web2texzip - Convert Webpages & PDFs to LaTeX

What is web2texzip?

A Chrome extension that converts webpages and PDFs to LaTeX format with automatic image extraction. Perfect for academic writing, research papers, and documentation.

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One-Click Conversion

Convert any page with a single click

🖼️

Image Extraction

Automatically extracts and organizes images

📄

PDF Support

Handles both webpages and PDF documents

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Privacy First

All processing happens locally on your Mac

Installation

⚠️ Important: The Chrome extension requires a local helper app (native host) to work. Follow both steps below.

1 Install the Chrome Extension

Visit the Chrome Web Store and click "Add to Chrome"

2 Install the Native Host (Required)

Open Terminal and run these commands:

                    # Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/irvineAlgotrading/easytex.git

cd easytex

# Install web2texzip and native host

./install.sh --with-js

# Install native messaging host

echo "iodiflpjkjflalkpakocplgaaphfindk" | ./install-native-host.sh

3 Reload the Extension

Go to chrome://extensions/ and click the reload icon on the web2texzip extension

✅ Done! You're ready to use web2texzip.

How to Use

1 Navigate to any webpage or PDF

Try it on Wikipedia, arXiv papers, news articles, or any PDF document

2 Click the extension icon

Find the web2texzip icon in your Chrome toolbar (top right)

3 Wait for conversion

You'll see a notification when the conversion is complete

4 Check your Downloads folder

Find the .zip file in ~/Downloads/ containing:

.tex file (LaTeX document)
images/ folder (all extracted images)

Command Line Usage

You can also use web2texzip directly from the command line:

                # Convert a webpage

web2texzip https://example.com/article

# Convert a PDF

web2texzip https://example.com/document.pdf

# Fast mode (no JavaScript rendering)

web2texzip https://example.com/article --no-js

Options

--no-js - Disable JavaScript rendering (faster)
--name NAME - Override output filename
--out DIR - Output directory (default: ~/Downloads)
--no-reveal - Don't open Finder after conversion
--debug - Show verbose output

Requirements

Operating System: macOS (Homebrew)
Browser: Google Chrome
Dependencies: pandoc, Python 3.9+, PyMuPDF, Playwright
Disk Space: ~50MB

All dependencies are automatically installed by ./install.sh --with-js

Troubleshooting

"Native host not found" error

This means the extension can't communicate with the local helper app. To fix:

Make sure you ran ./install-native-host.sh
Verify the native host is installed:
cat ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/com.web2texzip.native.json
Reload the extension in chrome://extensions/

"Conversion failed" error

Test the command-line tool first:

web2texzip https://example.com

Need more help?

Visit the GitHub Issues page or check the full documentation.

Privacy & Security

All conversion happens locally on your computer. The extension:

✅ Reads only the current tab URL
✅ Sends URL to local native host (stays on your machine)
❌ No cloud processing
❌ No data collection
❌ No tracking
❌ No external network requests

View the full Privacy Policy.