/tex2text

Convert TeX code to plain text

Primary LanguagePython

Tex2Text

The program tex2text.py converts TeX to plain text or markdown. I wrote this program to obtain plain text versions of abstracts of my research papers because conferences (and ArXiv) ask for them.

Example invocations:

  • python tex2text.py example.tex --fix-spacing
  • python tex2text.py example.tex --fmt=markdown --keep-math

Here is how it roughly works:

  • Remove all comments
  • Replace occurrences of \texorpdfstring{X}{Y} by Y.
  • Remove inline math delimiting characters $ (use the --keep-math option to prevent this. This is useful if math is handled separately, e.g., using MathJax).
  • Replace all known macros by symbols (see source code for list of known macros). So \alpha becomes α, \infty becomes ∞, etc. Macros \emph and \textbf are ignored in plain text mode, but processed appropriately in markdown mode.
  • Warn if an unknown macro is encountered.

The default output format is plain text, but markdown can be obtained using the --fmt=markdown option.

Run python tex2text.py --help to learn about other command-line options.