Convert ipynb to pdf in Jupyter

Question

I am new to ipython notebook, and I would like to convert my ipynb to pdf. But I get the following error when I try to Download as PDF via LaTex.

nbconvert failed: pdflatex not found on PATH

There is no documentation anywhere how to add pdflatex to my PATH. I use windows. Thank you!

Do you have Latex installed? If not, you need to install it, in the form of something like [MikTex](http://miktex.org/). If you do have it, there are instructions on changing the path [here](http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm). — Thomas K, Apr 29 '16 at 13:44
@ThomasK Thank you! You mean to add the path of where miktex was installed? — Christa, Apr 29 '16 at 20:40
It should install somewhere a `pdflatex.exe` file. PATH needs to include the directory that contains that. — Thomas K, Apr 30 '16 at 08:08
when I go to download Latex it says download MikTex so, my .exe says basic-miktex-2.9.6850-x64 - I have this in the same path as where my ipynb file is but it still does not work? — 0004, Nov 08 '18 at 07:03

Frâncio Rodrigues · Answer 1 · 2018-12-13T10:52:07.857

A simple and surprisingly good solution is to print the notebook to pdf through the browser with ctrl+p. Just make sure your plots and figures are not on interactive mode otherwise they will not be displayed (set them to %matplotlib inline).

Exporting jupyter notebooks through latex is quite troublesome and takes a lot of tinkering to get something remotely close to publish ready. When I absolutely need publication quality I do it on a latex editor, but this tutorial goes in great length about doing it on jupyter.

A few useful tips to get better results:

Higher resolution plots
Hide your code-cells from the pdf
Take a look at these extensions to improve your jupyter documents

ctrl+p is the best thing I read on stack overflow ever. Thank you! — Varvara Litvinova, Aug 14 '22 at 16:31

score 17 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 25 '18 at 12:55

17

For Mac OS X, the solution for me was to install MacTex first and then export the path to find it:

### TeX
export PATH="/Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/texbin:$PATH"

You can add this to your .bash_profile or similar config file to load it every time.

See more here https://github.com/jupyter/nbconvert/issues/406

answered Sep 25 '18 at 12:55

tsando

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Worked perfectly on MacOS in my `zshrc`. Thanks – james-see Oct 11 '18 at 18:13
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how on earth this Mactex thing can take 3.9Gb to download? – dark_ruby Nov 21 '19 at 12:42
For newer versions of MacTeX: `export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin:$PATH"` – Kirko Mar 02 '20 at 14:59

score 14 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 22 '19 at 06:23

As said by Thomas K in the comments, you need to have Latex installed, and after add the path to the directory containing pdflatex.exe file to the PATH variable of your system.

I have looked for a lightweight distribution and tried installing TeXworks, but I didn't find any pdflatex.exe file.
So I have tried TeX Live, which worked fine creating the pdflatex.exe file under the target installation directory. This path should be like C:\...\texlive\2016\bin\win32.
Finally, you should just add this path to the PATH environment variable of your system (you can use the link shared by Thomas K).

As said here, you need to quit jupyter notebook and open a new command prompt after making any path changes, in order for jupyter to find the newly added item to the PATH.

Then, in Jupyter, you can check your environment variables by running the following (refer to this link for details):

    import os
    os.environ['PATH'].split(';')

and check if it contains the path to pdflatex.exe file.

If you get some trouble when exporting your notebook to pdf due to missing files/packages (this happened to me), refer to this link to search and install them under TeX Live.

this solution is for Windows - see below for Mac OS X version — tsando, Sep 25 '18 at 12:55
One minor point... you need to restart jupyter notebook in a new command prompt in order to see the newly added PATH items — Ali Abul Hawa, Oct 09 '19 at 08:56

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '19 at 06:01

12

For Linux, the reported error is due to the lack of XeLatex, part of the texlive-xetex package.

Installation in ubuntu will be: sudo apt install texlive-xetex

answered Jan 11 '19 at 06:01

calocedrus

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score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 06 '20 at 10:03

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Instead of using nbconvert what you can do is :

Download your ipynb file as HTML from File option.
Right-click and select print or use Ctrl+P.
Save as PDF

Easy.

edited Jan 06 '20 at 10:03

Misha Akopov

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answered Dec 26 '19 at 06:10

Aditya Agarkar

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1__ · Answer 6 · 2019-10-25T17:42:38.383

Here is the full solution that worked for me (for Mac).

brew cask install mactex

$ cd ~/

$ touch .bash_profile

This will open the bash profile on TextEditor

$ open -e .bash_profile

Paste the following to the top and save

export PATH="/Library/TeX/Distributions/.DefaultTeX/Contents/Programs/texbin:$PATH"

Close any notebook you have and reopen it

Here is the notebook explaining it step by step: https://github.com/ybaktir/notes/blob/master/Convert%20Jupyter%20Notebook%20to%20Pdf.ipynb

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 03 '19 at 22:25

I agree that latex installation (at least on windows) is painful and the result in my case was not a great looking document. The ctrl-p method alone doesn't work great if you're running in JupyterLab, but if you export the notebook to HTML, then print from the browser, choosing PDF, the result is quite good.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 23 '20 at 19:49

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I know my solution is not at a level. But it works !!

in your browser of notebook tab, simply do "ctrl + p" to get download in pdf

answered Apr 23 '20 at 19:49

Qbert

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 22 '21 at 06:34

First export the notebook file to HTML (available through File> Download as..).
If you are using JupyterLab, then this is available under File > Export Notebook As....
Use (any) free online converters to convert html file to a pdf file. (One such free online converter is sejda (https://www.sejda.com/html-to-pdf)

Note, there are many such converters are available online.

Convert ipynb to pdf in Jupyter

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