LKBEN11020: Howto convert a latex document to html

Symptom

You need to convert a latex or tex document to html

Cause

You need to put it on a website

Solution

There are more than one possible solutions for doing this. I use latex2html which can do the job relatively easy. I created a .latex2html-init file in my home directory with the following contents:

###########################################################################

#LaTeX2HTML Version 96.1 : dot.latex2html-init
#
### Command Line Argument Defaults #######################################

$MAX_SPLIT_DEPTH = 0; # Stop making separate files at this depth

$MAX_LINK_DEPTH = 4; # Stop showing child nodes at this depth

$NOLATEX = 0; # 1 = do not pass unknown environments to Latex

$EXTERNAL_IMAGES = 0; # 1 = leave the images outside the document

$ASCII_MODE = 0; # 1 = do not use any icons or internal images

# 1 = use links to external postscript images rather than inlined bitmap
# images.
$PS_IMAGES = 0;

$TITLE = $default_title; # The default is "No Title"

$DESTDIR = ''; # Put the result in this directory

# When this is set, the generated HTML files will be placed in the
# current directory. If set to 0 the default behaviour is to create (or reuse)
# another file directory.
$NO_SUBDIR = 0;

# Supply your own string if you don't like the default <Name> <Date>
$ADDRESS = "The Lubby Project http://www.lubby.org Converted by $address_data[0] \n$address_data[1]";

$NO_NAVIGATION = 1; # 1 = do not put a navigation panel at the top of each page

# Put navigation links at the top of each page. If the page exceeds
# $WORDS_IN_PAGE number of words then put one at the bottom of the page.
$AUTO_NAVIGATION = 1;

# Put a link to the index page in the navigation panel
$INDEX_IN_NAVIGATION = 1;

# Put a link to the table of contents in the navigation panel
$CONTENTS_IN_NAVIGATION = 1;

# Put a link to the next logical page in the navigation panel
$NEXT_PAGE_IN_NAVIGATION = 1;

# Put a link to the previous logical page in the navigation panel
$PREVIOUS_PAGE_IN_NAVIGATION = 1;

$INFO = 0; # 0 = do not make a "About this document..." section

# Reuse images generated during previous runs
$REUSE = 2;

# When this is 1, the section numbers are shown. The section numbers should
# then match those that would have bee produced by LaTeX.
# The correct section numbers are obtained from the $FILE.aux file generated
# by LaTeX.
# Hiding the seciton numbers encourages use of particular sections
# as standalone documents. In this case the cross reference to a section
# is shown using the default symbol rather than the section number.
$SHOW_SECTION_NUMBERS = 1;

### Other global variables ###############################################
$CHILDLINE = " <HR>\n";

# This is the line width measured in pixels and it is used to right justify
# equations and equation arrays;
$LINE_WIDTH = 500;

# Used in conjunction with AUTO_NAVIGATION
$WORDS_IN_PAGE = 300;

# Affects ONLY the way accents are processed
$default_language = 'english';

# The value of this variable determines how many words to use in each
# title that is added to the navigation panel (see below)
#
$WORDS_IN_NAVIGATION_PANEL_TITLES = 4;

# This number will determine the size of the equations, special characters,
# and anything which will be converted into an inlined image
# *except* "image generating environments" such as "figure", "table"
# or "minipage".
# Effective values are those greater than 0.
# Sensible values are between 0.1 - 4.
$MATH_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.6;

# This number will determine the size of
# image generating environments such as "figure", "table" or "minipage".
# Effective values are those greater than 0.
# Sensible values are between 0.1 - 4.
$FIGURE_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.6;

# If this is set then intermediate files are left for later inspection.
# This includes $$_images.tex and $$_images.log created during image
# conversion.
# Caution: Intermediate files can be *enormous*.
$DEBUG = 0;

# If both of the following two variables are set then the "Up" button
# of the navigation panel in the first node/page of a converted document
# will point to $EXTERNAL_UP_LINK. $EXTERNAL_UP_TITLE should be set
# to some text which describes this external link.
$EXTERNAL_UP_LINK = "";
$EXTERNAL_UP_TITLE = "";

# If this is set then the resulting HTML will look marginally better if viewed
# with Netscape.
$NETSCAPE_HTML = 0;

# Valid paper sizes are "letter", "legal", "a4","a3","a2" and "a0"
# Paper sizes has no effect other than in the time it takes to create inlined
# images and in whether large images can be created at all ie
# - larger paper sizes *MAY* help with large image problems
# - smaller paper sizes are quicker to handle
$PAPERSIZE = "a4";

# Replace "english" with another language in order to tell LaTeX2HTML that you
# want some generated section titles (eg "Table of Contents" or "References")
# to appear in a different language. Currently only "english" and "french"
# is supported but it is very easy to add your own. See the example in the
# file "latex2html.config"
$TITLES_LANGUAGE = "english";

### Navigation Panel ##########################################################
#
# The navigation panel is constructed out of buttons and section titles.
# These can be configured in any combination with arbitrary text and
# HTML tags interspersed between them.
# The buttons available are:
# $PREVIOUS - points to the previous section
# $UP - points up to the "parent" section
# $NEXT - points to the next section
# $NEXT_GROUP - points to the next "group" section
# $PREVIOUS_GROUP - points to the previous "group" section
# $CONTENTS - points to the contents page if there is one
# $INDEX - points to the index page if there is one
#
# If the corresponding section exists the button will contain an
# active link to that section. If the corresponding section does
# not exist the button will be inactive.
#
# Also for each of the $PREVIOUS $UP $NEXT $NEXT_GROUP and $PREVIOUS_GROUP
# buttons there are equivalent $PREVIOUS_TITLE, $UP_TITLE, etc variables
# which contain the titles of their corresponding sections.
# Each title is empty if there is no corresponding section.
#
# The subroutine below constructs the navigation panels in each page.
# Feel free to mix and match buttons, titles, your own text, your logos,
# and arbitrary HTML (the "." is the Perl concatenation operator).
sub top_navigation_panel {

 # Now add a few buttons with a space between them
 "$NEXT $UP $PREVIOUS $CONTENTS $INDEX $CUSTOM_BUTTONS" .

 " \n" . # Line break

 # If ``next'' section exists, add its title to the navigation panel
 ($NEXT_TITLE ? " Next: $NEXT_TITLE\n" : undef) .

 # Similarly with the ``up'' title ...
 ($UP_TITLE ? "Up: $UP_TITLE\n" : undef) .

 # ... and the ``previous'' title
 ($PREVIOUS_TITLE ? " Previous: $PREVIOUS_TITLE\n" : undef) .

 # Line Break, horizontal rule (3-d dividing line) and new paragraph
 " \n"
}

sub bot_navigation_panel {

 # Start with a horizontal rule (3-d dividing line)
 "<HR>".

 # Now add a few buttons with a space between them
 "$NEXT $UP $PREVIOUS $CONTENTS $INDEX $CUSTOM_BUTTONS" .

 " \n" . # Line break

 # If ``next'' section exists, add its title to the navigation panel
 ($NEXT_TITLE ? " Next: $NEXT_TITLE\n" : undef) .

 # Similarly with the ``up'' title ...
 ($UP_TITLE ? "Up: $UP_TITLE\n" : undef) .

 # ... and the ``previous'' title
 ($PREVIOUS_TITLE ? " Previous: $PREVIOUS_TITLE\n" : undef)

}

1; # This must be the last line

###########################################################################

Now I just use the command

latex2html filename.tex

to create my html file. This configuration creates one main file and the graphics are separated.

Disclaimer:

The information provided in this document is intended for your information only. Lubby makes no claims to the validity of this information. Use of this information is at own risk!

About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.