Convert TEX to Textile

Why Convert LaTeX to Textile?

Converting LaTeX to Textile is useful when you need to publish academic or technical content on platforms that support Textile markup. Redmine, one of the most popular open-source project management tools, uses Textile as its default formatting language.

Textile provides a clean, readable syntax that converts directly to HTML while maintaining formatting intentions. Unlike Markdown, Textile offers better table support and CSS class integration, making it suitable for structured content.

For teams using Redmine for project management, converting LaTeX documentation to Textile enables seamless integration of technical documents into wiki pages, issue descriptions, and project documentation without losing formatting.

The conversion preserves document structure including headings, lists, tables, and text formatting, while adapting the syntax from LaTeX commands to Textile's more intuitive markup characters.

Practical Examples

Example 1: Document Structure Conversion

LaTeX sections become Textile headings:

\section{Overview}
\subsection{Background}
\subsubsection{History}

h1. Overview

h2. Background

h3. History

Example 2: Table Conversion for Redmine

Create Textile tables from LaTeX tabular environments:

|_. Feature |_. Status |_. Priority |
| User authentication | Complete | High |
| API integration | In Progress | Medium |
| Documentation | Pending | Low |

p(note). This table can be pasted directly into Redmine.

Example 3: Formatting with CSS Classes

Textile supports inline CSS classes for styling:

p(important). This paragraph has the "important" CSS class.

p{color:red}. This paragraph has inline red color.

*(highlight)First item with highlight class
* Second item
* Third item

bq. This is a blockquote converted from LaTeX quote environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Textile markup?

A: Textile is a lightweight markup language created by Dean Allen in 2002. It uses simple characters like asterisks for bold (*bold*), underscores for italic (_italic_), and h1-h6 prefixes for headings. It converts to clean HTML and is known for its readable source format.

Q: Will my LaTeX equations be preserved?

A: Textile doesn't have native math support. Equations are converted to plain text representation. For math rendering on web pages, you can use MathJax with LaTeX notation preserved in the output, or convert to an image-based solution.

Q: Where is Textile commonly used?

A: Textile is the default markup in Redmine (project management), Textpattern (CMS), and various blogging platforms. It was once more popular but has been largely superseded by Markdown in new projects.

Q: How does Textile compare to Markdown?

A: Both are lightweight markup languages. Textile has better native table support and CSS class integration, while Markdown is more widely adopted and has more tool support. Textile syntax is slightly more complex but offers more formatting options.

Q: Can I use the output in Redmine?

A: Yes, the Textile output is directly compatible with Redmine wikis, issue descriptions, and comments. You can paste it directly and it will render correctly with headings, lists, tables, and formatting.

Q: How are LaTeX tables converted?

A: LaTeX tabular environments are converted to Textile table syntax using pipes (|) for columns and |_. for header cells. The structure is preserved, though complex table features like multirow/multicolumn may be simplified.

Q: Are images and links preserved?

A: Yes, LaTeX \includegraphics commands convert to Textile image syntax (!image.png!) and \href/\url commands become Textile links ("link text":http://url). File paths are preserved as-is.

Q: Can I convert back from Textile to LaTeX?

A: Pandoc supports reading Textile and writing LaTeX, so reverse conversion is possible. However, since Textile has simpler formatting than LaTeX, the round-trip won't preserve all original LaTeX features like equations, bibliography, and custom macros.