LaTeX fragment preview via Kitty graphics (#3)

sportmacher opened 2 months ago

Reported by: pathemata (Reddit)

Add support for rendering LaTeX fragments in org-mode buffers using Kitty graphics. Currently org renders LaTeX fragments to PNG via dvipng/dvisvgm for GUI Emacs. In terminal Emacs with kitty-graphics-mode, these previews could be displayed using the same Kitty graphics pipeline.

Approach:

Hook into org-latex-preview (org 9.7+) or org-toggle-latex-fragment (older)
Use org's existing LaTeX-to-image pipeline to generate PNG
Display the resulting PNG via kitty-gfx-display-image at the fragment location
May need to handle inline vs display math differently for sizing

Related: nabla.nvim was mentioned as a reference for fancier math rendering in terminals (Unicode-based approach).

Activities

sportmacher commented 2 months ago
LaTeX fragment preview implemented with three components:

kitty-gfx--org-latex-preview-advice: Around advice on org-latex-preview that bypasses the (display-graphic-p) guard. The image generation pipeline (latex + dvipng/dvisvgm) works fine in terminal -- only the entry point and display step assume a GUI. Handles C-u (clear region) and C-u C-u (clear buffer) prefix args.

kitty-gfx--org-make-preview-overlay-advice: Around advice on org--make-preview-overlay that intercepts overlay creation. Instead of an Emacs image spec (which doesn't render in terminal), displays the generated PNG/SVG via our existing Kitty graphics pipeline. Tags the overlay with org-overlay-type = org-latex-overlay so org's cleanup functions still find it.

kitty-gfx--org-clear-latex-preview: Cleanup function that removes Kitty placements for LaTeX overlays, used by the preview advice for C-u prefix arg.

Test org file updated with LaTeX fragment examples. Byte-compiles and load-tests clean. Needs manual testing with dvipng or dvisvgm installed.
sportmacher changed state to 'In Review' 2 months ago
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sportmacher commented 2 months ago
Verified working. All three test fragments render correctly:

Inline: $E = mc^2$

Display: integral equation with equation number

Inline: summation formula

Required fixes beyond initial implementation:

clear-image-cache requires GUI frame — suppressed with cl-letf

Terminal face attributes return "unspecified-fg" which breaks org-latex-color-format — forced concrete fallback colors (Black fg, Transparent bg)
sportmacher commented 2 months ago

Fixed in b60fcce. C-c C-x C-l now renders LaTeX fragments as images in terminal Emacs via Kitty graphics. Advises org-latex-preview, org--make-preview-overlay, and adds clear-preview support. User verified working.
sportmacher changed state to 'Closed' 2 months ago
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Reference

cashmere/kitty-graphics#3