# TeX4ht: LaTeX and TeX for Hypertext

TeX4ht is a highly configurable TeX-based authoring system for producing hypertext. It interacts with TeX-based applications through style files and postprocessors, leaving the processing of the source files to the native TeX compiler. Consequently, TeX4ht can handle the features of TeX-based systems in general, and of the LaTeX and AMS style files in particular.

This document relates mainly to configurations tailored for different variants of HTML, MathML, OpenOffice, DocBook, TEI, and CSS. The document and code are available for downloading in zipped format (osu, tug).[unzip]

• Table of Contents • Using the System • Calling Commands • Configurations • Installation • Bug Reports • Resources • License • Acknowledgment • Index

## Using the System

Typical LaTeX source files can be compiled into standard HTML and XML formats in a manner similar to the way they are compiled into print formats, namely, through variations of the command ‘htlatex filename "options1" "option2" "options3"’. For instance,

htlatex filename
htlatex filename "html,2,info" "dbcs/!"
htlatex filename "foo,frames" "" "-p"
xhlatex filename
mzlatex filename
oolatex filename

In some platforms the double quotes should be replaced with single right-quotes, and in some cases they might be omitted.

For details, visit the calling commands section.

### References

The main features of TeX4ht are described in:

- M. Goosen and S. Rahtz with E. Gurari, R. Moore, and R. Sutor, The LaTeX Web Companion, Addison-Wesley, 1999 (German translation).
- Fabrice Popineau, Affichez vos documents LaTeX sur le Web avec TeX4ht, Cahiers GUTenberg 37-38, December 2000, 5-43 (French, PDF).
- Within the current document.
- In the .log files of the compilations.

The documents From LaTeX to MathML and Back with TeX4ht and PassiveTeX, LaTeX to XML/MathML, A demonstration of TeX4ht, and From LaTeX to MathML and Beyond may provide additional insight into the system (and some outdated details).

## Installation

To be installed, the system needs a port made up of native utilities of TeX4ht and of non-native utilities. The easiest way to establish an up to date port is to download an installed distribution of the system, and refresh it with the files provided here.

Establishing ports from scratch for Unix and MS Windows require additional effort, mainly because of the need to set up non-native utilities. Alternative ports for these and other platforms can be tailored in a similar manner.

Philip A. Viton discusses in details issues of installing TeX4ht under MikTeX and Scientific Word/WorkPlace, but many of the topics apply also to other platforms. Steven Zeil offers improvements for the above settings.

TeX4ht can be integrated into the WinShell graphical user interface of Ingo H. de Boer for working with TeX. Steve Mayer programmed a graphical user interface for a set of converters on MS Windows, supporting also TeX4ht.

trouble shooting | Q/A | bug fixes

## Bug Reports

The development of the TeX4ht system is to a large degree driven by users’ bug reports and requests. In most cases, when providing feedback, it is essential to include the following information.

- A minimal miniature complete source file illustrating the issues involved. Since similar constructs are introduced within different style files, a minimal source is required for correctly pinpointing the definitions of the constructs involved in the translation.

- A mentioning of the command used to invoke the translation. This information is required since the command determines which configurations participate in the translation.

Translations of source files are centered around logical structures. Formatting instructions receive only limited attention.

## Resources

Languages: | LaTeX/TeX, HTML, XML/XSLT, MathML, DocBook, TEI, Style Sheets, DTDs, Validators
Converters into HTML/XML: | BibHTML 1, Bib2HTML 2, Bib2HTML 3, BibTeX2HTML 4, Dlh 5, Euromath 6, GELLMU 7, HEVEA 8, HTeX 9, HtmlTeX 10, HTMX 11, HyperLaTeX 12, HyperTeX 13, Itex2mml 14, LaTeX2HTML 15, LaTeX2man 16, Ltoh 17, Ltx2x 18, MicroPress TeXpider 19, ORCCA 20, Omega 21, pyLaTeX 22, Selathco 23, TeX2HTML 24, TeX2Page 25, TeX2RTF 26, Texi2HTML 27, Texi2www 28 , TeXPort WEB 29, Tralics 30, Tth 31, Vulcanize 32, WebEQ 33
Backward Converters: | Gf 1, Htex 2, HTML2LaTeX 3, HTML2LaTeX 4, HTML2LaTeX 5, HTML2TeX 6, JadeTeX 7, Passive TeX 8, SGML2TeX 9, TeXML 10, TypeHTML 11, XMLTeX 12, Writer2LaTeX 13, Brute Force 14
Converters for other formats: | Dvi2bitmap 1, Dvipdfm 2, MimeTeX 3, ltx2rtf 4, LEQ 5, PdfTeX 6, Plain2 7, LaTeX to ... 8
Conversion to Bitmaps | math on the web | web publishing with LaTeX | conversion services

## License

TeX4ht is provided under the LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL). However, it is allowed to modify the files without changing their names, if the signatures of the files are modified (see copyright notices within the files).

## Acknowledgment

I am very grateful for the suggestions, contributions, and bug reports offered by many people. In particular, thanks go to Gertjan Klein and Sebastian Rahtz who got deeply involved in the project for long periods of time, to Carmen Fierro and Piotr Grabowski for extensive feedback regarding the MathML configurations, and to Philip Viton for his superb documentation.

This work is partially sponsored by NSF grant IIS-0312487.

Eitan M. Gurari
gurari@cis.ohio-state.edu
February 11, 2004