Tool (JKQTMathText): Command-Line Utility jkqtmathtext_render

JKQTMathText is a hand-written LaTeX-renderer for Qt (implemented in native C++, using Qt). It supports a large set of standard LaTeX markup and can render it to a QPainter.

This project (see ./examples/jkqtmathtext_render/) is a command-line utility that accepts a LaTeX markup string and a filename for the generated image. It then renders the string into the image. The source code of the main application can be found in jkqtmathtext_render.cpp. The major rendering portion look like this:

First we generate dummy QPixmap that is needed to use the QPainter, that is required for determining the size of the rendering.

QPixmap pix(10,10);

Now we create a JKQTMathText object and configure it

QPainter painter;
JKQTMathText mathText;
if (useXITS) mathText.useXITS();
mathText.setFontSize(fontsize);

Now we parse some LaTeX code and thus generate its memory representation.

mathText.parse(latex);

Finally we can generate a QImage with the output of the rendering algorithm and save it as a file.

const QImage pix=mathText.drawIntoImage(drawBoxes, backgroundColor, sizeincrease);
pix.save(outputFilename);

calling this utility with the LaTeX code:

> jkqtmathtext_render "$x_{1/2}=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$" jkqtmathtext_render_output.png

results in this output:

The tool supports these command-line options:

• command-line mode: call jkqtmathtext_render LATEX OUTPUTFILE
  • The extension of the OUTPUTFILE determines the file type. The tool supports .png, .bmp, .jpg, .ppm, .xbm and .xpm
• file-mode: call jkqtmathtext_render --inputfile=INPUTFILE.jkmt --outputdir=OUTPUTDIR
  • The file INPUTFILE.jkmt is a text file with several "render jobs", deparated by --- lines.
  • The first line in each job defines the output filename (relative to OUTPUTDIR)
  • The second line is optional and contains a list of altered command-line options, e.g. --fontsize=24 --fontmathroman=XITS, Note however that only options concerning formatting are allowed, --verbose or the file/directory-options will not be processed!
  • The third and further lines is concatenated to form the LaTeX markup to be rendered.
• All modes support these command-line options:
  • --verbose: verbose output of the tool
  • --sizeincrease=SIZE_PIXELS: set the width of the additional margin around the rendering result
  • --drawboxes: flag that enables drawing of rectangles around each box
  • --font=FONT_SERIF: sets text- and math-mode serif font to FONT_SERIF
  • --font=FONT_SERIF,FONT_SANS: sets text- and math-mode serif font to FONT_SERIF and sans font to FONT_SANS
  • --font=FONT_TEXT_SERIF,FONT_TEXT_SANS,FONT_MATH_SERIF,FONT_MATH_SANS: sets text- and math-mode serif font to FONT_TEXT_SERIF and FONT_MATH_SERIF and sans fonts to FONT_TEXT_SANS and FONT_MATH_SANS
  • --font=...+XITS|STIX|ASANA: set fonts as given above and then use XITS-/STIX- or ASANA-fonts for math-roman
  • --fontsize=SIZE_PT: set the font-size in pt
  • --fontroman=FONT: set the text-mode roman font
  • --fontsans=FONT: set the text-mode sans font
  • --fontmathroman=FONT: set the math-mode roman font
  • --fontmathsans=FONT: set the math-mode sans font
  • --fontblackboard=FONT: use the given font as blackboard-font and de-activate the simulate-feature
  • --fontblackboardmode=default|font_directly|simulate|unicode_or_font_directly|unicode_or_simulate: use the given drawing mode for blackboard fonts
  • --fonttypewriter=FONT: set the typewriter font
  • --fontscript=FONT: set the script font
  • --fontcaligraphic=FONT: set the caligraphic font
  • --fontfraktur=FONT: set the fraktur font
  • --fontfallbacksymbol=FONT: set the fallback symbol font, using unicode encoding
  • --fontfallbacksymbol_symbolencoding=FONT: set the fallback symbol font, using WinSymbol encoding
  • --background=COLOR: set the background color of the output image
  • --textcolor=COLOR: set the text color of the output image