Best LaTeX viewer for Linux

Question

Just want to be able to read LaTeX source when necessary. No desire to manipulate or convert.

Edit: So, if only the source is provided -- it must be "rendered" in order to view it formatted?

Answer 1

If all you want to do is view the source, GEdit should do the trick just fine. It's LaTeX syntax highlighting works quite well.

Answer 2

Any text editor - LaTeX source is just plain text with special structure and markup. I like emacs - it has a good major mode for LaTeX, including keys to compile and view a DVI.

Answer 3

AUCTeX for Emacs is the gold standard. The downside, naturally, is the need to learn Emacs. If all you need is a source viewer, use the editor that came with your desktop environment (gEdit or Kate). SciTE is a good desktop-independent pick.

Answer 4

So, what about the Kate LaTeX plug-in?

The post and indicate that there isn't some kind of format source and view -- viewer -- and, such a beast would make little sense.

Answer 5

If you're looking at viewing/editing/working with latex text files , I recommend "Kile".

Has handy "compile to dvi & other formats" links to make it easier.

If you're wanting to see what its going to look like or print it, one must compile the LaTeX document to either DVI/PS/PDF. I prefer DVI myself most the time because its lightweight and portable.

XDvi, KDvi ( kde 3.5 ) , or Okular ( KDE4 ) will view DVI' format.

If you want to avoid compiling, "Lyx" can be a good "Wysiwyg"-ish editor, but it looks nothing like the printed/compiled copies.

On Linux, compiling a LaTeX file is as simple as

  latex  file.tex  // compile 
  xdvi file  // the standard guesses the extension for viewing
  dvipdf  file  // make it a pdf from the dvi 
  pdflatex  file.tex  // compile directly to pdf

Have fun. Latex is a great language :)

Answer 6

If you only have the source, you need the latex command-line app, usually in a package called texlive or tetex to compile it to a DVI file, which can then be viewed with xdvi. If you prefer PDF, pdflatex and your favored PDF viewer.

Answer 7

If you are looking for a little hand-holding, Lyx is a great WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) latex editor.

Answer 8

More generally for others apart from the poster: If you're using Windows you'll have to install MiKTeX or a similar distribution to be able to actually convert source files into DVIs or PDFs. You may want to consider a GUI like TeXnic Center. If you're running a Mac, then you'll need to install MacTeX or Tetex. If you're running a linux distribution, then most tools will already be present. As suggested earlier, give LyX a try. It's quite cross-platform and is a more intuitive means to transition into using LaTeX.