scitex-tex

LaTeX helpers — export to .tex, compile to PDF, preview images, vector formatting.

Full Documentation · uv pip install scitex-tex[all]

Problem and Solution

Quick Start

import scitex_tex as tx

# Convert a SciTeX-style writer doc → .tex
tx.export_tex(doc, "manuscript.tex")

# Compile .tex → .pdf (returns CompileResult)
result = tx.compile_tex("manuscript.tex")

# Render LaTeX snippets to a matplotlib Figure
fig = tx.preview([r"$\sum_{i=1}^N x_i$", r"$\alpha + \beta$"])

# Convert a string to LaTeX vector notation
tx.to_vec("AB")  # → \overrightarrow{\mathrm{AB}}

Demo

import scitex_tex as tx

# 1) Render a math preview to a matplotlib Figure (no system TeX required)
fig = tx.preview([r"$\hat{\beta} = (X^\top X)^{-1} X^\top y$"])
fig.savefig("preview.png")

# 2) Export + compile a manuscript end-to-end
tx.export_tex(doc, "manuscript.tex")
result = tx.compile_tex("manuscript.tex")
print(result.pdf_path)   # → manuscript.pdf

flowchart LR
    A[Python writer doc] -->|export_tex| B[manuscript.tex]
    B -->|compile_tex| C[manuscript.pdf]
    D["r'\$\\hat\\beta\$'"] -->|preview| E[matplotlib Figure]
    style C fill:#27ae60,stroke:#2c3e50,color:#fff
    style E fill:#27ae60,stroke:#2c3e50,color:#fff

_{Figure 2. Demo flow. preview is matplotlib-only; compile_tex shells out to pdflatex/xelatex.}

Installation

uv pip install "scitex-tex[all]"

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"               # editable install for contributors

scitex_tex/
├── _export.py        # writer doc  → .tex string + file; .tex → .pdf via pdflatex/xelatex
├── _preview.py       # snippet     → matplotlib Figure (no system TeX needed)
└── _to_vec.py        # string      → LaTeX \overrightarrow form

flowchart LR
    Doc[Writer Doc<br/>Python dict/object] --> Exp[export_tex]
    Exp --> Tex[manuscript.tex]
    Tex --> Cmp[compile_tex]
    Cmp --> Pdf[manuscript.pdf]
    Snip[r'\$\\sum x_i\$'] --> Prv[preview]
    Prv --> Fig[matplotlib Figure]
    Label[AB] --> Vec[to_vec]
    Vec --> Latex[r'\overrightarrow{\mathrm{AB}}']

_{Figure 1. Module layout. Three modules — export+compile, preview, vector notation — each callable independently.}

1 Interfaces

import scitex_tex as tx

# Export — writer doc → .tex string + file
tx.export_tex(doc, "manuscript.tex")

# Compile — .tex → .pdf via pdflatex/xelatex; returns CompileResult
res = tx.compile_tex("manuscript.tex")
print(res.pdf_path, res.stdout)

# Preview — render LaTeX strings to a matplotlib Figure
fig = tx.preview([r"$\frac{1}{2}\sum x_i$", r"$\hat{\beta}$"])
fig.savefig("preview.png")

# Convert a string to LaTeX vector notation
tx.to_vec("AB")  # → \overrightarrow{\mathrm{AB}}

Status

Standalone module from the SciTeX ecosystem. Dependencies: numpy, matplotlib, scitex-plt, and scitex-dev (for optional imports). The umbrella package's scitex.tex import path is preserved via a sys.modules-alias bridge.

Part of SciTeX

scitex-tex is part of SciTeX. Install via the umbrella with pip install scitex[tex] to use as scitex.tex (Python) or scitex tex ... (CLI).

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.

License

AGPL-3.0-only (see LICENSE).