Charles Plager's Latex Page

This page describes some hints for using Latex. For the most part, I use this page to grab snippets of latex sources

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Useful Links



Using Latex in PowerPoint (and Open Office)

There are several useful Latex packages out there for makins slides for presentations. But with more and more people using PowerPoint, it becomes hard to avoid. Fortunately, there are (at least) two very useful packages that let you embed Latex formulae in PowerPoint.

Both of them require MikTeX or other version of Latex on Windows. See TeX4PPT's description of the difference

If you are using OpenOffice, check out OOoLatex. I have not used it myself, but I hear good things about it.

Note that if you can not/do not want to install these packages, you can use tex2png.pl below.

tex2png.pl - Making PNG from Latex

You can download the script tex2png.pl and run it from your computer (see the software requirements below). It is installed on the /cdf/home/ area on the CDF linux computers as /cdf/home/cplager/bin/tex2png.pl. This script not only makes a .png file, but also embeds the latex source code in the output file so images can easily be updated.

For example (text I typed in brown):

cplager@Fcdflnx4> ~cplager/bin/tex2png.pl -output broneside
Please enter text, finished by <ctrl>-D on a blank line.
{\mathcal B}(t\bar{t} \rightarrow W b Z c) = 
\frac{ N_\mathrm{candidates} - N_\mathrm{background} }
{{\mathcal A} \cdot \int {\mathcal L} dt \cdot \sigma_{t \bar{t}}}

Thank you.
<img src="broneside.png" width="367" height="69">

This produces

Or even

cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -output branch -white
Please enter text, finished by <ctrl>-D on a blank line.
{\mathcal B}(t \rightarrow Z c) = 0.5 \cdot ( 1 - \sqrt {1 - 2 
\cdot {\mathcal B}(t\bar{t} \rightarrow W b Z c)} )

Thank you.
<img src="branch.png" width="429" height="25">

produces

You can even use color

cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -output example
Please enter text, finished by <ctrl>-D on a blank line.
{\mathcal B}(t\bar{t} \rightarrow \colorbox{red}{\bf \color[rgb]{0,1,0} W b Z c}) = 
\frac{ N_\mathrm{candidates} - N_\mathrm{background} }
{{\mathcal A} \cdot \int {\mathcal L} dt \cdot \sigma_{t \bar{t}}}


Thank you.
<img src="branch.png" width="449" height="71">

produces

You can give tex2png.pl a complete tex file as well. For the above example:

cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -file complete.tex -output example
If you want to store just the latex snippet (i.e., latex source without the headers) in a file, you need to use < character:
cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -o example < snippet.tex

To get a list of all options, use the -help option.

cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -help
usage: tex2png.pl [ options ] [texfile]
  Options:
      -debug            Debug mode: doesn't delete temporary files
      -dpi n            Set rendering dots per inch to n (default 150)
      -extract bla.png  Extract latex source code from 'bla.png'
      -file             Get input from file, not STDIN
      -gif              Generate GIF image
      -help             Print this message
      -output bla       Outputs 'bla.png'
      -package XXX      Includes package 'XXX' in header (can be used
                        multiple times)
      -png              Generate PNG image (default)
      -stdin            Get tex content from STDIN (header and footer defined)
      -text             Don't start in math mode with '-stdin' option
      -version          Print version number
      -white            Makes a white (instead of transparent) background
tex2png.pl v1.6.1 Charles Plager cplager_tex2png[at]email(dot)plager[dot]net

Extracting Latex source from .png File

To get the source code out of a png file that has been made with tex2png.pl, you use the script itself:

cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -extract example.png
Extracting tex source from example.png to example.tex
or
cplager@Fcdflnx4> tex2png.pl -extract example.png savetexhere.tex
Extracting tex source from example.png to savetexhere.tex

Note: Once the png file has been put into a Microsoft PowerPoint document, it looses the embedded latex source.

History of tex2png.pl

I modified textogif script from Fourmilab (isn't that cute) and ended up with tex2png.pl. I used png-tEXt.pl to learn how to embed comments in png files and ps2gif.sh to learn how to go from postscript files to png and gif files (I recommend my perl version ps2png.pl if you want to embed the converting functions in another perl script).

Requirements for tex2png.pl

In order to run this on your computer, you need:

If you are getting Perl errors on the fcdflnxN machines, try running setup perl v5_8 before running the script.

Latex Snippets

This is a random (and growing) collection of formulas and techniques I find useful. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Latex codeOutput
  • (no options needed)
    \mathrm{Transverse~Mass} = \sqrt { (\sum E_T)^2 {\color{red} -} (\sum \vec{p_T})^2}
  • (Uses -text option)
    \begin{tabular}{r r}
    Longitudinal & $\frac{3}{4} (1 - cos^2(\theta^*))$\\
    & \\
    Left Handed  & $\frac{3}{8} (1 - cos(\theta^*))^2$\\
    & \\
    Right Handed & $\frac{3}{8} (1 + cos(\theta^*))^2$\\
    \end{tabular}
  • (Uses -text option)
    \[
    \delimiterfactor=1200 % 1.2 x bigger brace
    y = \left\{%
    \begin{array}{ll}
    x^2+2x &\textrm{if }x<0,\\
    x^3 &\textrm{if }0\le x<1,\\
    x^2+x &\textrm{if }1\le x<2,\\
    x^3-x^2 &\textrm{if }2\le x.
    \end{array}%
    \right.
    \]
    
    
  • (Uses -text -package colortbl options)
    Color by column:\\\vskip 2mm
    \begin{tabular}
    {|>{\columncolor{cyan}}l|
    >{\color{red}
    \columncolor{green}}c|
    >{\columncolor{yellow}}r|}
    \hline
    one & two & three\\
    one & two & three\\
    one & two & three\\
    \hline
    \end{tabular}
    
    
  • (no options needed)
    \overbrace{a+\underbrace{b+c}_\textrm{Something Under}+d}^\textrm{Something Over}
    
  • (Uses -text option)
    \def\met{\ensuremath{\not\!\!{E_{T}}}}
    {\Huge \met}, {\large \met}, {\small \met}  and $\met$.
    
  • (Uses -text option)
    \begin{eqnarray*}
    % First Line		
    \textrm{Expected Limit of }(\mathrm{Mass}^2) &=&
    \sum P(i | n_b) \cdot (FC_\mathrm{mass} (i | A, n_b))^2 \\
    % Second Line		
    \textrm{Expected Limit of Mass}~~~~~ &=&
    \sum P(i | n_b) \cdot ~\,FC_\mathrm{mass} (i | A, n_b) \\
    % Third Line		
    \textrm{Expected Limit of }(\mathrm{Mass}^2) &\neq&
    (\textrm{Expected Limit of Mass})^2
    \end{eqnarray*}
    


  • Last modified: Thu Dec 25 07:42:12 CST 2008 by Charles Plager