mark2tex 0.2.1

Markdown to TeX/PDF with TUI and Docker

Mark2TeX

English | Português (Brasil)

Write Markdown. Get a polished academic PDF.
A Dockerized pipeline with an interactive TUI for LaTeX-quality documents — no TeX installation required.

What is Mark2TeX?

Mark2TeX is a command-line tool that converts Markdown files into publication-ready PDFs using Pandoc, XeLaTeX, and pre-built LaTeX templates — all inside a Docker container. You write plain text; Mark2TeX handles the typography.

Why Mark2TeX instead of writing LaTeX directly?

	LaTeX	Mark2TeX
Learning curve	Steep	Write plain Markdown
Environment setup	4 GB+ TeX distribution	Only Docker
Error messages	Cryptic logs	Human-readable translations
Live feedback	Manual re-run	Watch mode auto-recompiles

Quickstart

# 1 — install (requires Python 3.10+ and Docker)
pipx install mark2tex

# 2 — run (the Docker image is pulled automatically on first use)
mark2tex

Note: On the first run, Mark2TeX will automatically pull the mark2tex image from Docker Hub. This requires an active internet connection and may take a few minutes depending on your connection speed. Subsequent runs reuse the cached image.

No internet? If Docker Hub is unreachable, Mark2TeX will fall back to building the image locally from the bundled Dockerfile. You can also run make build-image manually at any time.

TUI at a Glance

1. Select a .md file from the left panel.
2. Choose a template (tcc, artigo-ieee, doc-tecnica, projeto, apresentacao).
3. Optionally pick a font (--font arial | helvetica | times | ubuntu).
4. Press c to compile or w to toggle Watch Mode.

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
c	Compile
w	Toggle Watch Mode
F1 / ?	Help
Esc / q	Global menu

Features

• Dockerized builds — zero local LaTeX installation; identical output on every machine.
• Interactive TUI — file browser, template selector, real-time log console, and progress bar built with Textual.
• Watch mode — automatic recompilation on every file save.
• Human-readable logs — raw XeLaTeX output is parsed and translated into plain-language messages.
• Font selection — choose between Liberation Sans (Arial-compatible), Nimbus Sans (Helvetica), Liberation Serif (Times-compatible), and Ubuntu per document.
• Bibliography support — BibTeX via Pandoc + XeLaTeX; just drop a referencias.bib alongside your .md.
• ABNT-oriented workflow — templates built around Brazilian academic standards.

Available Templates

Template	Purpose
tcc	Undergraduate thesis (ABNT)
artigo-ieee	IEEE conference paper
doc-tecnica	Technical documentation
projeto	Project proposal
apresentacao	Beamer-based presentation

Roadmap

• Additional ABNT templates (article, dissertation)
• GUI font and template preview
• mark2tex new <template> scaffold command
• Windows-native installer
• GitHub Actions integration for CI PDF generation

See open issues to follow along or suggest features.

Contributing

Mark2TeX grows with the help of the community. All skill levels are welcome — from fixing typos to designing new templates.

1. Read the Contributing Guide.
2. Read the Code of Conduct.
3. Open an issue before large changes so we can discuss direction.
4. Fork, branch, implement, and open a pull request.

We are grateful for every contribution. ✨

License

Mark2TeX is released under the MIT License.

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Built with ❤︎ by Hylbert and contributors.