Enable xelatex in Latex Workshops for Visual Studio Code

Question

I have a template, which defines all the typesetting recommendations for thesis, but it uses xelatex for compilation. I want to continue using VS Code with Latex Workshops, question is how to change compiler to xelatex from pdflatex. The last one cause next error log:

C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX 2.9\tex/latex/fontspec\fontspec.sty:45: Fatal Package fontspec Error: The 
fontspec package requires either XeTeX or
(fontspec)                      LuaTeX.
(fontspec)                      
(fontspec)                      You must change your typesetting engine to,
(fontspec)                      e.g., "xelatex" or "lualatex"instead of
(fontspec)                      "latex" or "pdflatex".

score 75 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 16 '20 at 12:22

75

The simplest solution found in issues here, but in more common formulation:

Copying the content, simply go to Preferences → Extensions → LaTeX (meaning LaTeX is LaTeX workshops), find gear-wheel button with name Manage, then find in the list link to settings.json under any tag, open and type next:

"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [{
    "name": "latexmk",
    "command": "latexmk",
    "args": [
        "-xelatex",
        "-synctex=1",
        "-interaction=nonstopmode",
        "-file-line-error",
        "%DOC%"
    ]
}],

Reloading the VSCode may be needed.

Also setting.json file could be found in C:\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json.

edited Jul 16 '20 at 12:22

Philippe Fanaro

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answered May 13 '19 at 09:11

A.Ametov

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In addition, you could also extend the recipes with xelatex, following the answer in https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/478865/vs-code-latex-workshop-custom-recipes-file-location with slight modifications. Note however, that you may have to include the default recipes/tools in addition to the new ones to not just overwrite them only. So you can keep both "normal" latex and xelatex. – E. Körner May 06 '20 at 09:56
If you have `xelatex` installed as a CLI on your machine, use it as a command directly. – Philippe Fanaro Jul 16 '20 at 00:09

score 49 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 11 '22 at 05:58

49

Use magic comments

add the following line to the beginning of your document.

% !TEX program = xelatex

To enable magic comments, change the setting forceRecipeUsage to false.

edited Dec 11 '22 at 05:58

jtb

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answered Jan 13 '20 at 15:54

xiaoou wang

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5

This is the most reliable option. Worked for me when nothing else did – Joe the Person Feb 06 '20 at 03:22
1

This should be the accepted answer, being general purpose – Patrizio Bertoni Jun 08 '21 at 14:56
5

This is not related to enabling xelatex. You are still using pdflatex. – Meta Fan Aug 14 '21 at 03:22
You should write `xelatex` instead of `pdflatex` 'cause you want to enable it! Edited code: `% !TEX program = xelatex` – Shahriar Oct 04 '21 at 08:14
Great answer! So that the comments make sense, let me explain that I edited this to respond to the question (i.e. changed "pdflatex" to "xelatex") – Nat Kuhn Nov 18 '21 at 12:25
23

I'd like to note that after `v8.23.0` magic commands are disabled by default. You can read more [here](https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/issues/3027). Basically you have to disable `forceRecipeUsage` in settings if you want to enable them. – Hirbod Behnam Dec 30 '21 at 08:18
@HirbodBehnam Amazing! I was wondering why it stopped working all of a sudden. Great answer. – Tianyao 'Till' Chen May 08 '22 at 01:25

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 31 '22 at 15:26

I kept getting errors with the other solutions, apparently because I was using backend=biber in my latex code. The following configuration assumes a current MiKTeX setup (including biber) and fixes those problems (also, this does not rely on latexmk). The config uses some inspiration from that of TeXworks.

Inside latex-workshop.latex.tools

{
    "name": "xelatex",
    "command": "xetex",
    "args": [
        "-undump=xelatex",
        "%DOC%.tex"
    ],
    "env": {}
},
{
    "name": "biber",
    "command": "biber",
    "args": [
        "%DOC%"
    ],
    "env": {}
}

Then inside latex-workshop.latex.recipes add the recipe:

{
    "name": "xelatex ➞ biber ➞ xelatex x 2x",
    "tools": [
        "xelatex",
        "biber",
        "xelatex",
        "xelatex"
    ]
}

Happy texing!

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 09 '23 at 20:32

I am a bit late in the party, but if someone still needs to set xelatex from VS Code LaTeX extension, you are in the right place. Add the following configuration to your VS Code settings.json, and voila!

"latex-workshop.latex.recipe.default": "latexmk (xelatex)",

Enable xelatex in Latex Workshops for Visual Studio Code

4 Answers4