LaTeX Previewer is a VS Code extension that generates a typeset document from your LaTeX source and renders it directly to the canvas of a VS Code webview.
Features
Renders from a generated DVI file - no PDF output required.
Pages are rendered as needed for faster previewing.
Glyph bitmaps are cached to improve rendering speed.
Configurable screen DPI for better rendering accuracy.
Forward and reverse document synchronization.
Supports rendering of images in SVG format.
Re-rendering on save
Prerequisites
VS Code or VSCodium >= v1.75
A TeX distribution that includes LuaTeX
luaotfload package >= v3.23
OpenType or TrueType fonts for all fonts used in your documents
Getting Started
Search for LaTeX Previewer in VS Code Extensions or Open VSX and click Install
Go to the extension settings and set the LaTeX font diretory for your LaTeX distribution e.g. for MiKTeX on Windows C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX\fonts or for TeXLive native on Linux /usr/share/texmf/fonts
The system font path will also be searched for font files
Open a LaTeX file and run LaTeX Preview: Show Preview from the Command Palette or click the Preview icon
Configuration Options
DPI: Display device resolution in pixels per inch. Default 96
Page Width: Page width in inches. Default 8.27 (A4)
Page Height: Page height in inches. Default 11.69 (A4)
Page Buffer Size: Number of pages to pre-render. Default 2
LaTeX Font Dir: Path to the font directory of your LaTeX distribution. Required
Debug Mode: Print debug messages? Default false
No preview showing?
Check the output log for error messages
Set Debug Mode for detailed logs
There may be fonts, images or LaTeX packages that were not found
If you are using a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu then your LaTeX distribution may have been installed by their repository system. In this case the latest loaotfload package may not be available. To get around this you can install a LaTeX native distribution side-by-side with the Ubuntu installation and point your LaTeX Font Directory to the native path.
Depending on your LaTeX distribution you may or may not be prompted to install packages
If you are using math packages ensure that you add the unicode-math package after all other math packages.
If you are using the amsart document class you may need to use the noamsfonts option
Install all required fonts and packages and try again
Possible future enhancements
Color text support
Printing
Saving of decoded DVI data in JSON format to enable document distribution for the web
A NodeJS module for rendering JSON document files to a browser canvas
