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xournalpp / xournalpp

Xournal++ is a handwriting notetaking software with PDF annotation support. Written in C++ with GTK3, supporting Linux (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, SUSE), macOS and Windows 10. Supports pen input from devices such as Wacom Tablets.
https://xournalpp.github.io
GNU General Public License v2.0
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Installing latex support in xournalpp is too complicated and taking too much storage space #5533

Open malnaanah opened 6 months ago

malnaanah commented 6 months ago

Is Your Feature Request Related to a Problem?

No response

Feature Description

I am a linux user [Kubuntu 22.04] and installing latex support in xournalpp is complicated and takes large storage space.

Alternative Solutions

Providing minimal installation for latex support as additional package beside xournalpp package or integrate it with xournalpp directly.

Additional Context

No response

rolandlo commented 6 months ago

Both the flatpak and (unofficial) snap package include a minimal LaTeX installation using TinyTeX. How did you install Xournal++? You could install [TinyTex]() on your system if you don't want to go for the flatpak or snap package. That's a bit complicated though, I have to admit, see https://yihui.org/tinytex/#installation.

malnaanah commented 6 months ago

I install xournalpp using .deb for kubuntu 22.04. I admit there is a way to use TinyTeX but its too complicated and using flatpak and snap consumes enormous storage, and this is a problem if I want to make a remastered iso file.

I think extra efford can be made to provide a .deb package with TinyTeX included, or provide TinyTex as additional .deb package, also making the configuration take the the provided TinyTex automatically, because currently it needs extra effort and googling to do it.

Regards.

malnaanah commented 5 months ago

I believe that "Open source" developers should look at their software from the perspective of average user if they want their software to be successful, and they should take their comments seriously. I had reported some issues before in addition to this one, and I didn't get confirmation about their implementation. Xournal++ is a great software and I use it heavily in my classes, and I want it to be better. Therefore, I will list my main issues and I hope there will be taken into considerations.

1- When selecting objects such as equations, drawing, text, etc. The space around them is really large and it needs to be minimized. 2- When zooming the paper to fit the screen the spacing around it is large and the red line around the paper is annoying, I think there should be an option to fully fit the paper width to the screen. 3- Installing latex is very complicated and it should work out of the box with minimum storage requirements (regardless of the installation method). Perhaps latex is overpowered for Xournal++ and a simpler utility might be better. 4- Entering latex equation manually is frustrating, there should be a simplified graphical way to enter equation. 5- It is good to have a nicely presented roadmap to show what features will be implemented in future and their priority.

My best regards.

rolandlo commented 5 months ago

About replacing LaTeX: If you prefer to have a simpler utility, note that you can also use Typst in place of LaTeX in Xournal++, see #4755. It's much smaller, easy to install and has simpler syntax. You just can't do as much with it compared to LaTeX. And yes, we need to add out of the box support for it.

By the way, I would not consider someone creating a remastered iso file and thus avoiding the snap package (which is around 134 MB and is close to the limit for Xournal++ combined with a TeX installation) as "average user". The way that TinyTeX can be installed (with a custom list of packages) should be explained better on TinyTeX's website in my opinion. So consider to raise an issue there.

Adding a simplified graphical way to enter equations is probably never going to happen. It would be a lot of work to implement it and be very restricted anyway. Better use a dedicated tool for composing LaTeX formulas in a graphical way.

malnaanah commented 5 months ago

Thank for your feedback, what about reducing space around selected object and having full width filling view?

rolandlo commented 5 months ago

Thank for your feedback, what about reducing space around selected object and having full width filling view?

We'll look into that at some point of time. There have been other issues about the former and some work about the latter. It's not the most pressing thing though as you can see from the other issues there are.

malnaanah commented 5 months ago

Thank you, I am exploring Typst now, it is perfect for my need.