tikzjax

v1.0.2

Published

4 months ago

TikZJax converts `<script>` tags (containing TikZ code) into SVGs.

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alexshilen

TikZJax

TikZJax converts <script> tags (containing TikZ code) into SVGs.

See a live demo at http://tikzjax.com/

Note that the demo above is not the same as what you will get from what this branch of my fork. However, it does show the general concept.

Thanks to Jim Fowler for doing all of the hard work. See https://github.com/kisonecat/tikzjax, https://github.com/kisonecat/web2js, and https://github.com/kisonecat/dvi2html for his original work.

Also see https://github.com/jhoobergs/web2js and https://github.com/jhoobergs/web2js for additional changes that were made by Jesse Hoobergs that were used in this work.

Example

In the <head> of your HTML, include

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http[s]://<path to dist contents>/fonts.css">
<script src="http[s]://<path to dist contents>/tikzjax.js"></script>

(See Deployment below.)

Then in the <body>, include TikZ code such as

<script type="text/tikz">
    \draw (0,0) circle (1in);
</script>

The TikZ code will be compiled into an SVG image, and the <script> element will be replaced with the generated SVG image.

How does this work?

Using the ww-modifications branch of https://github.com/drgrice1/web2js the Pascal source of TeX is compiled to WebAssembly, and the LaTeX format is loaded (without all the hyphenation data). Then

\documentclass[margin=0pt]{standalone}
\def\pgfsysdriver{pgfsys-ximera.def}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}

is executed. Then the core is dumped and compressed. The WebAssembly and core are loaded in the browser and executed. An SVG driver for PGF along in the ww-modifications branch of https://github.com/drgrice1/dvi2html are then utilized to convert the DVI output into to an SVG image.

All of this happens in the browser.

Note that TeX will only be run the first time that a "text/tikz" script tag appears in a page. After that run of TeX, the SVG image will be cached, and the next time the same "text/tikz" script appears the cached SVG image will be loaded. If the text content of the script tag or any of the data attributes (described below) are changed, then TeX will be run again to update the image.

Options

There are several data attributes that can be set for a "text/tikz" <script> tag that affect the generation of the resulting SVG image, or change the way the TikzJax javascript behaves.

The values of the data-width and data-height attributes set on the <script> tag will be used for the width and height of a loader image. This is an svg image that is displayed while TeX is being run to generate the svg image, and contains a spinner to indicate to the user that work is being done. These dimensions are in points.

Use data-tex-packages to load and use TeX packages. The value of this attribute must be a string that will parse to a valid javascript object via the javascript JSON.parse method. The keys of the object should be the TeX package names, and the value of each key should be the package options to set. For example:

<script type="text/tikz" data-tex-packages="custom-package"
	data-tex-package='{"pgfplots":"","custom-package":"option=special"}'>

will add

\usepackage{array}\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage[option=special]{custom-package}

to the preamble of the TeX input. Note that TeX packages must be loaded in this way. This will ensure that the needed TeX system files are made available to the TeX WebAssembly for successful compilation. Note that the only TeX packages that are available at this time are array, pgfplots, and tikz-3dplot. Additional packages can be made available by adding a file <package-name>.json that contains an array of file names needed by the package to the tex_packages directory, and adding the gzipped files in that array to the tex_files directory.

Use data-tikz-libraries to load and use TikZ libraries. For example:

<script type="text/tikz" data-tikz-libraries="arrows.meta,calc">

will result in

\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta,calc}

being added to the preamble of the TeX input. As with TeX packages, TikZ libraries must be loaded in this way to ensure that the needed TeX system files are made available to the TeX WebAssembly for successful compilation. Note that all known TikZ libraries are available (with the exception of some that don't make sense in this context, like the external library).

Use data-add-to-preamble="..." to add to the TeX preamble.

Use data-show-console="true" to enable the output of TeX in the console. By default, console output is disabled and nothing is shown in the browser console. If this data attribute is set, then you will see

This is e-TeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6 (preloaded format=latex 1776.7.4)
**entering extended mode
(input.tex
LaTeX2e <2020-02-02> patch level 2
...
Transcript written on input.log.

output to the console. This is useful when testing your TikZ code to ensure that it compiles successfully, but should be left disabled for production.

CSS Classes

For your convenience, some css classes are provided that will apply common styles to the svg image. To use these classes place the "text/tikz" script tags inside an html element with one of the following classes.

If you add the css class tikzjax-container to the containing element, then overflow:visible will be added to the style of the generated <svg> image.

If you add the css class tikzjax-scaled-container to the containing element, then overflow:visible, width:100%, and height:100% will be added to the style of the generated <svg> image.

Other JavaScript Interactions

Note that once tikzjax completes the generation of an SVG image, the generated <svg> image will emit the tikzjax-load-finished event. You can use this event to do something with the generated SVG image in javascript.

For example:

document.addEventListener('tikzjax-load-finished', function(e) {
	var svg = e.srcElement;
	...
});

Building

First clone this GitHub repository (https://github.com/drgrice1/tikzjax) and switch to the ww-modifications branch.

Then clone my fork of web2js (https://github.com/drgrice1/web2js) and also switch to the ww-modifications branch. Follow the directions in the README for a "quick path to generate the tex.wasm and core.dump files". Then copy the generated core.dump and tex.wasm files to the tikzjax directory, and gzip them.

Finally run

npm install
npm run build

in the tikzjax directory to build the tikzjax distribution. Note that in order for this full build to be successful you must have a TeX distribution installed with the necessary TeX and TikZ files available and locatable by kpsewhich.

Deployment

The dist directory that is generated by the build process above will contain everything needed. Copy the contents to your server for deployment. To use it in a webpage add

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http[s]://<path to dist contents>/fonts.css">
<script src="http[s]://<path to dist contents>/tikzjax.js"></script>

to the html page. Of course use http: or https: instead of http[s]: (or remove that entirely for a protocol agnostic approach) and adjust <path to dist contents> as needed.

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