Helper Applications for (La)TeX System
Here, present some of several helper tools for LaTeX.
Table of Contents
Minimum Requirements
Recomended that are using Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista or equivalent.
Several
applications inclusing MikTeX, does not run on the Win9x/NT/ME that the
Microsoft does not support now, and it lack apropriate update of the
system. In way to help little amount of preson that are installing TeX
and accessories on the win9x/NT/ME, the applications that does not run
on older Windows has reamrk.
Graphics Editor and Viewer
Install the your prefered graphics editor and viewer.
InkScape (recomended)
site: http://www.inkscape.org/
site of textext: http://www.elisanet.fi/ptvirtan/software/textext/index.html
inkscape is vector based graphics editor suitable to create illustrations,
as Corel Draw
(comercial) or Adobe
Illustrator
(comercial). It is light weight and easy to use. The recent version
permit to insert LaTeX formula inside picture using additional plugin.
The caution need to create eps/pdf is the fact that the postscript does
not allow transparence and several realted effect loss during saving as
eps/pdf. The manual is on help system and not necessary to search on
the internet.
When save as PDF, the paper size does not mach with "bounding
box" defined when export eps to cut picture in correct size. Save as
eps and convert to pdf using epstopdf command or adjust the paper size
to picture before save as PDF. In way to adjust paper size to picture,
select all (<ctrl>A) and on "file->document propries", in
"custom
size", click on [fit page to selection].
In way to insert LaTeX formula in the picture, istall the
textext
distributed from http://pav.iki.fi/software/textext/index.html.
To install offline (without network connection), the "necessary
library files from
pyGTK" that site mension, need to stay on same folder as textext
installer. If have network connection, installer download and install
it automatically. The textext works only if
ghostscript
and
pstoedit
are installed, and
MikTeX is working (or other TeX
with pdflatex). The LaTeX formula is
inserted or edited by "effects->tex text". Does not confuse with
"effects->render->latex
formula" that can not change (insert only).
The formula inserted directly inside picture does not act same as psfrag
one.
The directly inserted formula will became size different of the text
when resize picture, but of psfrag keep consistent because formula are
inserted during LaTeX compile time. To use psfrag, do not forget to
uncheck the option "convert texts to path" when save as eps.
Remark 1: The recent
version of inkscape does not run on Win9x/ME. The user of older version of
windows are encoraged to use dia
instead of inkscape.
Dia
site: http://projects.gnome.org/dia/
is
the diagram editor as Microsoft Visio (comercial). The diagram use
several piece and special path and if use editor apropriate for this,
will make it in fast way. In the case of illustrations, use the
inkscape.
XFig
site: http://www.xfig.org/
Classical diagram editor for linux that will
insert LaTeX formula inside diagram that is processed by psfrag on
LaTeX (tin this case, need to convert dvi to ps, in way to finalize
process).
Note that it is different that textext on inkscape that process formula
using LaTeX and insert the result as part of picture.
GIMP
site: http://www.gimp.org/
The image editor as Adobe
Photoshop (comercial) or Corel
Photo Paint (comercial). The "GIMP Help" is like manual, but
distributed separated due to theri size.
Irfan View e XnView
Irfan View: http://www.irfanview.com/
XnView:
http://www.xnview.com/
Irfan
View and XnView are free (not is the open source) image
viewer/converter for windows that permit some image adjustment. Irfan
View became most popular. Note that the pdflatex support jpeg and png
when compile to PDF.
Graphics Editor Specialized
for LaTeX
The graphics editor specializad for LaTeX
will save picture as LaTeX with some graphics package, instead of
eps/pdf. It keep perfect coerence between picture and text body
.
Note that the correct use of eps/pdf produced by apropriate editor give
same quality of the LaTeX graphical packages. One of major advantage to
use editor that save al LaTeX is the possibility of manual adjustments
of pictures.
But need caution to select this kind of picture
editor because several ones are produced to insert formula inside
picture and not to help LaTeX users. In this case, the coerence of
thickness is not of interest. For example, the jpicedt
saved as picture emvironment using emulated element, independent of
format choice, producing low quality and lack the manual adjustments.
LaTeX Draw
site:
http://latexdraw.sourceforge.net/
This
editor is specialized in pstricks. The editor has support to read
pictures in pstrick format edited manually or generated by other
applications. Will edit using nice graphics interface and keep coerence
between picture and text body. Note that the pstrick package are
developed to generate dvi/ps and when want to compile directly to PDF
using pdflatex, need to use addtional package pstool (not pstools). The
classical way to generate PDF in this case is the use of
LaTeX=>dvips=>ps2pdf.
FlowFramTk
site:
http://www.dickimaw-books.com/apps/flowframtk/
FlowFramTk, formerly known as
jpgf
Draw export the picture using pgf (package used by beamer), but save
in
their own format and seems that does not have import features. The pgf
package has advantage that will compiled both on latex and pdflatex
(due to this features, beamer normally compiled by pdflatex will
compiled by LaTeX if not use PDF specific effect).
The FlowFramTk present additional features for flowfram package used for
panel,
journal, folder, etc. The flowfram package is one of most simpler to
perform this kind of work, but the creation of apropriate layout is not
so. The FlowFramTk permit to draw and generate flowfram layout in easily
way.
TeXCAD (Windows
only)
site: http://texcad.sourceforge.net/
The
classical graphics editor specialized in LaTeX. It is open source, but
is specific for Windows. Thus, the picture became difficult to edited
in other platform. it is not good idea, because one of most important
feature of LaTeX is cross platform. I not tested their graphics quality.
Scientific Graphics
To produce scientific graphics, use apropriate applications.
Asymptote
site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/asymptote/
Asymptote is 2D/3D graphics language/interpreter inspired in MetaPost,
but with C++ like syntax and produce Post script, pdf, or svg graphics.
Geogebra
site: http://www.geogebra.org/
The geogebra is popular applications for dynamic geometry, with
several additional features. Will export to WEB and as eps/pdf.pstrick
too.
The text on exported eps are drawn as curve and will not use psfrag. If
desire to change text/fórmula, export as pstrick (LaTeX package) or
pgf/TikZ (LaTeX package).
gnuplot
site: http://www.gnuplot.info/
This
is the popular data plotting tools, with support to plot using
mathematical expression too. Will save the resulting graphics in
several format, inclusing vector ones. The gnuplot is an interpreter
and need some knowledge of some basic command to generate hight quality
graphics.
Maxima
site: http://maxima.sourceforge.net/
Maxima
is popular CAS (Computer Algebra System) as Maple 9comercial) and
Mathematica (comercial). it implements MacSyma language, but becames
with friendly GUi called WxMaxima that permit to perform several task
without knowledge of language, inclusing graphics plot. it is usefull
to generate 2D and 3D graphic of functions, but does not have support
to plot implecit curve and surfaces yet.
GNU R
site: http://www.r-project.org/
GNU R is popular application for statistic that implements the language R
very similar to the language S. It produce very nice graphics, but
require some knowledge of language R.
Octave and others MatLab's clone
If understand some of MatLab language, the
octave,
scilabm and freemat will used to generate mathematical graphics in
vector format. The GNU Octave is most popular. The recent FreeMat is
easy to instal and use, but not much featured yet.
gnu octave: http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/
scilab: http://www.scilab.org/
freemat: http://freemat.sourceforge.net/.
SciDAVis and Microcal Origin like
ones
SciDAVis:
http://scidavis.sourceforge.net/
RLPlot:
http://rlplot.sourceforge.net/
The
SciDAVis is data analysis and visualization tools that produce nice
graphics and will export in several formats, inclusing vector format
EPS.
The RLPlot is more simpler, but will add some text and polylines
on the resulting plot. For clone of Microcal Origin users, the QtiPlot
(free for linux) support to importing Microcal Origin 7.5 file format.
But, the windows version is only the commertial or limited demo
version.
The
FitYK (free for linux) are
developed specially for curve fittings, but the Windows version is
commercial.
LibreCAD
site:
http://librecad.org/
LibreCAD is open source cross platform 2d CAD system.
Others
Not the all of case that mathematical applications will
export graphics in vector format. Some kind of graphics is hard or
impossible to generate apropriate vector graphics. In this caase,
use resolution of 600DPI when the delimiter, line, etc is very
determined (as tecnical picture) or 300DPI in the case of bluer
contour, lines, etc (as photo realistic image). That is recomendation
for printing. If want to enlarge inside LaTeX document, need to use
most hight DPI in way to keep desired DPI aafter enlargement.
- MathMod
(successor of k3DSurf
for linux/win): Plot the parametric and implicit surface from
mathematical expression, by friendly interface.
- Fractint
(dos/linux/win):
One of most powerfull fractal plotting tools. The recent stable
version
is based on DOS and GUI is not so friendly, but the test version
contain the Windows version.
- Graphivis (cross platform). Special for graph, using dot language.
Some Converters
Image Magick
site:
http://www.imagemagick.org/
If
installed LyX, normally it is installed. ImageMafick is the command
line image need caution to use because the windows tools to convert FAT
file system to NTFS is named convert too. Thus, ensure that is calling
the correct ones, such as use of full path.
Example:
convert img.jpg eps2:img.eps
create compressed eps. If eps2 is not specified, it generate big eps
file because use postscript level 1 that does not allow compression.
sam2p
site: http://www.inf.bme.hu/~pts/sam2p/
site:
http://www.inf.bme.hu/~pts/sam2p/
Convert bitmap image to eps ou pdf. By apropriate option, generate
small files. It is the unique aprications known at moment that can
produce compressed file on postscript of level 1 (author implemented
uncompress routine in postscript).
Copy the contents of downloaded files and copy to desired folder.
Is recomended to put sam2p's folder to PATH of windows. Other good idea
is to put inside MikTeX folder (c:\Program Files\miktex 2.7\miktex\bin)
that normally is on the PATH. The GUI version are not usable in 2008,
but will check the time in time to see if usable GUI version is
released.
Example
sam2p -c:jpeg figura.jpg figura.eps
convert jpeg to eps, keepping jpeg compressed.
jpeg2ps
site: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/jpeg2ps.htm
The
classical jpeg to eps converter using postscript of level 2/3,
generation small file. Recomend to use imagemagick or sam2p instead.
TeX4ht (integrated into MikTeX)
TeX4ht is cross platform
Tex/LaTeX
to
HTML/XHTML converter, similar to
Hevea,
TTH, and
LaTeX2HTML.
all of these four are of cross platform and present some advantage over
others. The
Hevea
and
TTH does not
have decent support for mathematical formula. The
Tex4ht
that implemented as package set for TeX and
LaTeX2HTML
implemented in
perl, will manage
mathematical formula in apropriated way. The both permit to use images (GIF,
PNG or JPEG) or
MathML for formula.
The TeX4ht and
LaTeX2HTML
are open source and are alrgelly used ones.
The HTML produced by
Tex4ht
is more near to original one than the produced by
LaTeX2HTML.
The TeX4ht can not split documents in part, usefull for large document. The
LaTeX2HTML
split document in parts and produce navegation between it
automatically, but it will disabled if desired. In other words, the
HTML produced by
LaTeX2HTML
is more suitable for internet publishing and it made prefered tools for
profissionals. By other hand, the TeX4ht will convert to Open Office
formats too and is included in MikTeX and W32TeX.The command
htlatex.bat
convert formula to image and
htmlatex.bat use MathML for it. The
oolatex.bat convert for Open Office
document format.
Remark 1: To use
JPEG or
PNG instead of
GIF
on the formula, specify on parameter.
htlatex foo "html,png"
generate
HTML code from foo.tex using PNG image to formula. The seccond
parameter enclosed by double quote is passed on TeX as option for
tex4ht.sty
package option. The other bat file workas as same form. For more option for
tex4ht.sty, see the TeX4ht's manual.
Remark 2: Specifing the use of
MathML,
does not guaranteee that all formula is not converted to image because some
ones will not have MathML equivalent.
Remark 3: The GUI for windows is
found on
http://www.mayer.dial.pipex.com/tex.htm.
Remark 4: Teh accent inside
tabular (
\a{'}, \a{~}, etc) does not recognized. In this
case, use direct accentuated character.
RTF2LaTeX2e
Site:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtf2latex2e/
(copy is on CTAN:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/rtf2latex2e/).
RTF2LaTeX2e is cross platform RTF (Rich
Text
Format) to LaTeX. converter with equation support (MS Equations). Note
that MS Word will export to RTF.In the case of Open Office, use the
writer2latex
plugin to export as LaTeX.
To install RTF2LaTeX2e, download the file and unpack into desired folder
such as c:\Program Files\rtf2latex2e
To convert MS Document, on MS Word, save as RTF by
"file-.save as". If file is "test.rtf" and is on the "c:\temp" then open the
command line (DOS prompt) and change to c:\temp
c:\document and settings\[user]>cd\temp
and run the rtf2latex2e
C:\temp>"c:\program files\rtf2latex2e\rtf2latex2e.exe" test.rtf
to create test.tex file.
Note that almost image are managed correctly, but some special ones such as
Microsoft Draw will by ignored.
The default is to ignore color, but will changed, editing the setup
file "r2l-pref"
in the "c:\Program Files\rtf2latex\pref". The "ignoreColor=trure" and
"ignorecolor=false" disable/enable color keeping on conversion.
LaTeX2RTF
site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/latex2rtf/
(copy on CTAN:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/latex2rtf/)
LaTeX2RTF is cross platform free LaTeX to RTF
(Rich Text Format) converter with equation support. The RTF will opened
by MS Word. The equation is converted to "EQ field" (not is the
Equation Object) recognized by MS Equations. For Open Office, use the
ooolatex included in TeX4ht, distributed with MikTeX or W32TeX. Note
that the convertor support formula, tables, figures, etc, but not all
LaTeX command has equivalent ones on MS Word.
To install, unpack the downloaded file to apropriate folder. Supose that if
is placed into the folder
c:\Program Files\l2r
The executable name is latex2tr.exe, but the use of bat file is most
easyller.
Edit the l2r.bat and change the line
C:\l2r\latex2rt -P C:\l2r\cfg %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
to
"C:\Program Files\l2r\latex2rt.exe" -P "C:\Program Files\l2r\cfg"
%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
Now, edit the file l2rsem.bat and change the line
C:\l2r\latex2rt -S -P C:\l2r\cfg %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
to
"C:\Program Files\l2r\latex2rt.exe" -S -P "C:\Program Files\l2r\cfg"
%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
The
l2r.bat is used to convert as american standard (fields separated by
colon) and l2rsem.bat (that use option -S to call latex2rt) is used to
produce German standard (field separated by semi colon). In the case of
portuguese, is conform to German ones. Note that the field separator is
very important to the MS Word recognize equations. Need to match with
your MS Office setup ones.
In way to image converter work, or to permit some equation converted to BMP
image, need to install and setup the
GhostView/GhostScript
and
ImageMagick
and adjust their PATH on l2rprep.bat.
To use, compile document using LaTeX, BibTeX, etc
normally to generate aux file and solbe cross references. After
this, execute the desired bat file (followed by tex file name without
extension) from command line prompt. If desire to use image, run the
l2rprep.bat before l2r.bat or l2rsem.bat.
WP2LaTeX
Site:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wp2latex/
Word Perfect to LaTeX with table and equation support.
Writer2LaTeX
site:
http://writer2latex.sourceforge.net/
Convert
the Open Office/Star Office to LaTeX/XHTML+MathLM. Will used as plugin
to export directly from Open Writer. Depending of instalation of Open
Office, it becames installed.
Excel2LaTeX
site:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/excel2latex/
Excel2LaTeX is MS Excel macro to convert excel spreadsheet to
laTeX table. Almost format such as fonts, borders, merged cell, etc are
supported. To install, copy the file excel2latex.xla to MS office
folder and open by double clicking it. The MS Excel open and ask if
execute the "macro".
Ansuwer "sim" and the install is complete. On the MS
Excel,
select the region of spreadsheet and click on "convert table
to
LaTeX" (or tools->convert table to LaTeX). The generated LaTeX code
will copied to clipboard or saved to file. If desiere japanese one, see
http://plaza19.mbn.or.jp/~Butcher_Bird/Mac/Excel.html.
Calc2LaTeX
site:
http://calc2latex.sourceforge.net/
macro for Open Calc (of Open Office) to generate LaTeX table from
spreadsheet .
Work similar to excl2latex.
Other tools
jabref (recomended)
site: http://jabref.sourceforge.net/
if
using the BibTeX, this GUI is recomended to edit the file ".bib".
Several LaTeX does not use BibTeX due to work on BiBTeX file edition
that use intax different of LaTeX ones. But, with jabref, it is very
easy.
jpdftweak
site: http://jpdftweak.sourceforge.net/
This
tools is essential for adjustment of finalized PDF documents. It permit
to split and join PDF files, reorder pages, resize, n-up, etc. If need
to finalize publication material such as book, journal, etc that manage
PDF in general, instead of source code, the jPDFTweak is very usefull.
To produce poster in easy way, create document using 1/4 (1/2 of scale
in each dimension) using 12pt. After PDF is produced, use jpefTweal to
enlarge in real size . Due to scale factor of 2x, the font size became
24pt, recomended to poster. In this way, will produce poster without
special package or tricks.
If want to automatize using command line script, the
Multvalent
will be usefull. Note that the
Multivalent
is the document viewer for HTML, DVI, PDF, etc and the PDF management
is made by command line instead on GUI. Due to this, most recent
jPDFTweak becames popular than multivalent.
pdfarranger (linux and windows)
site:
https://alternativeto.net/software/pdf-arranger/
I the fork of linux only pdfshuffler (
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfshuffler/). To manage finished PDF files. By friendly GUI, will concatenate PDF files,
delete page,
reorder page, rotate page and crop page. It is
not power as jPDFTWeak, but is nice for more simple task. The Mac
user will enjoy
PDFSAM
xournal and jaurnal
xournal:
http://xournal.sourceforge.net/
jaurnal: http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm
xournal is eletronic notebook, but will write over PDF and export to PDF
again. This features is
usefull for teacher to made correction of student's work. If use
tablet, will made it so fast as correction over printed ones. Teh
jaurnal is similar to xournal, but is implemented in java. xournal is
recomended.
Scribus
site: http://www.scribus.net/.
The
scribus is designated to make journals, folders, posters, etc that
require visual layouts, similar to Microsoft Publisher (comercial). The
scribus permit to insert
"LaTeX box" in way to help development of scientific materials. The
LaTeX user always use LaTeX package to produce posters and folders, but
if it became frequently, is preferable to use scribus than the pure
LaTeX.
TeXTablet (windows only)
site:
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~sl203/?id=39
Will input laTeX formula using hand writen recognition. Windows 7 or
latter.