LaTeX to PDF Documentation

Overview

LaTeX to PDF is a Node.js module that allows you to generate PDF reports from LaTeX templates with dynamic data injection. It provides functionalities for parsing templates, generating TypeScript interfaces for type safety, and compiling LaTeX files into PDFs.

Dependencies

• pdflatex
  • Windows install: https://www.tug.org/texlive/
  • Mac install: brew install texlive
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install texlive-latex-base then optionally sudo apt install texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-recommended

Installation

Using git

Setup the package in it's own directory

git clone https://github.com/TytoLtd/latext_to_pdf_ts.git
cd latex-to-pdf
yarn install
yarn build
yarn link

Link to another project. In the other project:

yarn link latex-to-pdf

Using the package manager if I decide to publish it (haven't yet)

yarn add latex-to-pdf

Usage

Generating TypeScript Interfaces from Templates

Before generating PDFs, you need to extract fields from LaTeX templates and generate TypeScript interfaces:

latex-to-pdf-setup <TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY>

This command scans the provided directory for .tex templates, extracts placeholders, and generates corresponding TypeScript interfaces. <TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY> is where you decide to keep your latex templates. An example latex template is provided below.

API Reference

LatexToPdf Class

interface CompileTexOptions {
  passes?: number; // default 2
  draftFirst?: boolean; // default true: first pass uses -draftmode
  engine?: string; // default "pdflatex"
  flags?: string[]; // extra engine flags
}

class LatexToPdf {
  constructor(reportType: string);
  renderTemplate<T>(data: T, outputPdfPath: string): string;
  compileTex(texPath: string, options?: CompileTexOptions): Promise<PdfResult>;
  populate<T>(data: T, outputPdfPath: string, options?: CompileTexOptions): Promise<PdfResult>;
}

Methods:

• constructor(reportType: string): Initializes the generator with a report type. The type must be pre-generated using generateAllTypes.
• renderTemplate<T>(data: T, outputPdfPath: string): string: Renders and writes a .tex file (same path as output with .pdf replaced by .tex) and returns the tex path.
• compileTex(texPath: string, options?: CompileTexOptions): Promise<PdfResult>: Compiles a .tex file to PDF with first-class multi-pass support.
• populate<T>(data: T, outputPdfPath: string, options?: CompileTexOptions): Promise<PdfResult>: Backward-compatible one-call helper that runs renderTemplate then compileTex.

generateAllTypes

function generateAllTypes(templateDir: string): string[];

Scans a directory for .tex templates and generates TypeScript interfaces.

Configuration

Ensure the pdflatex command is installed and available in your system path to enable PDF generation. See above dependency.

Example

Latex Template

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{longtable}
\begin{document}
{{let cust1:import<Customer,"../src/Customer.ts">}}
{{let results_table:[new<date:string,item:string,price:number>]}}
{{let meeps:[import<Meep,"../src/Meep.ts">]}}
{{let date:raw<string>}}
Invoice for {{cust1.name}}

Date: {{date}}

\begin{longtable}{|l|c|c|}
    \hline
    \textbf{Date} & \textbf{Item} & \textbf{Price (ZAR)} \\
    \hline
    {{table(results_table,[date,item,price])}}
    \hline
    \end{longtable}

\section{Meep}
{{for meep in meeps
    {\textbf{Meep ID:} {{meep.id}} \\}
}}

\section{Magic}
{{if ({{date}} == "Meep")
    {\textbf{Magic:} 1 \\}else{\textbf{Not Magic:} 0 \\}
}}

\end{document}

TS Code

import { LatexToPdf } from "latex-to-pdf";
import { Customer } from "./src/Customer";
import { InvoiceData } from "./latex_interfaces/invoice";


const pdfGenerator = new LatexToPdf("invoice"); // Same as template name just without .tex. So invoice.tex -> invoice

// The data type for a template will always be called {templateName}Data. 
// You can find the structure in the generated folder "node_modules/latex-to-pdf/generated"

let cust: Customer={
    name: "Mikey",
    id: 123
}

let data: InvoiceData={
    cust1: cust,
    results_table: [
        {
            date: "2021-01-01",
            item: "Item 1",
            price: 10
        },
        {
            date: "2021-01-02",
            item: "Item 2",
            price: 20
        }
    ],
    meeps: [
        {
            id: 999
        },
        {
            id: 9991
        }
    ],
    date: "not Meep"
}

const texPath = pdfGenerator.renderTemplate(data, "./output/test.pdf");
const result = await pdfGenerator.compileTex(texPath, {
  passes: 2,
  draftFirst: true
});

if (!result.success) {
  throw new Error(result.message);
}

console.log(`Generated PDF at: ${result.outputPath}`);

License

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