Welcome to the plasTeX Documentation.
plasTeX is a LaTeX document processing framework written entirely in Python. It currently comes bundled with a HTML5 renderer (including multiple themes), a simple text renderer and several less developped renderers targetting Man pages, DocBook and EPUB, as well as a way to simply dump the document to a generic form of XML. Other renderers can be added by users.
You can start by reading our getting started guide in html or pdf.
The reference documentation for plasTeX is available in PDF and HTML format. Of course, the original document is written in LaTeX. The PDF version was generated using pdflatex, and the HTML version was generated using plasTeX.
Here is an example LaTeX document converted to HTML using plasTeX. For reference, the PDF version of the document is also available. The HTML document above was generated using the default configuration, but many options can be set, including controlling splitting into multiple files and adding CSS files. Here an alternative render on a single page and loading a couple of CSS tweaks.
plasTeX differs from other tools like LaTeX2HTML , TeX4ht , TtH , etc. in that the parsing and rendering of the document are completely separated. This separation makes it possible to render the document in multiple output formats. It also allows the parser to create a cleaner document object, so that the rendering process is easier.
Since the renderer has complete control over which pieces of the document are rendered, it is possible that the resultant document is structured quite differently than the input document. This object actually allows you to traverse and edit the document tree. It can also be used to collect statistics about the document. The Stacks project is a striking example of using plasTeX's flexibility.
plasTeX Users
If you are interested in who else is using plasTeX, we are keeping a list of the projects that we know of right here. If you are using plasTeX, let us know by opening a GitHub issue so we can post your project's name as well.
- The Stacks project uses plasTeX to turn 6700+ pages of algebraic geometry into a website, using plasTeX with a custom renderer. Kerodon is a newer project using the same technology.
- The Liquid Tensor Experiment and the Sphere eversion project are ambitious formalization projects that used plasTeX with a custom plugin to render its blueprint. The corresponding dependency graph is an interesting example of using plasTeX to collect and organize meta-data.
- SAS is currently using plasTeX to generate HTML and DocBook for 10,000+ pages of scientific documentation nightly.
- LaTeX2edX uses plasTeX for generating interactive MITx / edX courses from LaTeX.
- Chirun builds lecture notes websites from LaTeX files using plasTeX.
- BrlTex is an open source LaTeX to braille translator built on top of plasTeX.
Contributing
plasTeX is still maintained but its developpement and maintainance pace are very slow because nobody has much time for it. If you are interested in helping, you should read the documentation for contributors.