LaTeX compatibility

Chirun uses plasTeX to render LaTeX documents in HTML format. It re-implements some LaTeX packages in order to produce more structured output, while it can use the original LaTeX implementation of some other packages without changes. Because plasTeX doesn’t work in exactly the same way as normal LaTeX, some LaTeX packages don’t work as intended, and produce bad output or lead to unrecoverable errors.

plasTeX’s default behaviour on encountering a macro that it doesn’t know is to ignore the macro name and interpret the argument(s) as normal. This can lead to unexpected behaviour, with arguments to commands appearing as plain text in the output. The build log will contain a warning of the form WARNING: unrecognized command/environment: mycommand.

Chirun’s HTML output uses MathJax to render mathematical notation. MathJax has its own set of supported commands: see the TeX and LaTeX support section of the MathJax documentation. Chirun can expand some math-mode commands before they are processed by MathJax, but in other cases it has to leave the rendering entirely up to MathJax.

Tips for making LaTeX documents work with Chirun

Try to use only the packages you need: many authors have accumulated a very long document preamble, most of which isn’t actually needed.

Commands which change the layout of the page or font sizes and styles will not have any effect in HTML output; if these cause a problem, put them inside an ifpdflatex block.

If a document fails to compile, try moving some of your \usepackage commands into an \ifpdflatex block, so they’re only loaded when making the PDF output.

Once you’ve identified a package or command that causes problems with plasTeX, if you really need it in the HTML output, please tell us about it.

Supported packages

This section lists packages that we know about, and the level of support.

A glossary for the support levels:

Re-implemented by plasTeX or Chirun

A re-implementation of the package from the main plasTeX project is used, or Chirun provides one. It may not work exactly the same way as the original LaTeX version because, but the intention is that it offers the same functionality, as much as that makes sense in HTML output. Less-frequently-used commands may not be implemented yet.

Not supported

We are aware that this package causes problems with Chirun, but it has not been re-implemented yet.

Stub package

An “empty” re-implementation of the package is used, in order to avoid using the original LaTeX version which could trigger errors. None of the commands or functionality provided by the package are available in HTML output.

Quite often, packages which only provide math-mode commands are implemented as stub packages because MathJax handles their commands.

No problems observed

Authors have used this package in its original LaTeX version, and reported no problems. These packages have not necessarily been completely tested: some commands may produce errors or unwanted output, and these should be reported.

Package	Support
a4	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
a4wide	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
abstract	Not supported. When used, an unwanted #1 appears at the top of the HTML output.
accents	No problems observed.
adjustbox	No problems observed.
afterpage	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
algorithmic	No problems observed.
alltt	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amsbsy	Stub package: commands are handled by MathJax.
amscd	Stub package. Diagrams are rendered as SVG images using pdf latex.
amsthm	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amsart	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amsbook	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amsfonts	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amsmath	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
amssymb	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
appendix	No problems observed.
appendixnumberbeamer	Stub package: doesn’t do anything.
array	No problems observed.
article	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
avant	No problems observed.
babel	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
bbding	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
bbold	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
bbm	Re-implemented by Chirun. The command \mathbbm is rewritten as \mathbb.
beamer	Re-implemented by plasTeX. Beamer is a very large package and Chirun’s support is rather basic. The document-style HTML output is usually usable, but the HTML slides format still needs a lot of work. Chirun’s version of beamer automatically loads the hyperref package.
beamerposter	No problems observed.
beamerthemesplit	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
bibentry	No problems observed.
biblatex	No problems observed.
bigdelim	No problems observed.
blindtext	No problems observed.
bm	Stub package: commands are handled by MathJax.
bohr	No problems observed.
book	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
booktabs	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
braids	No problems observed.
calc	No problems observed.
cancel	Stub package: commands are handled by MathJax.
cantarell	Not supported. This package provides a font, and plasTeX seems to hang while reading it.
caption	Re-implemented by Chirun. The options are ignored in HTML output, and only the \caption command is implemented.
ccaption	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
changebar	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
chngcntr	No problems observed.
CJK	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
CJKutf8	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
cleveref	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
color	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
comment	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
dcolumn	No problems observed.
debugplastex	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
draftwatermark	No problems observed.
dsfont	Re-implemented by Chirun. The command \mathds is rewritten as \mathbb.
embed	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
endfloat	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
elements	No problems observed.
enumerate	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
enumitem	Re-implemented by Chirun.
epigraph	No problems observed.
epsf	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
epsfig	No problems observed.
epstopdf	No problems observed.
eso-pic	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
etex	No problems observed.
etoolbox	No problems observed.
eucal	No problems observed.
exercise	No problems observed.
fancybox	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
fancyhdr	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
fancyvrb	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
fix-cm	No problems observed.
fleqn	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
float	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
fontenc	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
fontspec	No problems observed.
footmisc	No problems observed.
forest	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
framed	Re-implemented by Chirun. The following environments are supported: framed, oframed, shaded, shaded*, snugshade, snugshade*, leftbar.
fullpage	No problems observed.
geometry	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
graphics	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
graphicx	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
helvet	No problems observed.
html	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
hyperref	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
ifpdf	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
iftex	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
ifthen	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
imakeidx	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
inputenc	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
isodate	Not supported. See plastex/plastex#362.
jss	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
keyval	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
kvoptions	Stub package: does nothing.
latexsym	No problems observed.
lectures	No problems observed.
lipsum	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
listings	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
lmodern	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
longtable	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
lscape	Stub package. The \lscape environment is recognised but does nothing.
makeidx	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
manfnt	No problems observed.
marginnote	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
marvosym	No problems observed.
mathrsfs	No problems observed.
mathtime	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
mathtools	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
mdframed	No problems observed.
media9	No problems observed.
memoir	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
mhchem	Stub package: commands are handled by MathJax.
microtype	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
minitoc	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
MnSymbol	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
multicol	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
multimedia	No problems observed.
multirow	No problems observed.
nameref	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
natbib	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
paralist	No problems observed.
parskip	No problems observed.
pax	No problems observed.
pdfpages	No problems observed.
pdfsync	No problems observed.
pgf	No problems observed.
pgfplots	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
pgfplotstable	No problems observed.
pifont	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
placeins	Stub package: the FloatBarrier command is accepted but ignored.
polynom	Re-implemented by Chirun. \polylongdiv and \polylonggcd are rendered as SVG images using pdflatex.
psfrag	No problems observed.
pslatex	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
pspicture	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
pst-all	No problems observed.
pst-coil	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
pstricks	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
qrcode	Re-implemented by Chirun. Only the nolinks package option is used. Only the following options for the \qrcode command are recognised: hyperlink, link, height.
quotchap	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
relsize	No problems observed.
report	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
revtex4-2	Re-implemented by Chirun.
rotating	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
sectsty	Not supported. Messes up section formatting in HTML even if none of its macros are used.
setspace	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
shortvrb	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
showkeys	No problems observed.
siunitx	Supported. We use the MathJax siunitx package by Lee McPherson.
skull	No problems observed.
small	No problems observed.
soul	No problems observed.
splitbib	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
stix	No problems observed.
stmaryrd	No problems observed.
subcaption	Re-implemented by Chirun.
subfig	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
subfigure	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
subfiles	No problems observed.
tabularx	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
tabulary	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
tcolorbox	Re-implemented by Chirun. Only the \tcolorbox and \newtcolorbox commands are recognised. The following options are recognised: colback, colframe, boxrule, title, coltitle.
tensor	No problems observed.
textcomp	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
textpos	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
theorem	No problems observed.
tikz-3dplot	Stub package: diagrams are rendered as SVG images using pdflatex.
tikz-cd	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
tikz	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
tikzpagenodes	No problems observed.
times	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
titlesec	No problems observed.
titletoc	No problems observed.
tocbibind	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
tocloft	No problems observed.
todonotes	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
transparent	No problems observed.
turnthepage	No problems observed.
type1cm	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
ucs	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
ulem	Re-implemented by Chirun.
unicode-math	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
upgreek	No problems observed.
url	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
verbatim	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
verse	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
version	No problems observed.
wasysym	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
wrapfig	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
xcolor	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
xltxtra	No problems observed.
xmpmulti	No problems observed.
xr-hyper	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
xr	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
xspace	Stub package: doesn’t do anything.
xunicode	No problems observed.
xy	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
xypic	Re-implemented by plasTeX.
youngtab	No problems observed.