LaTeX PDF Preview

February 4, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Live PDF preview for LaTeX documents in VS Code.

Features

  • Real-time PDF preview - Auto-compiles on save
  • Lightweight - No bundled PDF renderer (~36KB package)
  • Uses VSCode's native PDF viewing

Requirements

  • LaTeX distribution (pdflatex, xelatex, lualatex, or latexmk)
  • PDF viewer extension for VSCode (e.g., vscode-pdf)
# macOS
brew install --cask mactex    # or basictex

# Windows/Linux
# Install TeX Live or MiKTeX

Usage

  1. Open .tex file
  2. Click preview icon or use Command Palette
  3. Edit and save - preview updates automatically

Commands

  • LaTeX: Show Preview - Open PDF preview
  • LaTeX: Refresh Preview - Manual refresh

Settings

SettingDefaultDescription
latex-preview.executablePath""Custom LaTeX executable path
latex-preview.autoCompiletrueAuto-compile on save
latex-preview.debounceDelay300Debounce delay (ms)
latex-preview.throttleDelay2000Throttle delay (ms)

License

MIT