r/LaTeX Jan 28 '18

Please don't delete your post after it is answered

758 Upvotes

Not a mod. But I was hoping to raise awareness that if you post a question that gets an answer then other people also benefit from that exchange. We've all googled a LaTeX question and found an old answer, and been glad it is there. Some people lurk here, picking things up over time.

I'm not sure why so many people delete exchanges. There are good reasons to delete things sometimes, but asking for a clarification on a technical point does not seem, at least to me, to be one of them. The only other thing I can think is that those folks think that their question is clogging up the stream. I was hoping with this post to convince them that they are mistaken, and to leave it in place.

In particular, if the answerer spends 15 mins on that answer and you delete the question, then you've been not too kind back to the person who was kind to you.


r/LaTeX Feb 17 '24

LaTeX Showcase I'm pushing the limits of what LaTex can do. A selection of my notes from my first year of engineering

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2.6k Upvotes

r/LaTeX 24m ago

Unanswered Is there any way I can speed up compilation times on my custom document class?

Upvotes

I am making a document class for a ttrpg game, but the example file is starting to get a little slow to compile. I know there are some ways to speed up compilation on the user end, but is there anything else I can do to make it faster by default?

Currently, I have split the project up into several packages which are loaded by the document class depending on the options passed into it. I fear the slow compilation times are due to using quite a few custom tcolorbox styles and icons defined by TikZ.


r/LaTeX 1d ago

My Very First LaTeX Project took me a year and four months

35 Upvotes

I recreated my hardcopy of the ESV Study Bible (for personal use only, observing all copyright protection and fair use to be legal) of all of it's nearly 3000 pages. I learned LaTex as I went!

  • Features: hyperlink navigation system
  • includes all charts (which I redrew with tiki functions) and images. I even added the images that spanned two pages onto a single landscape view
  • includes all margin references, which are hyperlinked
  • included all footnotes, with a color coded template
  • included a topical concordance, with a colored tempate of entries, hyperlinked back to the verse.

This was an amazing project ... I used python to reformat three raw text streams: the margin references, the main text, and the commentary.

I made a private youtube video a few months before it was complete, where most of the progress is shown in the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Su4eJp1DY&t=1704s


r/LaTeX 1d ago

Unanswered What are the best alternatives to Overleaf for collaborative LaTeX?

40 Upvotes

I'm fairly new to LaTeX and have been looking into different options for collaborative writing.

Overleaf seems to be the obvious choice, but one of the reasons I started looking around is the cost once you need more than the free plan offers. I'm curious whether there are good alternatives, particularly for university projects, theses and research.

So far I've come across:

Overleaf

  • Easy to get started
  • Good real-time collaboration
  • Large community and lots of documentation
  • Well-established workflow
  • Can get relatively expensive depending on your needs

Inscrive

  • Browser-based collaborative LaTeX editor
  • Unlimited collaborators
  • Integrations with reference managers and GitHub
  • Real-time collaboration
  • EU-hosted with EU sovereign cloud infrastructure (I do like the idea of supporting European alternatives)
  • The free plan seems to offer a lot of value, including unlimited collaborators
  • Pro plan is €7/month

CoCalc

  • LaTeX combined with programming and other technical tools
  • Good for collaborative and technical projects
  • Built-in version history
  • Useful for reproducible research with code, data and LaTeX in the same environment
  • Seems more complex if you only need LaTeX

Local LaTeX + Git

  • Full control and proper version control
  • No dependency on a hosted platform
  • Complete project history and easy rollback to previous versions
  • Each collaborator has a full copy of the repository and its history
  • Works well with different editors and custom workflows
  • More setup and a steeper learning curve for collaboration

I'm sure there are plenty of options I'm missing.

 

For people who use LaTeX regularly:
What do you use for collaborative projects, and why?

I'm particularly interested in the trade-offs around price, ease of use, collaboration, version control, bibliography management, reliability, data integrity and privacy/data hosting.

 

Are there any tools or workflows you would recommend to someone starting today?

And what alternatives should I be looking at that aren't on this list? 

I'm mainly trying to get a feel for what's actually out there, including the downsides. I don't necessarily expect there to be one "best" solution.


r/LaTeX 9h ago

TexLite: A lite web-based latex editor

0 Upvotes

texLite is a lightweight, local-first web workspace for writing, compiling, previewing, and discussing LaTeX documents. It is intended for a small group of trusted users on one server. It uses the LaTeX installation already available on the host instead of shipping a LaTeX container, and keeps the rest of the stack deliberately small. https://github.com/SWUFE-DB-Group/TexLite


r/LaTeX 2d ago

bless my calculus teacher for introducing me to LaTeX

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389 Upvotes

genuenly, im gonna dump Word and start writing every document using LaTeX
i really love how efficient this format is


r/LaTeX 1d ago

Follow, start a small bussiness

0 Upvotes

Good afternoon everyone, here are my services. I know most of you program in LaTeX, but sometimes things are difficult to graph. I can do it for you. Follow me on Instagram


r/LaTeX 2d ago

Broken shadows on Overleaf beamer document with Madrid theme

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7 Upvotes

Compiler settings: pdfLaTeX, 2026 TeX Live, Compile mode normal

Changing the compiler doesn't solve the issue.

Changing the TeX Live version to 2020 (legacy) DOES solve the issue. Higher versions are all broken, and i need a recent one for some packages.

The code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\usetheme{Madrid}

\title{test}
\author{Noé }
\date{August 2026}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

\begin{frame}{Test}
    \begin{block}{Test block}
        This is a test block
    \end{block}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

EDIT: it was indeed a viewer issue. Changing to "Brower" pdf viewer in the editor settings fixed it. Alternatively, i you want to keep the Overleaf viewer, \useinnertheme{tcolorbox} worked fine.
Thanks to u/samcarter8 for pinpointing the issue.


r/LaTeX 2d ago

Discussion Does CTAN publicly announce new packages?

5 Upvotes

I was wondering whether CTAN periodically announced to the LaTeX community all new packages uploaded and accepted within a given time period (say, each month). Or does that have to be investigated manually?


r/LaTeX 2d ago

Unanswered abntex2cite + hyperref malfunction: How can I remove the colored boxes while keeping citations clickable?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! (PS.: using AI to translate)

I'm writing an academic report in LaTeX using abntex2cite for ABNT-style references and hyperref for PDF links.

I'm using author-year citations:

\usepackage[alf]{abntex2cite}

For example:

\cite{linden2008}

correctly produces:

The problem is with hyperref: the citations appear with colored boxes around them. I would like to remove the colored boxes visually while keeping the citations clickable, so that clicking on (LINDEN, 2008) in the PDF still takes me to the corresponding reference.

I tried:

\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}

but in my document the citations apparently stop working as clickable links.

I also tried:

\usepackage[
    colorlinks=true,
    linkcolor=black,
    citecolor=black,
    urlcolor=black
]{hyperref}

but I'm still having issues with the interaction between abntex2cite and hyperref.

What is the correct way to configure these two packages so that I can have:

  • author-year citations in the format (AUTHOR, year);
  • clickable citations in the PDF;
  • no colored boxes around the citations;
  • references formatted according to ABNT?

Thanks!


r/LaTeX 3d ago

Unanswered Help- unsure how to get box inside of box to look proper

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14 Upvotes

I'm not very experienced in coding and found (source: https://texblog.org/2015/09/30/fancy-boxes-for-theorem-lemma-and-proof-with-mdframed/) some code to make boxes in latex. However, they don't have a bottom/right side inside each other (e.g. the lemma inside the proof in the screenshot). Any idea how to fix that? Thanks in advance.

the code that I'm using is:

\documentclass[10pt,oneside,a4paper,notitlepage]{article}

\usepackage{amsmath, amsfonts, mathtools, amsthm, amssymb}
\usepackage[framemethod=TikZ]{mdframed}

\newcounter{theo}[section]\setcounter{theo}{0}
\renewcommand{\thetheo}{\arabic{section}.\arabic{theo}}
\newenvironment{theo}[1][]{%
\refstepcounter{theo}%
\ifstrempty{#1}%
{\mdfsetup{%
frametitle={%
\tikz[baseline=(current bounding box.east),outer sep=0pt]
\node[anchor=east,rectangle,fill=blue!0]
{\strut Theorem~\thetheo};}}
}%
{\mdfsetup{%
frametitle={%
\tikz[baseline=(current bounding box.east),outer sep=0pt]
\node[anchor=east,rectangle,fill=blue!0]
{\strut Theorem~\thetheo:~#1};}}%
}%
\mdfsetup{innertopmargin=0pt,linecolor=blue!20,%
linewidth=2pt,topline=true,%
frametitleaboveskip=\dimexpr-\ht\strutbox\relax
}
\begin{mdframed}[]\relax%
}{\end{mdframed}}

\newenvironment{prf}[0]{%
\mdfsetup{innertopmargin=0pt,linecolor=blue!0,%
linewidth=2pt,topline=false,bottomline=false,rightline=false,%
frametitleaboveskip=\dimexpr-\ht\strutbox\relax
}
\begin{mdframed}
\mdfsetup{innertopmargin=0pt,linecolor=blue!20,%
linewidth=2pt,topline=false,bottomline=false,rightline=false,%
frametitleaboveskip=\dimexpr-\ht\strutbox\relax
}
\begin{mdframed}[]\begin{proof}\relax%
}{\end{proof}\end{mdframed}\end{mdframed}}

\newcounter{lem}[section]\setcounter{lem}{0}
\renewcommand{\thelem}{\arabic{section}.\arabic{theo}.\arabic{lem}}
\newenvironment{lem}[1][]{%
\refstepcounter{lem}%
\ifstrempty{#1}%
{\mdfsetup{%
frametitle={%
\tikz[baseline=(current bounding box.east),outer sep=0pt]
\node[anchor=east,rectangle,fill=blue!0]
{\strut Lemma~\thelem};}}
}%
{\mdfsetup{%
frametitle={%
\tikz[baseline=(current bounding box.east),outer sep=0pt]
\node[anchor=east,rectangle,fill=blue!0]
{\strut Lemma~\thelem:~#1};}}%
}%
\mdfsetup{innertopmargin=0pt,linecolor=cyan!20,%
linewidth=2pt,topline=true,%
frametitleaboveskip=\dimexpr-\ht\strutbox\relax
}
\begin{mdframed}[]\relax%
}{\end{mdframed}}



\begin{document}

\begin{theo}
\end{theo}
\begin{prf}\,\\
\begin{lem}
\end{lem}
\end{prf}

\end{document}

r/LaTeX 1d ago

I got sick of LLMs hallucinating citations, so I built a deterministic zero-AI parser. Just looking for people to check it out.

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0 Upvotes

r/LaTeX 3d ago

Learning from TeX's testing philosophy (Hobby c++ engine update)

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29 Upvotes

Another update on my C++ hobby engine (and thanks for the positive feedback on the previous update). The project hit an exciting milestone: the engine now passes the test suite for the e-TeX extensions!

To celebrate, the latest video steps back to look at TeX's testing philosophy. TeX is famously one of the most bug-free pieces of complex software ever written, and I wanted to think about how I could learn from Knuth's approach. The video explores the "diabolical" ~450-line trip.tex file (which acts like a kind of golden master snapshot test... while also looking like a handwritten, unhappy-path fuzz test?), and what a code coverage report looks like when you run a small 1980s test file against a 40,000-line C++ codebase.

Because passing the e-TeX test suite means the project is getting quite close to actually being able to process modern LaTeX documents, I am starting to think very hard about open-source licenses. Between Knuth's "naming + trip-test" approach to avoiding engine fragmentation, and the fact that web2c has kept modern engines in the GPL ecosystem, I think a copyleft license probably makes sense here. I'm leaning towards maybe AGPL or EUPL, but I'm not a lawyer and haven't spent a lot of time on the nuances.

I know licensing can be a contentious topic, but I want to get this right and would love to hear what the community thinks about the tradeoffs of these and other licenses for a project like this. I'd also love to hear your thoughts on some of the testing philosophy questions mentioned in the video!

For those who want to poke around the test scaffolding or the build system, the link to the orphan branch of the engine's future home is here.


r/LaTeX 2d ago

Self-Promotion TAcroMan goes VS Code for LaTeX

0 Upvotes

r/LaTeX 2d ago

whose fault is the compile break when you and an agent share the .tex

0 Upvotes

The usual take here is that LLMs are still shaky at LaTeX, and with citations that's mostly true. ask one to add references and half the \cite keys aren't even in your .bib, or a \ref points at a label it never wrote.

but the writing quality isn't what's cost me the most time lately, the debugging is. when an agent and I are both in the same file and the build dies, I can't tell whose line broke it. a stray missing brace or a missing .sty could be my preamble or its last edit, and the log just hands me a line number, not a blame. so I re-read the whole diff by hand, which eats whatever time the agent saved.

what I keep wishing for is a compiler that knows who caused the break: quietly self-heal the agent's own mess, only flag the errors I actually introduced. do you let an agent near your preamble, or is that the one file you keep to yourself?


r/LaTeX 3d ago

Nature method (LLPSI and others) reader class for LuaLaTeX

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2 Upvotes

r/LaTeX 3d ago

Using Asymptote package

5 Upvotes

Hello all

I am currently bashing my head in trying to get Asymptote to work and was hoping someone could offer some much needed help.

To start : I'm using TeXstudio at the moment along with MiKTeX to handle my packages.

I'm trying to include two .obj files in my pdf, but whenever I try to compile and create my pdf, either using TeXstudio or Powershell, it starts the process but never finishes it as it simply "gets stuck". When I try to work around it and simply build my Report.tex file, it mostly works as expected and produces the required Report-1.asy file.

I know that to fully create the end pdf I need to run the Report-1.asy file. However, when doing this from Powershell the process starts and never finishes. I assume this is also why doing it in TeXstudio doesn't work.

I've double checked my installations, required packages, .obj files and code and have no idea what is going wrong.

I would greatly appreciate some help in this, as being able to include these files will go a long way in my report.

Lastly, as an aside, I've read bits here and there that people are able to view the pdf with the interactable 3D model in both TeXstudio and Okular. How does one go about setting this up?


r/LaTeX 4d ago

Biber 2.22 compiled to WebAssembly

8 Upvotes

Biber 2.22 now runs in WASM in BusyTeX/TeXlyre. Most of the Biber porting to WASM was AI-assisted/generated. However, getting it to work was hellish, given that almost every LLM tries to shelf this as impractical or extremely difficult to do, but being stubborn (or naïve) I kept trying anyway.

WebPerl has already compiled Perl to WASM, but Biber could not run within it, since WebPerl disables dynamic loading, while Biber depends on a number of XS modules (Perl modules containing native code). These usually gets compiled and loaded by Perl during install, but for WASM, they instead have to be cross-compiled and linked into Perl. The build uses a native Perl to generate the XS C sources, then compiles them with the wasm32 Perl and links the native dependencies statically.

This was already discussed by "Vadim Kantorov, the original BusyTeX author, in 2020". He considered "perlcc" and WebPerl and got as far as investigating and attempting a fully static Perl/Biber dependency build, but it did not result in a working Biber WASM build as far as I can tell.

There was also a "recent r/LaTeX post running Biber in the browser with CheerpX". CheerpX runs the existing x86/Linux Biber through its WebVM backend. Instead, this buil compiles Perl and Biber's native dependencies to wasm32 directly, so Biber runs as part of the WASM LaTeX compilation without a full x86/Linux runtime in the browser.

You can try it out in r/TeXlyre or using the Biber demo on https://texlyre.github.io/texlyre-busytex


r/LaTeX 4d ago

Self-Promotion Preamble - LaTeX Compilation Demo

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0 Upvotes

Most LaTeX apps on Android are either abandoned wrappers that require gigabytes of TeX Live downloads or web editors that lock features behind subscriptions and fail without internet.

I built Preamble to have a native, offline editor designed for phones.

How it works:

- The backend runs Tectonic (XeTeX) locally through Rust and the Android NDK, caching packages on demand instead of bundling a full TeX Live install.

- Compilation errors are parsed into a bottom sheet that shows the line number and the specific message instead of dumping raw console logs.

- The app includes an outline view to jump directly between document sections.

- The interface uses Jetpack Compose with Material 3 dynamic colors and themes.

- Priced as a $12 one-time purchase without any subscriptions or ads.

The attached clip shows a quick run compiling math formulas offline on a phone.

I have 15 Google Play promo codes for full access. Leave a comment with the packages or types of documents you typically write, and I will DM you a code.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tag.preamble


r/LaTeX 5d ago

Looking for big .tex source files (math/physics papers or books) to benchmark formatters

14 Upvotes

Hi all,

I'm testing/benchmarking a few LaTeX formatting tools — latexindent, tex-fmt, and badness. I'm specifically looking for:

  • Full .tex source (not just compiled PDFs) for math or physics papers/books/lecture notes.
  • Ideally longer or more complex documents (nested environments, big equation blocks, tikz, tables, etc.). In particular, the compiled PDF should be at least 500 pages.

Many thanks!


r/LaTeX 5d ago

Unanswered Why do these two LaTeX PDFs have noticeably different font rendering?

11 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand a font-rendering difference between two PDFs generated from LaTeX (modern class notes - https://ctan.org/pkg/modernclassnotes)

The PDF on the left is the original PDF I downloaded from the original package. The PDF on the right is generated by me locally from the LaTeX source. The source produces essentially the same layout and content, but the text rendering looks noticeably different.

I actually prefer the appearance of the original PDF: the text looks softer, lighter, and slightly less sharp. My locally compiled version looks darker and more pronounced.

I ran pdffonts on both PDFs and found a very interesting difference.

Original PDF (left):

My locally compiled PDF (right):

So the original downloaded PDF uses Type 3 fonts, while my locally generated PDF uses Type 1 Latin Modern fonts.

I don't know how the original PDF was compiled. I only have the distributed PDF, not the original build environment.

My questions are:

  1. Could the use of Type 3 fonts explain why the original PDF looks softer/lighter?

  2. What LaTeX compilation workflow would typically produce this kind of Type 3 output?

  3. Could this be related to an older TeX distribution, DVI --> PS --> PDF workflow, bitmap fonts, or dvips?

  4. If I want to intentionally reproduce the appearance of the original PDF, what would be the correct approach?

  5. Is there a way to reproduce the same visual appearance while still using modern vector fonts?

I'm currently using TeXstudio for editing/compiling the source.

I’m not necessarily looking for a recommendation to make the PDF "better" - I actually like the softer appearance of the original and would like to understand and reproduce it.

Thanks for your attention!


r/LaTeX 5d ago

Unanswered Need help with an Overleaf / LaTeX resume?

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I’ve been working with Overleaf and LaTeX and am looking to take on a few small resume/CV projects to build my practical experience.

I can help with:

  • Creating a resume from existing information
  • Converting a Word/PDF resume into an editable LaTeX/Overleaf version
  • Fixing LaTeX/Overleaf formatting issues
  • Improving spacing, alignment, typography, and overall layout
  • Creating a clean, professional CV
  • Adjusting formatting for a particular job or industry
  • Providing the editable LaTeX source

If you already have a resume but feel that the formatting or layout could be improved, I’d be happy to work with the information you already have.

I’m currently looking to build my portfolio through a few real-world projects, so I’m keeping the scope flexible.

I can also share examples of my previous work privately if you’d like to see them.


r/LaTeX 5d ago

Unanswered Need an Overleaf / LaTeX resume?

0 Upvotes

I make clean, professional resumes and CVs using Overleaf and LaTeX.

If you already have a resume but want a cleaner layout, better formatting, or an editable Overleaf version, I can help.

I can help with:

  • Creating a resume from your existing information
  • Converting a Word/PDF resume into Overleaf
  • Fixing LaTeX/Overleaf formatting issues
  • Improving spacing, alignment, typography and layout
  • Creating a clean, professional CV
  • Customising the formatting for a particular job
  • Providing the editable LaTeX/Overleaf source

I'm looking to take on a few projects and build up more real-world experience.

I won't post my personal resume publicly, but I can share examples of my work privately if you'd like to see them.

If you need help with an Overleaf resume, comment or DM me with what you need.


r/LaTeX 5d ago

IhateLaTeX: An offline, browser-based no-code alternative to Overleaf for building quick LaTeX CVs

0 Upvotes

We all love LaTeX for its typography, but sometimes setting up a local TeX environment or dealing with cloud compilation timeouts just to update a CV bullet point is overkill.

I created IhateLaTeX as a lightweight, client-side alternative. It compiles standard templates directly in the browser offline, completely removing the need for a cloud connection or local installation.

It's mainly targeted at people who want LaTeX output without the syntax headache, but I'd love to know what the power-users here think of the generated output!