My goal is to export SVG files of TikZ drawings in HTML. Now, what follows is a bit of a rant on `org-babel-execute:latex`; let's go through the options:
- You're exporting to PNG without imagemagick:
This uses `org-create-formula-image` which works really well, but it discards the options of the LaTeX block (fit, width, height, ...), including headers. It also fails to force using 'dvipng as processing type, so if `org-preview-latex-default-process` has been changed, it may be confusing. Finally, it uses `in-buffer` to render LaTeX as if it were in the buffer, which is not what the user would want since they are exporting to html (as a result, I get a black background on my pictures, since my buffer background is black).
- You're exporting to PNG with imagemagick or to PDF:
This may work. Sadly, "#+LATEX_HEADER:" is ignored, though it is in the previous case.
- You're exporting to HTML. This uses htlatex—it's very rarely functional, but eh, you asked for TeX to HTML, and pdf2htmlEX seems unmaintained, so expect chaos.
- You're exporting to SVG.
This… uses htlatex? Why in paradise? org-create-formula-image would do that brilliantly. In any case, I can't seem to make it work: my fonts are always disappearing.
So what do I do? I use the attached patch, that bypasses `htlatex` and uses the oh-so-working `org-create-formula-image`. This, of course, is not a complete solution—this whole function is messy at best, buggy at worst—but in the meantime, I can finally export my pictures to SVG (end result:
https://autoboz.org/open-problems/19.1-ccra/).
If anyone has an opinion on what to do with this situation, I'd be happy to help.
Cheers,
M.
0001-ob-latex-Use-org-create-formula-image-when-generatin.patch