaTeX. A regular expression is used; it can detect at least the following LaTeX expressions.

text = raw"""
  First, $ex$ and \(ex\) with
  
  $$ ex $$
  
  and
  
  \[ ex \]
  
  Also, 
  
  $$
  ex
  $$
  
  and 
  
  \[
  ex
  \]
  """

When you want to combine LaTeX with Julia's string interpolation, you cannot use a raw string. The shortest is then to use \$ for inline math and \\[ for display math.

"
1 + 1 = $(1 + 1)
since
\$ex\$
and
\\[
  ex
\\]
"

Licenses

This package is MIT licensed since it seems to be the default for Julia packages.

External:

• This project is loosely based on latex-formulae