How to Use Baseprinter with LaTeX/Overleaf

Baseprinter uses Pandoc instead of a traditional LaTeX compiler to read LaTeX source files. Pandoc can read basic LaTeX, but it does not have all the features of traditional LaTeX compilers (such as pdfLaTeX, LaTeX, XƎLaTeX, and LuaLaTeX). Nonetheless, Baseprinter can be used alongside other LaTeX compilers like those found on Overleaf.

Objective

This guide will show you how to organize input source files so that both Baseprinter and traditional LaTeX compilers can generate Baseprint snapshots and PDF files, respectively.

Alternative

The tutorial to Author a Document via Overleaf provides a concrete example of using both Baseprinter and the traditional LaTeX compiler of Overleaf to read the same source files.

Note

LaTeX can also be embedded inside Markdown files. Instead of authoring LaTeX files, you can take a completely different approach by authoring Markdown files with embedded LaTeX.

Prerequisites

• Ability to run Baseprinter (refer to the Start page).
• A directory containing your input source files.

Steps

1. Copy the template files

Download the following files into your source file directory:

main.tex

This file is given as input to a traditional LaTeX compiler (e.g., pdfLaTeX, LaTeX, XƎLaTeX, and LuaLaTeX). It will not be used by Baseprinter/Pandoc. You probably do not need to modify it. It only contains LaTeX markup that is needed to produce PDF previews via a traditional LaTeX compiler. It is a minimal wrapper that includes document.tex.

document.tex

This file contains the content of the document to be used by both Pandoc (via Baseprinter) and a traditional LaTeX compiler. This file contains the abstract and the contents of the document.

pandocin.yaml

This file is only used by Pandoc (via Baseprinter) and contains document metadata such as title, date, authors, and license, but not the abstract.

2. Edit pandocin.yaml and document.tex

Edit your copies of pandocin.yaml and document.tex as they contain example placeholder text.

3. Create references.bib

Create a BibTeX file references.bib to contain your references. If you do not have any references yet, just create an empty file. If you want to use a BibTeX file with a different name, change the line \addbibresource{references.bib} in document.tex.

Conclusion

You can now run Baseprinter inside your source directory from the command line.

Warning

If you run Baseprinter from a directory different than your source directory, use the -C option so that Pandoc runs from inside the source directory. The other paths on the Baseprinter command line should be relative to the source directory.