This helper script recompiles only modified slides for LaTeX Beamer presentations. The script detects automatically (using a file-system watch) whether the slides have changed and starts the recompilation. Compiling all slides is furthermore optimized by running the compilation processes in parallel.
To always recompile changed slides, simply run
python3 beamer-preview.py --watch <slides.tex>
This recompiles the modified (or added) slides everytime the file is saved. The generated preview file is in the same folder and called preview.pdf.
The tool supports several command-line parameters:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| --out [filename] / -o [filename] | File name of preview PDF (default: preview.pdf) |
| --compiler [compiler] / -c [compiler] | LaTeX compiler to use. Supports pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex (default: pdflatex) |
| --ignore-errors | Try to continue building the PDF even if there are errors (default: false) |
| --prefix [folder] / -p [folder] | Folder in which auxiliary files are stored (default: beamer.out) |
| --force | Force recompilation even if no change was detected (default: false) |
| --watch | Monitor the file system to detect changes in the LaTeX file (default: false) |
| --smp [cores] | Number of CPU cores to use for multithreaded compilation (default: number of currently available CPU cores) |
| --compiler-option [option] | Option passed to the compiler (can be provided multiple times) |
| --runs [count] | Number of compilation runs per slide (default: 1) |
| --frames / -f | Use correct frame numbers, requires recompilation on insertion/deletion/reordering of slides (default: false) |
LaTeX Beamer Preview relies on Python 3 and the following libraries
- pypdf2
- colorlog
- watchdog
The requirements can be installed by running
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
- Automatically extract single slides from a presentation
- Compile only changed and new slides
- Copes with re-ordering, insertion, and deletion of slides without requiring recompilation
- Parallelize slide compilation
- Watch file system for changes
- Rudimentary syntax checks
- No support for citations / bibliography
- Commands between frame environments are not taken into account