Conversion from (La)TeX to HTML

TeX and LaTeX are well suited to producing electronically publishable documents. However, it is important to realize the difference between page layout and functional markup. TeX is capable of extremely detailed page layout; HTML is not, because HTML is a functional markup language not a page layout language. HTML’s exact rendering is not specified by the document that is published but is, to some degree, left to the discretion of the browser. If you require your readers to see an exact replication of what your document looks like to you, then you cannot use HTML and you must use some other publishing format such as PDF. That is true for any HTML authoring tool.

TeX’s excellent mathematical capabilities remain a challenge in the business of conversion to HTML. There are only two generally reliable techniques for generating mathematics on the web: creating bitmaps of bits of typesetting that can’t be translated, and using symbols and table constructs. Neither technique is entirely satisfactory. Bitmaps lead to a profusion of tiny files, are slow to load, and are inaccessible to those with visual disabilities. The symbol fonts offer poor coverage of mathematics, and their use requires configuration of the browser. The future of mathematical browsing may be brighter — see future Web technologies.

For today, possible packages are:

LaTeX2HTML

a Perl script package that supports LaTeX only, and generates mathematics (and other “difficult” things) using bitmaps. The original version was written by Nikos Drakos for Unix systems, but the package now sports an illustrious list of co-authors and is also available for Windows systems. Michel Goossens and Janne Saarela published a detailed discussion of LaTeX2HTML, and how to tailor it, in TUGboat 16(2).

A mailing list for users may be found via http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/latex2html

TtH

a compiled program that supports either LaTeX or Plain TeX, and uses the font/table technique for representing mathematics. It is written by Ian Hutchinson, using flex. The distribution consists of a single C source (or a compiled executable), which is easy to install and very fast-running.

TeX4ht

a compiled program that supports either LaTeX or Plain TeX, by processing a DVI file; it uses bitmaps for mathematics, but can also use other technologies where appropriate. Written by Eitan Gurari, it parses the DVI file generated when you run (La)TeX over your file with tex4ht’s macros included. As a result, it’s pretty robust against the macros you include in your document, and it’s also pretty fast.

plasTeX

a Python-based LaTeX document processing framework. It gives DOM-like access to a LaTeX document, as well as the ability to generate mulitple output formats (e.g. HTML, DocBook, tBook, etc.).

TeXpider

a commercial program from Micropress, which is described on http://www.micropress-inc.com/webb/wbstart.htm; it uses bitmaps for equations.

Hevea

a compiled program that supports LaTeX only, and uses the font/table technique for equations (indeed its entire approach is very similar to TtH). It is written in Objective CAML by Luc Maranget. Hevea isn’t archived on CTAN; details (including download points) are available via http://pauillac.inria.fr/ maranget/hevea/

The World Wide Web Consortium maintains a list of “filters” to HTML, with sections on (La)TeX and BibTeX — see http://www.w3.org/Tools/Word_proc_filters.html

latex2html

Browse latex2html

plasTeX

Browse plastex

tex4ht

tex4ht (but see http://tug.org/tex4ht/)

tth

tth

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=LaTeX2HTML