node-latex-render

Render latex documents using nodejs

Prerequisites

At least one of the supported LaTeX compilers installed.

• PDFTeX
• LuaTeX
• XETeX

Install

npm install node-latex-render

or

yarn add node-latex-render

Example

You can either use a path to the main .tex file or a Map of file paths to ArrayBuffers.

import { render } from "node-latex-render";

const src = "./path/to/src.tex";
const options = {
  compiler: "pdflatex",
  args: {
    jobname: "example",
    outputComment: "This is an example",
  },
};

const { pdf, logs } = render(src, options); // Returns path to pdf and log items

or using ArrayBuffers

import { render } from "node-latex-render";

const src = "main.tex";
const files = {
  "main.tex": new TextEncoder().encode(`\\documentclass{article}
                                        \\begin{document}
                                            Hello, world!
                                        \\end{document}`).buffer,
};
const options = {
  compiler: "pdflatex",
  args: "-jobname=example",
};

const { pdf, logs } = render(src, files, compiler); // Returns pdf buffer and log items

Logs

The logs returned by the render function contain detailed information about the LaTeX compilation process. Below are the types used for the logs:

export enum LogLevel {
  DEBUG = "debug",
  INFO = "info",
  TYPESETTING = "typesetting",
  WARNING = "warning",
  ERROR = "error",
}

export type LogItem = {
  level: LogLevel;
  message: string;
  raw: string;
  line?: number;
  file?: string;
  content?: string;
};

Each LogItem represents a single log entry with the following properties:

• level: The severity level of the log (e.g., debug, info, warning, etc.).
• message: A human-readable message describing the log.
• raw: The raw log output from the LaTeX compiler.
• line (optional): The line number in the source file where the log entry occurred.
• file (optional): The file associated with the log entry.
• content (optional): Additional content related to the log entry.

Supported Arguments

This section details the supported arguments for each LaTeX compiler.

Common Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
draftmode	boolean	Enables draft mode, which speeds up compilation by not generating output.
fileLineError	boolean	Print file:line:error style messages.
fmt	string	Specifies a precompiled format file to use.
ini	boolean	Start in INI mode (used for creating format files).
interaction	batchmode | nonstopmode | scrollmode | errorstopmode	Sets the interaction mode (e.g.,batchmode, nonstopmode).
jobname	string	Specifies the name of the output files.
kpathseaDebug	number	Sets the Kpathsea debugging flags.
mktex	boolean	Enable/disable mktex script (e.g. mktexpk, mktextfm or mktexfmt).
mktexFMT	tex | tfm	Enable/disable mktexfmt script for a specific format.
outputComment	string	Specifies a DVI comment.
outputDirectory	string	Specifies the directory for output files.
progname	string	Sets the program name.
recorder	boolean	Enable filename recorder.
shellEscape	boolean	Enable restricted \\write18{shell command}.
shellRestricted	boolean	Enable restricted \\write18{shell command}.
synctex	number	Generate SyncTeX data.

LuaTeX Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
debugFormat	boolean	Debug format loading.
lua	string	Specifies a Lua initialization file.
nosocket	boolean	Disable the Lua socket library.
outputFormat	dvi | pdf	Specifies the output format (e.g.,pdf, dvi).
safer	boolean	Disable easily exploitable TeX primitives.
utc	number	Force UTC time.
luaonly	boolean	Run Lua code and exit.
luaconly	boolean	Bytecode compile Lua files.
luahashchars	boolean	Tune the Lua initial hash size.

XETeX Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
etex	boolean	Enable e-TeX extensions.
mltex	boolean	Enable MLTeX extensions (for multi-lingual typesetting).
outputDriver	string	Specifies the output driver (e.g.,xdvipdfmx).
parseFirstLine	boolean	Parse the first line of the input file for options.
papersize	string	Specifies the paper size.
srcSpecials	string	Insert source specials into the output.
bit8	boolean	Enable 8-bit input.

PDFTeX Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
enc	boolean	Enable encTeX extensions (for character translation).
etex	boolean	Enable e-TeX extensions.
ipc	boolean	Send DVI or PDF output to a socket.
ipcStart	boolean	As ipc, but starts the server at the other end.
mltex	boolean	Enable MLTeX extensions.
outputFormat	dvi | pdf	Specifies the output format (e.g.,pdf, dvi).
parseFirstLine	boolean	Parse the first line of the input file for options.
srcSpecials	string	Insert source specials into the output.
translateFile	string	Specifies a character translation file.
bit8	boolean	Enable 8-bit input.