README.md

tex2svg

tex2svg is a Node.JS library for compiling the (La)Tex code blocks to SVGs.

Features

1. Generates truly responsive SVGs, which automatically scale and align respecting both the font size and the baseline.
2. Can generate both, inline SVGs and SVGs being loaded with img tag.
3. Supports math and tikz environments by default and is easily extendable.
4. Combines all the required blocks into one TeX file, therefore makes minimum exec calls.
5. Optimizes the resulting SVG with SVGO.

Installation

npm i tex2svg

latex and dvisvgm executables should be available in the PATH. LaTeX preview package should be installed (in most cases, it's installed by default).

Usage

The library provides three slightly different compilers one can choose from

import { Tex2Svg, Tex2SvgFile, Tex2SvgImgTag } from "tex2svg";

// The basic compiler
const basicCompiler = new Tex2Svg({
  tmpdir: "/tmp", // the dir for temporary files
  precision: 2, // the integer from 1 to 6, defines the number of digits after the comma
  inline: true, // generate inline SVG code
  minifyids: false, // minify IDs, use carefully when having several inline SVGs on one page
  prefixids: false, // prefix function for IDs
  preamble: [], // additional preamble, e.g. "\usepackage{cmbright}"
  dvisvgm: "dvisvgm", // dvisvgm command, e.g. "dvisvgm --optimize=remove-clippath --exact-bbox"
});

// The compiler which writes the resulting SVG in files.
// Will read from file instead of recompiling if the file already exists.
// Therefore it's useful for incremental builds.
const fileCompiler = new Tex2SvgFile({
  outdir, // the dir for SVG files, tmpdir by default
  name, // function returning the target file name, md5sum of the code by default
});

// Same as previous one, but returns <img> tags instead of SVG code.
// Useful when inline SVG inside HTML is unwanted
const imgTagCompiler = new Tex2SvgImgTag({
  imgtag, // function returning the img tag, the minimal implementation by default
});

Each compiler has a compile method, which receives the array of blocks. One can easily create the block manually, but the library provides two useful helpers for that

import { math, tikz } from "tex2svg";

// math for using as inline element
const inlineMath = math(
  "\\zeta(s) = \\sum\\limits_{n=1}^\\infty 1 / n^s",
  true
);
// math for using as block element
const displaystyleMath = math(
  "\\zeta(s) = \\sum\\limits_{n=1}^\\infty 1 / n^s"
);
// tikz with basic macros only
const basicTikz = tikz(
  "\\node (a) {A}; \\node (b) at (1,0) {B};\\draw [<->] (a) -- (b);"
);
// tikz with arrows library
const extraLibraryTikz = tikz(
  "\\node (a) {A}; \\node (b) at (1,0) {B};\\draw [open triangle 45-triangle 45] (a) -- (b);",
  ["arrows"]
);
// custom block
const simpleTextBlock = {
  code: "\\LaTeX",
  depth: true, // the block with depth can be vertically aligned
};

compiler.compile([
  inlineMath,
  displaystyleMath,
  basicTikz,
  extraLibraryTikz,
  simpleTextBlock,
]); // returns Promise with the array of strings

Examples

Check generated example pages with inline and external SVGs.