LaTeX and TikZ Renderer for Obsidian

Render any LaTeX and TikZ diagram directly inside your Obsidian notes using your local LaTeX installation (latex, dvisvgm).

Unlike WebAssembly-based solutions with limited package support, this plugin invokes your system's native TeX distribution. This means you can use any package installed on your computer — including pgfplots, circuitikz, chemfig, tikz-cd, forest, quantikz, and more!

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✨ Features

• ⚡ Zero-boilerplate Snippets: Directly write \begin{tikzpicture} ... \end{tikzpicture}. The plugin automatically wraps it with a customizable standalone preamble.
• 📜 Full Document Support: Write full standalone documents with custom \documentclass, packages, and macros.
• 📦 Unlimited Package Ecosystem: Use any package installed on your local TeX distribution (MiKTeX, TeX Live, MacTeX).
• 🌓 Smart Dark Mode Theming: Automatically adapts black/white lines, text, and axes to your active Obsidian theme.
• 💾 Fast Persistent Cache: Diagrams are compiled to vector SVG and cached via IndexedDB. Re-opening notes is instant.
• 🛠️ Built-in Diagnostics: One-click "Test Toolchain" button in settings to verify your compiler and dvisvgm setup.
• ⏱️ Process Timeout & Clear Error Logs: Prevents infinite macro loops from freezing Obsidian and displays highlighted LaTeX error messages with expandable full logs.

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📋 Prerequisites

Because this plugin executes your local compiler, you must have the following tools installed and accessible in your system's PATH:

1. A LaTeX distribution:
   • Windows: MiKTeX or TeX Live
   • macOS: MacTeX or BasicTeX
   • Linux: TeX Live (sudo apt install texlive-full or texlive-base texlive-pstricks dvisvgm)
2. dvisvgm (included by default in MiKTeX, TeX Live, and MacTeX).

Tip: You can check if they are available in your terminal by running:

latex --version
dvisvgm --version

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🚀 Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode if prompted.
3. Click Browse and search for "LaTeX and TikZ Renderer" (or latex-tikz-renderer).
4. Click Install, then Enable.

Via BRAT (for beta releases)

1. Install the Obsidian BRAT plugin.
2. In BRAT settings, click Add Beta plugin.
3. Enter agostino-code/obsidian-tikz.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest Release.
2. Inside your vault, navigate to .obsidian/plugins/ and create a folder named latex-tikz-renderer.
3. Copy the downloaded files into .obsidian/plugins/latex-tikz-renderer/.
4. In Obsidian, reload plugins and enable LaTeX and TikZ Renderer.

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⚙️ Configuration

In Obsidian Settings → LaTeX and TikZ Renderer:

Setting	Default	Description
LaTeX Compiler Path	latex	Executable name or absolute path to your compiler (e.g., latex, pdflatex, xelatex, or C:\...\latex.exe).
dvisvgm Path	dvisvgm	Executable name or absolute path to dvisvgm.
Test Toolchain	Button	Tests and displays version info for both the compiler and dvisvgm.
Auto-wrap Snippets	true	When enabled, code without \documentclass is automatically wrapped with the Default Preamble.
Default Preamble	\documentclass[tikz, border=2pt]{standalone}...	Preamble prepended to snippets. Add custom \usepackage{...} or macros here.
Compilation Timeout	25	Maximum seconds to wait before aborting a compile job.
Invert dark colors in dark mode	true	Automatically recolors black/white diagram lines to match light/dark themes.
Clear cached SVGs	Button	Empties the IndexedDB SVG cache to force re-rendering all diagrams.

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💡 Usage & Examples

Create a code block with language identifier tikz or latex.

1. Minimal TikZ Diagram (Snippet Mode)

No document boilerplate needed!

```tikz
\begin{tikzpicture}[domain=0:4]
  \draw[very thin,color=gray] (-0.1,-1.1) grid (3.9,3.9);
  \draw[->] (-0.2,0) -- (4.2,0) node[right] {$x$};
  \draw[->] (0,-1.2) -- (0,4.2) node[above] {$f(x)$};
  \draw[color=red]    plot (\x,\x)             node[right] {$f(x) =x$};
  \draw[color=blue]   plot (\x,{sin(\x r)})    node[right] {$f(x) = \sin x$};
  \draw[color=orange] plot (\x,{0.05*exp(\x)}) node[right] {$f(x) = \frac{1}{20} \mathrm e^x$};
\end{tikzpicture}
```

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2. Electronic Circuits (circuitikz)

```tikz
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}[american, voltage shift=0.5]
  \draw (0,0)
  to[isource, l=$I_0$, v=$V_0$] (0,3)
  to[short, -*, i=$I_0$] (2,3)
  to[R=$R_1$, i>_=$i_1$] (2,0) -- (0,0);
  \draw (2,3) -- (4,3)
  to[R=$R_2$, i>_=$i_2$] (4,0)
  to[short, -*] (2,0);
\end{circuitikz}
\end{document}
```

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3. 3D Function Plots (pgfplots)

```tikz
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.16}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[colormap/viridis]
    \addplot3[surf, samples=18, domain=-3:3] {exp(-x^2-y^2)*x};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
```

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4. Commutative Diagrams (tikz-cd)

```tikz
\usepackage{tikz-cd}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzcd}
  T \arrow[drr, bend left, "x"] \arrow[ddr, bend right, "y"] \arrow[dr, dotted, "{(x,y)}" description] & & \\
  K & X \times_Z Y \arrow[r, "p"] \arrow[d, "q"] & X \arrow[d, "f"] \\
    & Y \arrow[r, "g"]                           & Z
\end{tikzcd}
\end{document}
```

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5. Chemical Structures (chemfig)

```tikz
\usepackage{chemfig}
\begin{document}
\chemfig{[:-90]HN(-[::-45](-[::-45]R)=[::+45]O)>[::+45]*4(-(=O)-N*5(-(<:(=[::-60]O)-[::+60]OH)-(<[::+0])(<:[::-108])-S>)--)}
\end{document}
```

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🔧 Troubleshooting

Windows: "MiKTeX session could not be initialized"

If you encounter a MiKTeX session initialization error on Windows, register the MiKTeX DLLs manually in an Administrator Command Prompt (adjust version if different):

cd %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64
regsvr32 MiKTeX240400-core-PS.dll
regsvr32 MiKTeX240400-core.dll
regsvr32 MiKTeX240400-packagemanager.dll
regsvr32 MiKTeX240400-packagemanager-PS.dll

Executable not found in PATH

If the "Test Toolchain" button reports that latex or dvisvgm cannot be found:

• Provide the full absolute path in the plugin settings (e.g. C:\Program Files\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64\latex.exe or /Library/TeX/texbin/latex).
• Ensure the directory containing your TeX executables is in your system's environment PATH.

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🔒 Security & Desktop Architecture

This plugin is configured as desktop-only ("isDesktopOnly": true) because it relies on your local TeX distribution:

• Process Execution (child_process.execFile): The plugin executes your locally installed LaTeX compiler and dvisvgm. Commands are invoked strictly via execFile with segregated argument arrays (no shell interpolation), protecting against shell injection.
• Filesystem Access (fs/promises): Temporary .tex, .dvi/.xdv/.pdf, and .svg files are created exclusively inside an isolated temporary directory within your system's tmpdir() (e.g. tmpdir()/tikz-XXXXXX). This directory is deleted in a finally block immediately after conversion.
• Offline & Private: The plugin performs zero external network calls and executes no dynamic script tags. Diagram source code is rendered locally on your machine and cached within local browser IndexedDB.

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📄 License & Acknowledgements

• Licensed under the MIT License.
• Forked from the Obsidian TikZJax plugin by @artisticat1.
• Inspired by the TikZJax project by @kisonecat.