[Tex/LaTex] AUCTeX, “preview image not supported”

auctexemacslive preview

I'm trying to set up Emacs 24.3.1 to work with AUCTeX on Win7. When I try to use the Preview feature on the testing 'circ.tex' file I get the following error:

TeX Output exited as expected with code 1 at Mon Aug 24 18:40:57
LaTeX: preview-image-type setting 'png unsupported by this Emacs

What does that mean? I have GSView, GhostScript 9.09, TeXMaker and TeXLIve 2015 updated from 2013.
I have so far followed Sacha Chua's installation instructions and I have created a path called C:\homemacs\. Inside this folder are the .emacs file and the directory .emacs.d. Using M-x package-list I've installed YASnippet 0.8.0, org-mode 8.3.1 and AUCTeX 11.88.7. This is the .emacs file:

;; -*- mode: elisp -*-

;; Disable splash screen (to enable it again, replace t with 0)
(setq inhibit-splash-screen t)

(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(ansi-color-names-vector ["#242424" "#e5786d" "#95e454" "#cae682" "#8ac6f2" "#333366" "#ccaa8f" "#f6f3e8"])
 '(custom-enabled-themes (quote (tsdh-dark))))
(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :inverse-video nil :box nil :strike-through nil :overline nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight normal :height 98 :width normal :foundry "outline" :family "DejaVu Sans Mono")))))

I'm totally new to Emacs so can you PLEASE give me some instructions as to how to configure it to Preview equations on the same buffer? I've downloaded and installed SumatraPDF– has it got anything to do with the error in question?

Best Answer

I got the correct *.dll files and put them in emacs' binaries. I also had to make a clean install of emacs (emacs-24.4-bin-i686-pc-mingw32.zip) and install AUCTeX with M-x package-install RET auctex RET. My emacs file is constructed from different people's emacs.

;;; Schlosser's .emacs
(server-start)
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'turn-on-reftex)
(setq reftex-plug-into-AUCTeX t)
(setq-default ispell-program-name "aspell")


;;; Brent.Longborough's .emacs
(setq inhibit-splash-screen t); Disable splash screen
(setq visible-bell t); Flashes on error
;(set-face-background hl-line-face "#f2f1f0"); Same color as greyness in gtk
(show-paren-mode 1); Matches parentheses and such in every mode


;;; AUCTeX
;; Customary Customization, p. 1 and 16 in the manual, and http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AUCTeX#toc2
(setq TeX-parse-self t); Enable parse on load.
(setq TeX-auto-save t); Enable parse on save.
(setq-default TeX-master nil)

(setq TeX-PDF-mode t); PDF mode (rather than DVI-mode)

(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook 'flyspell-mode); Enable Flyspell mode for TeX modes such as AUCTeX. Highlights all misspelled words.
(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode); Enable Flyspell program mode for emacs lisp mode, which highlights all misspelled words in comments and strings.
(setq ispell-dictionary "english"); Default dictionary. To change do M-x ispell-change-dictionary RET.
(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook
          (lambda () (TeX-fold-mode 1))); Automatically activate TeX-fold-mode.
(setq LaTeX-babel-hyphen nil); Disable language-specific hyphen insertion.

;; " expands into csquotes macros (for this to work babel must be loaded after csquotes).
(setq LaTeX-csquotes-close-quote "}"
      LaTeX-csquotes-open-quote "\\enquote{")

;; LaTeX-math-mode http://www.gnu.org/s/auctex/manual/auctex/Mathematics.html
(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook 'LaTeX-math-mode)


(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(preview-default-document-pt 12))
(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 )

This is what I have now:

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] preview-latex in emacs auctex: empty boxes

I was having this same problem when I stumbled across this post. I was able to fix it the following way:

Note, I am using Emacs23.3.1, AUCTeX 11.86, Ubuntu 11.10, Gnome3.2.1

Open a .tex file (or make one). I will assume that you are using Emacs23, using an Xwindow (Mine is in Gnome). Go to the menu bar and do:

Preview -> Customize -> Browse Options

In this buffer, do:

Preview GS -> Preview GS options -> [click on the little arrow to show the options] -> del -dSAFER

C-x C-s to save, and reload Emacs. Previews should work now!

[Tex/LaTex] AUCTeX -output-directory + copy *.pdf to working directory

If you want to use AUCTeX so desperately:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
                 (push 
                  '("Latex_outdir" "%`pdflatex --output-directory=/tmp %(mode)%' %t" 
                TeX-run-TeX nil (latex-mode doctex-mode) 
                :help "Run pdflatex with output in /tmp")
                  TeX-command-list)))

The question you linked to in your last comment is still unanswered, and will cause a serious problem with this setup: AUCTeX won't be able to locate your auxiliary files, and thus deduce the next step in the compilation step.

I suggest you use latexmk for the whole process instead:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
                 (push 
                  '("Make" "latexmk -outdir=/tmp %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t
                :help "Make pdf output using latexmk.")
                  TeX-command-list)))

Latexmk is aware of the option outdir, and will automatically search for the auxiliary files in this directory.

Either way, note the following point (from man latexmk):

Commonly, the directory specified for output files is a subdirectory of the current working directory. However, if you specify some other directory, e.g., "/tmp/foo" or "../output", be aware that this could cause problems, e.g., with makeindex or bibtex. This is because modern versions of these programs, by default, will refuse to work when they find that they are asked to write to a file in a directory that appears not to be the current working directory or one of its subdirectories. This is part of security measures by the whole TeX system that try to prevent malicious or errant TeX documents from incorrectly messing with a user's files. If for $out_dir or $aux_dir you really do need to specify an absolute pathname (e.g., "/tmp/foo") or a path (e.g., "../output") that includes a higher-level directory, then you need to disable the security measures (and assume any risks). This can be done by temporarily setting the operating system's environment variable openout_any to "a" (as in "all"), to override the default "paranoid" setting.

Another potential problem with this setting is that all your documents will share the same temporary directory, so you will need to make sure they all have different names.

For your cp step, you can use this line in your .latexmkrc:

$pdflatex .= ' && cp -v %Z/%D %D';

Note that most of this is untested, please let me know if it doesn't work.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] preview-latex in emacs auctex: empty boxes

[Tex/LaTex] AUCTeX -output-directory + copy *.pdf to working directory

Related Question