This is an nvim plugin designed to do live pdf updates of latex projects for preview.
The main idea of this plugin was to help me typeset my thesis. Several latex previewers for vim exist, but this one has two different diff modes, which work on projects with multiple files.
By setting the mode to diff, you see the differences between the version of the file that you are currently typing and the version which is saved to disk.
By setting the mode to git, you see the differences between the version of the file that you are currently typing and the latest commit.
nvim-latex-previewer uses latexmk to typeset documents and does a unionmount with fuse to superimpose the edited versions of files over the current saved versions. It therefore depends on:
- mupdf (currently the only fully supported previewer)
- unionmount-fuse
- latexmk (currently the only supported compiler)
- xdotool (for sync)
On my current setup, I've installed this with
vim-plug. After installing vim-plug,
just add Plug 'emakman/nvim-latex-previewer' to your plugin section, restart,
and then do a :PlugInstall.
I don't consider this previewer to be configuration-free however. I recommend putting something like the following into ~/.config/nvim/ftplugin/tex.vim:
nmap <buffer> <Leader>p :LatexPreviewToggle<CR>
nmap <buffer> <Leader>[ :PrevLatexPreviewMode<CR>
nmap <buffer> <Leader>] :NextLatexPreviewMode<CR>
This way you can enable/disable previewing by typing \-p, and change the mode
by typing \-[ and \-] (replace \ with your current mapleader).
The previewer behavior can be modified by beginning your document with a "magic comment". The most important is the TeX root directive:
% !TeX root = main.tex
Which tells the previewer which file to feed to tex. The previewer expects all files referenced by the root directory to be in some subdirectory of the directory that contains it.
The next directive is the TeX program directive:
% !TeX program = latex
you can use this to set the program to tex (plain tex), latex, xetex, or luatex. If you set it to anything else, it will run latex, but change the -progname. This may change the format files that are used. Finally, we have the TeX options directive:
% !TeX options = nonstop, synctex
You can use this to set a list of command-line options for latex:
| Setting | command-line options |
|---|---|
| enc | -enc -ini |
| flerror | -file-line-error |
| !flerror | -no-file-line-error |
| ini | -ini |
| batch | -interaction=batchmode |
| nonstop | -interaction=nonstopemode |
| scroll | -interaction=scrollmode |
| errorstop | -interaction=errorstopmode |
| shellescape | -shell-escape |
| !shellescape | -no-shell-escape |
| srcspecials | -src-specials |
| !srcspecials | -no-src-specials |
| synctex | -synctex=1 |
| !synctex | -synctex=0 |
nvim-latex-previewer defines the following commands:
LatexPreview
Immediately compiles the document and opens the preview.
LatexPreviewOn
LatexPreviewOff
LatexPreviewToggle
Enable or disable live preview. When previewing is first enabled, the document will be typeset and (if successful) will open in the selected viewer (for now, that means MuPDF).
LatexPreviewMode <mode>
NextLatexPreviewMode
PrevLatexPreviewMode
This sets the preview mode. Choices are:
| Setting | Behavior |
|---|---|
| plain | Typeset the current version of the document in the buffer. (default) |
| diff | Typeset the diff of the current version against the saved version. |
| git | Typeset the current version of the document against the git master. |
LatexPreviewTimer <n>
Set a timer for compilation. When enabled, the document will update every n
seconds. To disable this feature, set the timer interval to -1.
LatexPreviewSyncOn
LatexPreviewSyncOff
LatexPreviewSyncToggle
Enable or disable sync mode (enabled by default). When sync mode is enabled, the preview will fast-forward to the page containing the text being edited each time it updates.
LatexPreviewCacheOn
LatexPreviewCacheOff
LatexPreviewCacheToggle
Enable or disable the preview cache. When this is enabled, a folder named .nlp will be created in the directory containing the project root, in which all files created during compilation will be stored. This can help improve initial compile speed when reopening the document but has no other benefits.
LatexPreviewWriteMode <mode>
This setting determines which files are saved to the project's root directory. It can be any of the following:
| Setting | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 0 | No files are saved. |
| !tex | Saves all files with extensions other than tex. |
| ext1|ext2 | Saves all files with extension ext1 or ext2. This list can contain any number of extensions separated by | |
The default setting is 'pdf'.
LatexViewer <viewer>
The executable used for viewing the document. Only mupdf will sync, but other viewers will likely open correctly at least.
LatexPreviewLog
Shows a log of the last compile. This will generate errors if the document has not been compiled yet, and will update when the document is recompiled (specifically to avoid problems with timed compilation).