pubtab

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<strong>Language</strong>: <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/README.md">English</a> | <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/README.zh-CN.md">中文</a>

</div>

Convert Excel tables to publication-ready LaTeX (and back) with stable roundtrip behavior.

Highlights

• Roundtrip Consistency — Designed for tex -> xlsx -> tex workflows with minimal structural drift.
• Multiple TeX Backends — Supports both classic tabular export and tabularray / tblr output.
• All-Sheets by Default — xlsx2tex exports every sheet as *_sheetNN.tex when --sheet is not set.
• Style Fidelity — Preserves merged cells, colors, rich text, rotation, and common table semantics.
• Publication Preview — Generate PNG/PDF directly from .tex via one CLI entry.
• Overleaf-Ready Output — Generated .tex starts with commented \usepackage{...} hints.

Recent News

• 2026-03-18: tabularray backend support and README refresh — added tabularray as an alternative TeX backend for xlsx2tex, updated theme/backend resolution so three_line can be used consistently across render and preview, replaced placeholder usage paths with real repo examples under examples/, documented GitHub dev installation, and removed the repository test directory from the tracked tree.
• 2026-03-06: Preview dependency recovery and resizebox controls — improved TinyTeX / missing-package recovery in preview, and added resizebox-related CLI switches for more reliable wide-table export.
• 2026-03-05: PyPI-safe README cleanup and release prep — switched README links to PyPI-safe forms and prepared the 1.0.1 release workflow.

Examples

Showcase

<p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table4.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table4.png" width="48%" alt="Example table4"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table7.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table7.png" width="48%" alt="Example table7"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table8.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table8.png" width="48%" alt="Example table8"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table10.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table10.png" width="48%" alt="Example table10"></a> </p> <details> <summary><strong>Full Gallery (11 examples)</strong></summary> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table1.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table1.png" width="31%" alt="table1"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table2.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table2.png" width="31%" alt="table2"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table3.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table3.png" width="31%" alt="table3"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table4.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table4.png" width="31%" alt="table4"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table5.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table5.png" width="31%" alt="table5"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table6.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table6.png" width="31%" alt="table6"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table7.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table7.png" width="31%" alt="table7"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table8.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table8.png" width="31%" alt="table8"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table9.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table9.png" width="31%" alt="table9"></a> </p> <p align="center"> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table10.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table10.png" width="31%" alt="table10"></a> <a href="https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/blob/main/examples/table11.xlsx"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab/main/examples/table11.png" width="31%" alt="table11"></a> </p> </details>

Example A: Excel -> LaTeX

pubtab xlsx2tex ./examples/table4.xlsx -o ./out/table4.tex

Output file:

• ./out/table4.tex

Example B: LaTeX -> Excel (roundtrip from the generated sample)

pubtab tex2xlsx ./out/table4.tex -o ./out/table4_roundtrip.xlsx

Example C: LaTeX -> PNG / PDF preview

pubtab preview ./out/table4.tex -o ./out/table4.png --dpi 300
pubtab preview ./out/table4.tex --format pdf -o ./out/table4.pdf

Example D: Excel -> tabularray (tblr)

pubtab xlsx2tex ./examples/table4.xlsx -o ./out/table4_tblr.tex \
  --theme three_line \
  --latex-backend tabularray

# Preview the generated tabularray tex file
pubtab preview ./out/table4_tblr.tex -o ./out/table4_tblr.png \
  --theme three_line --latex-backend tabularray --dpi 300

Generated .tex header includes package hints (comments only):

% Theme package hints for this table (add in your preamble):
% \usepackage{booktabs}
% \usepackage{multirow}
% \usepackage[table]{xcolor}

Quick Start

pip install pubtab

Stable release on PyPI: pubtab on PyPI

Install the current GitHub development version:

pip install "git+https://github.com/Galaxy-Dawn/pubtab.git"

CLI Quick Start

# 1) Excel -> LaTeX
pubtab xlsx2tex table.xlsx -o table.tex

# 2) LaTeX -> Excel
pubtab tex2xlsx table.tex -o table.xlsx

# 3) Preview
pubtab preview table.tex -o table.png --dpi 300

# 4) Native batch pipeline (directory input)
pubtab tex2xlsx ./tables_tex -o ./out/xlsx
pubtab xlsx2tex ./out/xlsx -o ./out/tex
pubtab preview ./out/tex -o ./out/png --format png --dpi 300

Python Quick Start

import pubtab

# Excel -> LaTeX
pubtab.xlsx2tex("table.xlsx", output="table.tex", theme="three_line")

# Excel -> tabularray
pubtab.xlsx2tex(
    "table.xlsx",
    output="table_tblr.tex",
    theme="three_line",
    latex_backend="tabularray",
)

# LaTeX -> Excel
pubtab.tex_to_excel("table.tex", "table.xlsx")

# Preview (.png by default)
pubtab.preview("table.tex", dpi=300)

# Native batch pipeline (directory input)
pubtab.tex_to_excel("tables_tex", "out/xlsx")
pubtab.xlsx2tex("out/xlsx", output="out/tex")
pubtab.preview("out/tex", output="out/png", format="png", dpi=300)

Parameter Guide

pubtab xlsx2tex

| Parameter | Type / Values | Default | Description | Typical Use | |---|---|---|---|---| | INPUT_FILE | path (file or directory) | required | Source .xlsx / .xls file, or a directory containing them | Main input / batch conversion | | -o, --output | path | required | Output .tex path or output directory; when INPUT_FILE is a directory, this must be a directory | Set destination | | -c, --config | path | none | YAML config file | Team presets | | --sheet | sheet name / 0-based index | all sheets | Export only one sheet | Single-sheet export | | --theme | string | three_line | Style theme used for rendering | Switch visual style | | --caption | string | none | Table caption | Paper-ready table | | --label | string | none | LaTeX label | Cross-reference | | --header-rows | int | auto | Number of header rows | Override detection | | --span-columns | flag | false | Use table* | Two-column papers | | --preview | flag | false | Generate PNG preview(s) | Fast visual check | | --position | string | htbp | Float position | Layout tuning | | --font-size | string | theme default | Set table font size | Compact layout | | --resizebox | string | none | Wrap with \resizebox{...}{!}{...} | Wide tables | | --with-resizebox | flag | false | Enable \resizebox wrapper | Force width control | | --without-resizebox | flag | false | Disable \resizebox wrapper | Keep raw tabular width | | --resizebox-width | string | \linewidth | Width used by --with-resizebox | Custom scaling | | --col-spec | string | auto | Explicit tabular col spec | Manual alignment | | --dpi | int | 300 | Preview DPI (--preview) | Sharper PNG | | --header-sep | string | auto | Custom separator under header | Custom rule line | | --upright-scripts | flag | false | Render sub/superscript as upright \mathrm{} | Typographic preference | | --latex-backend | tabular / tabularray | tabular | TeX backend