Getting Latex preview to work with org mode (.dvi not found)

Question

In my .org file I embedded a simple Latex segment:

$f(x) = x^2$    

Then I use the following command to generate a preview for that segment:

org-toggle-latex-fragment

But I get an error:

org-compile-file: File "/var/folders/x2/zp6vz8z97xv48g97pht5_mrc0000gn/T/orgtexu9KnIy.dvi" wasn’t produced.  
Please adjust ‘dvipng’ part of ‘org-preview-latex-process-alist’.

I tried to debug the issue:

• The file /var/folders/x2/zp6vz8z97xv48g97pht5_mrc0000gn/T/orgtexu9KnIy.tex exists
• I can use pdflatex to create a file from the above .tex without any issue.
• I can also create a dvi from the above by just running latex orgtexu9KnIy.tex. No error happens.

• When I run dvipng orgtexu9KnIy I get the following output:

  This is /usr/local/texlive/2017/bin/x86_64-darwin/dvipng (dvipng (TeX Live)) 
  1.15 Copyright 2002-2015 Jan-Ake Larsson
  [1]
  

And I have a file orgtexu9KnIy1.png in the current folder. I'm suspicious bit wondering about the additional 1 in the file name.

Org expects the file name to be orgtexu9KnIy.png and not orgtexu9KnIy1.png.

---

The value of the variable org-preview-latex-process-alist:

((dvipng :programs
      ("latex" "dvipng")
      :description "dvi > png" :message "you need to install the programs: latex and dvipng." :image-input-type "dvi" :image-output-type "png" :image-size-adjust
      (1.0 . 1.0)
      :latex-compiler
      ("latex -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %f")
      :image-converter
      ("dvipng -fg %F -bg %B -D %D -T tight -o %O %f"))
 (dvisvgm :programs
       ("latex" "dvisvgm")
       :description "dvi > svg" :message "you need to install the programs: latex and dvisvgm." :use-xcolor t :image-input-type "dvi" :image-output-type "svg" :image-size-adjust
       (1.7 . 1.5)
       :latex-compiler
       ("latex -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %f")
       :image-converter
       ("dvisvgm %f -n -b min -c %S -o %O"))
(imagemagick :programs
           ("latex" "convert")
           :description "pdf > png" :message "you need to install the programs: latex and imagemagick." :use-xcolor t :image-input-type "pdf" :image-output-type "png" :image-size-adjust
           (1.0 . 1.0)
           :latex-compiler
           ("pdflatex -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %f")
           :image-converter
           ("convert -density %D -trim -antialias %f -quality 100 %O")))

Answer 1

In my case the issue was that the expansion of the relative path %f in "dvipng -fg %F -bg %B -D %D -T tight -o %O %f" from org-preview-latex-process-alist wasn't correct.

I fixed it by changing %f to %F (which is expanded to the absolute path in org-compile-file) in all dvipng-related commands from org-preview-latex-process-alist:

(let ((png (cdr (assoc 'dvipng org-preview-latex-process-alist))))
  (plist-put png :latex-compiler '("latex -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %F"))
  (plist-put png :image-converter '("dvipng -D %D -T tight -o %O %F"))
  (plist-put png :transparent-image-converter '("dvipng -D %D -T tight -bg Transparent -o %O %F")))

The org file I'm editing is on a different file-system than my root file-system, which is probably why this was an issue for me.

Answer 2

NickD's comment helped me to debug the issue. In the end everything was setup correctly, but I needed to create symlinks in /usr/local/bin to latex and to dvipng. It was not enough to have these utilities in my PATH.

The tools were installed in /usr/local/texlive/2017/bin/x86_64-darwin/ by brew.

I found that out because in the messages buffer there was a zsh: latex command not found, which I also initially overlooked.

Answer 3

If on Linux, you might be missing some packages. This fixed it for me:

sudo apt install texlive-latex-extra

Couldn't tell which of the many latex packages was the one I was missing, despite having latex and dvipng available. The Org manual (v9.5 retrieved 2022/08/20) says that those should be enough, though.

Credits

Answer 4

On Windows, with MikTex, I came across this error, and here is the solution.

emacs default latex processing: *.tex -[latex.exe]-> *.dvi -[dvipng.exe]-> *.png

even the latex/dvipng executable can be found in PATH, extra works must done to make it work.

1st, execute latex xx.tex and dvipng xx.dvi in command line, MikTex will prompt GUI dialog to confirm dependency installation, press OK to install.

2nd, if current user is Administrator, it will be shorten to ADMIN~1, latex can't recognize it. change temporary-file-directory , org-preview-latex-image-directory varibles, don't use shorten name.

Answer 5

I had the exact same error message, and the name of the preview file had '1' appended. The solution was to clear the preview cache (by removing ltximg folder).

Answer 6

If you symlink your ~/org elsewhere (eg to be synced by iCloud for beorg), this may be the root cause. A solution for this case:

(setq org-preview-latex-process-alist
      '((dvipng :programs ("latex" "dvipng")
                :description "dvi > png"
                :message "You need to install the programs: latex and dvipng."
                :image-input-type "dvi"
                :image-output-type "png"
                :image-size-adjust (1.0 . 1.0)
                :latex-compiler ("latex -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %f")
                :image-converter ("dvipng -D %D -T tight -o %o/%b.png %o/%b.dvi")))) ;; this is the only modified line

(defun my/org-latex-preview ()
  (let ((find-file-visit-truename t)
        (vc-follow-symlinks t))
    (org-latex-preview)))

(defun my/org-latex-preview-buffer ()
  (let ((find-file-visit-truename t)
        (vc-follow-symlinks t))
    (org-latex-preview-buffer)))

I haven't tested the dvisgm and imagemagick backends but they should also work with this general approach