[Tex/LaTex] How to render a markdown file with some LaTeX inline math

command linemarkdown

When I receive a Markdown file, I can open it in a markdown editor like React on Linux or Markdown Monster on Windows etc. However – such editors do not support rendering of LaTeX embedded in the Markdown as inline math (i.e. with single-dollar signs) – and I'm faced with the task of rendering such documents.

Obviously this is supported on some web-based systems – like the one here on TeX.SX . But I am in a terminal with a command shell; or am possibly writing a script, to do this. I'm on a Linux system.

The rendered output format should be PDF, HTML with MathML, HTML with rendered images, or anything else that's reasonable. Preferably I should be able to choose among these output type options.

Best Answer

If you need a command line tool to convert markdown to pdf or html, then pandoc might be a good candidate. You simply call:

$ pandoc infile.md -o outfile.pdf

$ pandoc infile.md -o outfile.html

to generate the desired output.

You can configure the process, if desired. For math in html, you could choose different rendering options, like --mathjax or --mathml. If you need embedded pictures, use --webtex. This is all documented in the manual: https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#math-rendering-in-html

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] I’d like to include Markdown in a LaTeX file

For ConTeXt, I have written a module, t-filter, that provides a nice user-interface for running external programs on a file. Using that module, you can write:

\usemodule[filter]

\defineexternalfilter
    [markdown]
    [filter={pandoc -t context -o \externalfilteroutputfile}]

after which you can use

 \processmarkdownfile{....}

to convert a markdown file to context and input the resulting back to tex. (The \defineexternalfilter command also creates an environment \startmarkdown ... \stopmarkdown. The module writes the contents of this environment to an external file, processes file through pandoc, and inputs the result.)

This is essentially a glorified wrapper around \write18. For a one-off task, you can use:

\newcommand\processmarkdownfile[1]
    {\immediate\write18{pandoc -t latex -o #1.tex #1}%
     \input{#1.tex}}

and then use \processmarkdownfile{...} to include a markdown file in LaTeX. You need to enable write18 for this to work. The easiest method is to pass -shell-escape to pdflatex:

pdflatex -shell-escape <filename>

The t-filter module provides other goodies as well (use an sub directory to store temp files, do not rerun the filter if the file has not changed, etc.). If you want, it is easy to add an interface for them in LaTeX as well.

[Tex/LaTex] Math mode in document title with R Markdown

You need to escape the backslash using

title: "Welcome to \\LaTeX{} Workshop"
...

Or you can use a work-around:

---
title: "Welcome to LaTeX Workshop"
output: 
  pdf_document
header-includes:
  - \title{Welcome to \LaTeX{} Workshop}
...
---

The above approach removes all formatting from the title and resets it via the traditional way using \title after pandoc's \title insertion. This effectively overwrites it without the processing used by pandoc.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] I’d like to include Markdown in a LaTeX file

[Tex/LaTex] Math mode in document title with R Markdown

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