NAME
    l2p - create PNG images from LaTeX expressions

SYNOPSIS
    l2p [options...] -i '$*latex_expression*$'

    or

    l2p [options...] [*expression_file*]

    *expression_file* contains an expression or expressions in (La)TeX
    format - one per line. If neither *expression_file* nor an -i option is
    given, the expression is read from standard input.

DESCRIPTION
    Convert expressions in LaTeX format into PNGs

EXAMPLES
    *   l2p -i '$4x^2-7=\cos{2 \pi x}$' -o 'eqn4.png'

        Produce a PNG image, named 'eqn4.png', of the equation described by
        the LaTeX expression '$4x^2 - 7 = \cos{2 \pi x}$'.

    *   l2p -o big_equation.png big_hairy_equation

        Produce a PNG image, called big_equation.png, from the LaTeX
        expression contained in the file big_hairy_equation (specifically,
        it contains '$x=2$'.) Note that this file is NOT a full LaTeX
        document - use the -F option for that.

    *   l2p -d 250 -i '$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{D} = \rho$'

        Produce a PNG image from the LaTeX code given with the -i argument
        (which happens to be one of Maxwell's equations), at 250 dots per
        inch. Since we did not specify an output file name with the -o
        option, the image will be 'eqn.png' (the default).

    *   l2p -p amssymb -i '$\mho$' -o mho.png

        Produce a PNG image of the Mho symbol (an upside-down capital
        omega), saving the image in the file 'mho.png'. We include the
        amssymb package, which defines that symbol.

    *   l2p -B 20x30 -i '$\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}\frac{(-\phi^2)^n}{(2n)!}$' -o
        cosine.png

        Produce an image of the indicated infinite summation, padded with a
        border that is 20 pixels on each side horizontally, and 30 pixels
        each side vertically. The color of this border region will be the
        same as the rest of the image background.

OPTIONS
    Many options have arguments that may contain characters, like '#' or
    spaces, that the shell considers special. Be sure to surround all such
    arguments with single or double quotes, so that the shell understands
    what is meant. (If unsure, it's always safe to use the quotes.)

    -i "$latex$"
        Argument is an equation/expression in (La)TeX format. In most cases,
        you will want to enclose the argument in quotes to protect it from
        shell expansion.

    -b "rrggbb"
        Background color. There are several ways to specify the color. See
        the section "COLORS", below, for details.

    -d dpi
        Pixel density at which the equation is rendered, in dots per inch
        (default 300).

        An image with a DPI of 600 will have twice as many pixels in each of
        the x and y directions than an image with a DPI of 300. The effect
        is different in the normal context of printing, where a higher DPI
        will leave the text with the same physical size, but with a finer
        resolution. This is because the physical size of a pixel is not
        really variable; so to have double the resolution, a symbol in an
        image must be double the size.

    -f "rrggbb"
        Foreground color. There are several ways to specify the color. See
        the section "COLORS", below, for details.

    -h  Show a help summary.

    -o output.png
        Name of output file. Default is 'eqn.png'.

    -p packagename[,packagename2[,...]]]
        Use additional LaTeX/TeX packages. You can specify several,
        separated by commas.

    -B "WIDTHxHEIGHT [color]"
        or: -B "SIZE [color]"

        Pad the resulting image with a border of the indicated size, in
        pixels.

        You can optionally specify a color for the border region. By
        default, the border will be the same color as the rest of the
        background. (See "COLORS" below for the format.)

    -C  Suppress automatic removal (cleanup) of temporary files. This will
        be useful if something goes wrong, or if you want to use the
        intermediate DVI or Postscript renditions. l2p will tell you which
        directory contains these files.

    -F  Supplied expression is a full LaTeX document, rather than just an
        expression fragment. Negates the -f, -b, -p, -B and -T options.

        Note: l2p currently only converts full LaTeX documents that are
        relatively simple: only one page in length, and with no external
        dependencies (such as included graphics). If you need to convert a
        more complex document, you can generate a DVI file with latex like
        normal, then convert the DVI into a series of PNG images using
        convert from the ImageMagick distribution. See convert(1), or
        <http://imagemagick.org/script/convert.php> for more information.

    -T  Create an image with a transparent background.

    -V  Show version information.

COLORS
    Some options, such as -b and -f, take an argument specifying a color in
    RGB format. l2p will decipher most representations, such as:

    *   A hexidecimal triplet. For example, '-f "FF0000" -b "#ffffff"' gives
        a red foreground on a white background. Case is not important, and
        the "#" is optional.

    *   Three decimal whole numbers, in the range of 0 to 255. These must be
        separated by spaces or punctuation (comma, semicolon or colon). For
        example, '-b "0 127 255" -f "0,0,0"' is black on a nice bluish
        background.

    *   Three fractions between 0 and 1, inclusive. At least one of the
        three numbers must contain a decimal point (to distinguish this
        format from the others), and they are separated by space or
        punctuation. For example, "0.87 .78 .41" is the same as the hex
        triplet "DEC769", and "0, 1.0, 0" is the color green. (Remember that
        decimal point. "0, 1, 0" will give you a nearly black color.)

    Note that you may need to put single or double quotes around the color
    string, to ensure the shell interprets it correctly.

BUGS
    Error handling is imperfect. Among other things, If a needed LaTeX
    package is not included, l2p will silently produce a broken image.

    On certain platforms, images produced with the -T option (transparent
    background) may leave pixels at the edges of symbols a mixture of the
    text color and some background color. This may not look good if the
    resulting image is put on a differently colored background. A workaround
    is to give a background color hint with the -b option; the edge pixels
    will then be a mixture of specified foreground and background colors.

ACKS
    Thanks to Jesse Merriman (<http://www.jessemerriman.com/>) for providing
    a patch that improved transparent background support. Integrated in
    version 1.1.

COPYRIGHT
    This software is in the public domain.

AUTHOR
    Aaron Maxwell (amax@redsymbol.net). Comments, feature requests, and
    patches are welcome.

