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MaTeX

Create LaTeX labels in Mathematica.

See the blog post for a detailed introduction to MaTeX and up to date troubleshooting information.

Installation

In Mathematica 11.3 or later, simply evaluate ResourceFunction["MaTeXInstall"][] to install or upgrade MaTeX.

In older versions that do not support resource functions, follow the manual installation instructions:

• Download the latest release, distributed as a .paclet file, and install it using the PacletInstall function in Mathematica. For example, assuming that the file MaTeX-1.7.8.paclet was downloaded into the directory ~/Downloads, evaluate

   Needs["PacletManager`"]
   PacletInstall["~/Downloads/MaTeX-1.7.8.paclet"]
  

  The most convenient way to obtain the path to a file is Mathematica's Insert → File Path... menu command.

• Make sure that a TeX system and Ghostscript 9.15 or later are installed.

  For Windows and Linux, the latest Ghostscript is available from its official download page.

  On OS X, MacTeX 2015 and later already include a compatible version of Ghostscript. If you use an older TeX distribution that doesn't, please obtain a recent Ghostscript from Richard Koch's page.

• Evaluate <<MaTeX`. MaTeX will attempt to auto-configure itself when it is loaded for the first time. If auto-configuration fails, it will display instructions on how to configure the path to the pdflatex and Ghostscript executables manually. Note: On Windows systems use the command line Ghostscript executable, i.e. the one with the name ending in c: gswin32c.exe or gswin64c.exe.

• Test MaTeX using MaTeX["x^2"].

  Open the documentation center and search for "MaTeX" to get started.

Upgrading or uninstalling

A newer version can be safely installed when an older version is already present. <<MaTeX` will always load the latest installed MaTeX that is compatible with your version of Mathematica.

A list of all installed versions can be retrieved using

PacletFind["MaTeX"]

Any of the items in the list can be uninstalled by applying PacletUninstall to it. To uninstall all versions at once, use

PacletUninstall["MaTeX"]

To see more information about the version that gets loaded by Needs, use

PacletInformaton["MaTeX"]

Note: If you installed MaTeX before it started using the paclet distribution format (i.e. version 1.6.2), uninstall it by removing the MaTeX directory from the following location:

[email protected][{$UserBaseDirectory, "Applications"}]

The following function will automatically download the latest release of MaTeX and install it:

updateMaTeX[] :=
  Module[{json, download, target},
    Check[
      json = Import["https://api.github.com/repos/szhorvat/MaTeX/releases/latest", "JSON"];
      download = Lookup[[email protected][json, "assets"], "browser_download_url"];
      target = FileNameJoin[{CreateDirectory[], "MaTeX.paclet"}];
      If[$Notebooks,
        [email protected][ProgressIndicator[Appearance -> "Necklace"], "Downloading...", Right],
        Print["Downloading..."]
      ];
      URLSave[download, target]
      ,
      Return[$Failed]
    ];
    If[FileExistsQ[target], PacletManager`PacletInstall[target], $Failed]
  ]

After evaluating the function definition above, just run updateMaTeX[], then <<MaTeX` to load the updated version.

Usage

Use MaTeX[texcode] or MaTeX[expression] to typeset using LaTeX. The latter will automatically apply TeXForm to expression.

The LaTeX code is interpreted in math mode. Remember to escape backlashes (i.e. type two \ characters when you mean one) when writing LaTeX code in Mathematica strings, e.g.

MaTeX["\\sum_{k=1}^{\\infty} \\frac{1}{k}"]

Multiple expressions can also be processed in one go:

MaTeX[{
  "\\frac{x^2}{\\sqrt{3}}",
  HoldForm[Integrate[Sin[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}]],
  Expand[(1 + x)^5]
}]

Processing a list of expressions together involves a single run of LaTeX, thus is much faster than processing each separately.

For many usage instructions, search for "MaTeX" in the documentation center.

Notes on performance

The limiting factor in the speed of MaTeX calls is running the pdflatex process, which might take as long as a second and cannot be sped up further. However, MaTeX caches results, making subsequent calls with the same TeX code near-instantaneous. MaTeX can also process a list of expressions using a single run of LaTeX, which is much faster than processing each separately.

Revision history

Version 1.7.8

• Improve compatibility with future Mathematica versions

Version 1.7.7

• Fix compatibility with Ghostscript 9.53.1

Version 1.7.6

• Improved compatibility with Mathematica 12.0 and 12.1
• Reliability improvements

Version 1.7.5

• Documentation improvements
• Improved error reporting

Version 1.7.4

• Documentation improvements

Version 1.7.3

• Added "WorkingDirectory" configuration option. This allows users to work around a RunProcess bug in some Mathematica versions on Windows where RunProcess would fail in a directory with non-ASCII characters in its name.
• Exposed MaTeX`Developer`Texify, to allow users to customize the expression to TeX code conversion. See Neat Examples in the MaTeX symbol documentation page.
• Documentation improvements

Version 1.7.2

• Better compatibility with the new documentation search in Mathematica 11.2
• Better error reporting in case of Ghostscript failure
• Documentation improvements

Version 1.7.1

• Work around a rare RunProcess bug that affects some Mathematica 10.0 installations on Linux
• Documentation improvements, along with a new tutorial on figure preparation

Version 1.7.0

• Internal refactoring, minor bug fixes and polish
• New functions in MaTeX`Developer` to aid troubleshooting
• Bug fix: running Ghostscript or pdflatex would fail on certain Linux distributions due to Mathematica changing LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Version 1.6.3

• More robust error checking and reporting
• Documentation improvements

Version 1.6.2

• The documentation is now integrated into the Documentation Center.
• Bug fix: full compatibility with Mathematica 10.0 restored.

Version 1.6.1

• Bug fix: better error checking for the CacheSize configuration option.

Version 1.6.0

• MaTeX now threads over lists. A list is batch-processed using a single run of LaTeX, which is much faster than element-wise processing. Implemented by Andreas Ahlrichs.

  Note that this changes behaviour slightly. Previous versions of MaTeX compiled MaTeX[{1, x^2, x/2}] as a single expression. Now each element of the list is converted to a separate result. To restore the old behaviour, apply TeXForm explicitly: MaTeX[TeXForm[{1, x^2, x/2}].

• Expressions with head TeXForm are now automatically handled.

• Bug fixes: Better handling of CR/LF line endings and character encodings.

Version 1.5.0

• Much improved LaTeX error reporting. Please report any problems you notice with the new error reporting.
• MaTeX now checks for common user errors and issues warnings. Turn them off using Off[MaTeX::warn].

Version 1.4.0

• Separated "Preamble" and "BasePreamble" options. The default preamble is now in "BasePreamble". The "Preamble" option can be set without needing to worry about the default.
• Package symbols are protected
• MaTeX now follows the standard Mathematica package structure. This means that it now consists of multiple files. Move the entire MaTeX directory (and not just MaTeX.m) into $UserBaseDirectory/Applications to install.

Version 1.3.0

• Added the "TeXFileFunction" and "LogFileFunction" options for easier debugging. Set them to Print to see the generated LaTeX code or the LaTeX log file.

Version 1.2.0

• Added ContentPadding option: ContentPadding -> True ensures that the the output height is at least one line height
• Added LineSpacing option
• The size of vertical borders is slightly different now: use LineSpacing -> {0, 14.4} to reproduce the older behaviour
• Bug fixes

Version 1.1.1

• Reliability fixes for Windows
• Windows: Work around Mathematica bug causing MaTeX to fail when the current directory has special characters in its name
• Windows: Ensure that auto-detected paths do not use / as path separator

Version 1.1.0

• MaTeX now attempts to automatically detect the location of Ghostscript and pdflatex on first run
• Syntax highlighting for MaTeX functions (added SyntaxInformation)
• Minor bug fixes and reliability fixes

Version 1.0.0

• Minor bug fixes and compatibility fixes

Version 0.3

• Bug fixes and other compatibility fixes: works with XeTeX and behaves better on Windows.

Version 0.2

• Automatic baseline alignment. MaTeX output is now perfectly aligned with Mathematica text.
• Improved positioning accuracy
• Added FontSize option (now requires the lmodern package)
• Support for some accented characters
• More robust Magnification handling

Version 0.1

• Initial release

Feedback

MaTeX was primarily created for my own needs. However, if you find it useful, feel free to drop me an email.

Send feedback or bug reports to szhorvat at gmail.com or open an issue in the tracker.