Compile LaTeX paper to professional PDF using Docker + TeX Live (pdflatex, NeurIPS format with Times fonts, booktabs, natbib). Self-contained skill — portable across projects.
Compile a LaTeX paper to professional PDF using Docker + TeX Live + pdflatex. Produces NeurIPS-formatted output with Times fonts, booktabs tables, and natbib bibliography.
Portable: Copy this entire directory to any project. All dependencies (style files, build scripts) are self-contained. Only your content (.tex, .bib, figures) is external.
build-latex-pdf/
skill.md # This file
scripts/
build.sh # Bash build script
build.ps1 # PowerShell build script
references/
neurips_2024.sty # NeurIPS 2024 style file (bundled)
texlive/texlive:latest image (auto-pulled on first run, ~5 GB)# Bash (Git Bash / Linux / macOS)
bash <skill-dir>/scripts/build.sh <input.tex>
# With custom output path
bash <skill-dir>/scripts/build.sh <input.tex> <output.pdf>
# PowerShell
powershell <skill-dir>/scripts/build.ps1 -TexFile <input.tex>
Replace <skill-dir> with the path to this skill directory in your project.
/repo (so relative paths like ../figures/ resolve)/skill (read-only)TEXINPUTS=/skill//: so LaTeX finds the bundled .sty without copyingpdflatex -> bibtex -> pdflatex -> pdflatex recipe.aux, .bbl, .blg, .log, .out)\usepackage[preprint]{neurips_2024} — the style is found automatically via TEXINPUTS\bibliographystyle{plainnat} + \bibliography{references} — BibTeX, with a references.bib in the same directory\graphicspath{{../figures/}} or wherever your figures live (relative to the tex dir)If Docker is unavailable, tectonic (~20 MB binary) can compile the paper. Copy neurips_2024.sty to the tex directory first:
cp <skill-dir>/references/neurips_2024.sty <tex-dir>/
cd <tex-dir> && tectonic paper.tex
Note: tectonic uses XeTeX (Latin Modern fonts), not pdflatex (Times). Output will look slightly different.