Novus Convert
Convert files
Document format

TEX converter

A .tex file is TeX or LaTeX source: a typesetting program as much as a document, in which backslash-prefixed commands describe structure, mathematics and layout, and which is compiled to PDF rather than rendered. It is the standard for anything with serious mathematics in it.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop TEX files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where TEX comes from

Donald Knuth wrote TeX between 1977 and 1982 because he was unwilling to accept the typographic quality of his own book's second edition. Leslie Lamport's LaTeX, released in 1984, added the document structure that made it usable by people who did not want to program a typesetter. Four decades on, essentially every mathematics, physics and computer-science journal accepts — often requires — LaTeX, and arXiv stores submissions as source.

How TEX works

  • TeX is Turing-complete: a .tex file is a program, which is why processing untrusted source is a genuine security concern rather than a theoretical one.
  • \documentclass selects the overall layout; packages loaded with \usepackage extend the language, and thousands exist on CTAN.
  • Mathematics is the format's reason for existing, and its notation remains unmatched by anything else in common use.
  • \title and \author live in the preamble and are only rendered where \maketitle appears in the body — so a converter that reads only the body loses them.
  • Cross-references and bibliographies resolve over multiple compilation passes, which is why one run is often not enough.

When to use TEX

  • Academic papers, theses and journal submissions
  • Any document where mathematical notation is central
  • Converting a paper's prose to HTML or Markdown for the web
  • Extracting readable text from an archived LaTeX source tree

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Typographic quality that no word processor matches, particularly for mathematics
  • Plain text, so sources version-control and diff properly
  • Stable for decades — a 1990s document still compiles

Limitations

  • Steep learning curve, and errors are reported in terms of the typesetter rather than the document
  • Arbitrary code execution makes untrusted input dangerous
  • Layout is hard to adjust without understanding the underlying model

Compatibility

TeX Live, MiKTeX, Overleaf and every academic publishing pipeline process LaTeX. Nothing renders it natively without compilation. Novus Convert reads it through a non-executing local profile with shell escape and file commands disabled, and converts to HTML, Markdown and plain text. Mathematics is preserved as source text rather than typeset, and the page says so; the document title and author are read from the preamble and emitted wherever \maketitle appeared.

Preamble \title and \author are read and rendered as a heading; package and class metadata are not carried across.

Convert TEX to another format