AsciiTeX Studio — Browser Edition

Write TeX-like documents and instantly render them as clean monospaced Unicode — directly in your browser, with no server-side document upload.

AsciiTeX Studio is a local-first, browser-based technical writing editor: a practical Unicode and plain-text alternative for terminal documentation, CLI manuals, teaching notes, README examples, and text artifacts that should remain easy to diff and search.

👉 Open AsciiTeX Studio: https://thomasliebig.github.io/asciitexstudio/

AsciiTeX Studio feels a bit like a tiny, Unicode-native Overleaf: file browser on the left, Monaco source editor in the middle, live rendered output on the right. It runs the Python AsciiTeX compiler locally through Pyodide and stores your project files in the browser.

• Edit .tex, BibTeX, images and supporting files in a browser project.
• Compile automatically while typing, or switch to manual compile.
• Preview Unicode output in a document-like pane with adjustable width.
• Use AsciiTeX features for math, figures, diagrams, tables, boxes, bibliography and cross-references.
• Keep everything local-first: files persist in BrowserFS/IndexedDB.
• Install it as a Progressive Web App for a small desktop-like writing tool.
• Pop out the live preview for a second monitor.
• Use green or amber retro themes, because terminal nostalgia deserves options.

All project files and compilation stay in the browser. No document content is uploaded to an AsciiTeX server.

• Monaco editor with AsciiTeX syntax highlighting
• live or manual compilation to monospaced Unicode output
• project browser for .tex, BibTeX, images and supporting files
• drag-and-drop file upload
• download individual files or the whole project as ZIP
• re-import exported ZIP projects, including project folders and nested assets
• two-way navigation between source and rendered output
• adjustable editor/output split and document width
• local-first project persistence in IndexedDB
• installable Progressive Web App
• images, diagrams, tables, boxes, mathematics, bibliography and cross-references
• wrapped longasciitable tables with configurable border placement and glyph styles
• modular TeX documents through recursive \input{...} and \include{...}
• numbered and unnumbered sections, equations, figures, diagrams, tables and boxes

AsciiTeX Studio combines a modern web editor with a Python document compiler while keeping files and compilation in the user's browser:

Bug reports, browser-compatibility findings, examples, and focused pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

1. Vue and Vite provide the application shell and user interface.
2. BrowserFS exposes an in-browser project filesystem backed by IndexedDB.
3. A Web Worker loads Pyodide and the Python AsciiTeX engine.
4. The worker mounts the current project, compiles main.tex, and returns Unicode output.
5. Monaco edits source files while the preview displays the compiler result.

All compilation happens locally in the browser. No document upload is required by the application itself.

AsciiTeX Studio develops the original AsciiTeX project into a browser-based editing and compilation environment. The web application was developed with the assistance of a coding agent: the agent helped analyse and extend the existing AsciiTeX codebase, implement the Vue interface, integrate Pyodide and BrowserFS, and build browser-oriented workflows. The resulting source remains intended for human review and maintenance.

npm install
npm run dev

Create a production build with:

npm run build

The generated site is written to dist/. Progressive Web App installation requires HTTPS in production; localhost is accepted during development.

For Chrome DevTools snippets that inspect BrowserFS files, cache entries, access timestamps, and cache hits, see Cache and BrowserFS debugging.

For notes on extending AsciiTeX with new commands, environments, floats and renderers, see Extending AsciiTeX Studio.

The initial BrowserFS project is seeded from files in public/seed/. To customize the files that a fresh installation receives, edit:

• public/seed/manifest.json for the list of files and their target BrowserFS paths
• public/seed/main.tex, chapter.tex, refs.bib, and README.txt for text content
• any public asset referenced by the manifest, for example public/examples/image.png

Seed files are installed only when the browser project filesystem is empty. Existing local projects are never overwritten on reload.

This directory contains the browser application around AsciiTeX. Python engine files served to Pyodide live in public/python/ and mirror the corresponding compiler sources in the parent project. When changing the engine, keep both copies synchronized and increment the engine version used by the worker so browsers do not retain stale code.

See the parent project’s license and third-party notices before redistribution.

• Website: https://thomasliebig.github.io/asciitexstudio/
• Source: https://github.com/thomasliebig/asciitexstudio
• Imprint: https://tapekuna.ai/#impressum