The preview-latex package

Does your neck hurt from turning between previewer windows and the source too often? This Elisp/LaTeX package will render your displayed LaTeX equations right into the editing window where they belong.

Here is the current README. It is part of the preview-latex manual.

The purpose of preview-latex is to embed LaTeX environments such as display math or figures into the source buffers. By mouse-clicking, you can open the original text. After editing, another click will just run the region in question through LaTeX and redisplay the new results.

You need to have AUCTeX installed and either Emacs (21.3 recommended) or XEmacs (21.4.9 or later). Under Microsoft Windows, you will need the developer version of GNU Emacs, or revert to XEmacs.

You can download preview-latex from its download page Here are some old screenshots:

Simple math in Emacs	XEmacs

Of course, it is obvious that the vertical alignment of previews under XEmacs 21.4.6 leaves something to be desired. That's why we recommend newer versions.

It should be noted that preview-latex is not at all restricted to math. Look what linguists do with it:

And some more:

MusiXTeX documentation	Bengali

preview-latex has now become part of the AUCTeX project: its CVS source is available from the AUCTeX project site, and discussions about it should be done on the AUCTeX mailing lists. As of release 0.9.1, you'll be able to get it from the AUCTeX ftp site. It will be integrated in versions 11.80 or later of AUCTeX.

There are also other packages and programs available supporting your LaTeX work, take a look at them.

Get going!

Of course, all this is courtesy of

A lot of work remains on the package, and volunteers are always welcome. Quite a bit of work goes towards presenting the package at various TeX and free software related conferences. If you feel inclined to help the main author carry the necessary expenses, you can contribute here:

If you have particular needs, you can ask on the mailing lists.