PythonTeX

Execute Python and other code in LaTeX documents, or typeset it with syntax highlighting

PythonTeX executes code in LaTeX documents and allows the output to be included in the original document. It supports Python as well as Bash, JavaScript, Julia, Octave, Perl, R, Raku (Perl 6), Ruby, Rust, and SageMath. PythonTeX also provides syntax highlighting for typeset code in LaTeX documents via the Pygments syntax highlighter.

See pythontex_quickstart.pdf to get started, and pythontex_gallery.pdf for examples of what is possible with PythonTeX. PythonTeX is included in TeX Live and MiKTeX and may be installed via the package manager. See pythontex.pdf for detailed installation instructions if you want to install the current development version, or just use the installation script for TeX Live and MiKTeX.

The depythontex utility creates a copy of a PythonTeX document in which all code has been replaced by its output. This plain LaTeX document is more suitable for journal submission, sharing, or conversion to other document formats. See pythontex_gallery.html and the accompanying conversion script for an example of a PythonTeX document that was converted to HTML via depythontex and Pandoc.

Example

• LaTeX document doc.tex:

  \documentclass{article}
  
  \usepackage{pythontex}
  
  \newcommand{\pymultiply}[2]{\py{#1*#2}}
  
  \begin{document}
  
  \begin{pycode}
  print("Python says ``Hello!''")
  \end{pycode}
  
  $8 \times 256 = \pymultiply{8}{256}$
  
  \end{document}

• Compiling under Windows:

  pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode doc.tex
  pythontex doc.tex
  pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode doc.tex
  

• Compiling under other operating systems:

  pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode doc.tex
  pythontex.py doc.tex
  pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode doc.tex
  

• Output:

  Python says “Hello!”
  8 × 256 = 2048
  

Notice that there is a three-step compile process. This is what makes possible commands like \pymultiply that use Python or other languages internally. You may want to configure your LaTeX editor with a shortcut for running pythontex or pythontex.py, or configure your LaTeX build system to run pythontex or pythontex.py.

Citing PythonTeX

If you use PythonTeX in your writing and research, please consider citing it in any resulting publications. The best and most recent paper is in Computational Science & Discovery (doi:10.1088/1749-4699/8/1/014010). You may also cite the paper in the 2013 SciPy proceedings.

Development status

Starting in 2020, I have increasingly used Markdown and HTML instead of PythonTeX and LaTeX when creating new teaching materials. I can no longer make major time investments in open-source software that I do not use frequently myself. PythonTeX v0.19 is under development. It will address some minor bugs and incompatibilities that have developed with Python and dependencies over the last few years. After v0.19, there should be occasional releases to keep PythonTeX running, but no major changes or significant new features are anticipated.

I have been developing Codebraid since 2019, partially to have a PythonTeX equivalent for Markdown but also in the hope that it could eventually be integrated with LaTeX as a PythonTeX replacement. I currently have a grant to develop minted v3.0, and as part of this am creating new software for passing data between LaTeX and Python. I cannot make any guarantees, but I hope that this will eventually make it possible to create a new LaTeX package based on Codebraid, with significant PythonTeX compatibility.

License

LPPL for LaTeX code and BSD 3-Clause for Python code.