PythonTeX: reproducible documents with LaTeX, Python, and more

Abstract

PythonTeX is a LaTeX package that allows Python code in LaTeX documents to be executed and provides access to the output. This makes possible reproducible documents that combine results with the code required to generate them. Calculations and figures may be next to the code that created them. Since code is adjacent to its output in the document, editing may be more efficient. Since code output may be accessed programmatically in the document, copy-and-paste errors are avoided and output is always guaranteed to be in sync with the code that generated it. This paper provides an introduction to PythonTeX and an overview of major features, including performance optimizations, debugging tools, and dependency tracking. Several complete examples are presented. Finally, advanced features are summarized. Though PythonTeX was designed for Python, it may be extended to support additional languages; support for the Ruby and Julia languages is already included. PythonTeX contains a utility for converting documents into plain LaTeX, suitable for format conversion, sharing, and journal submission.