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Installation

MergDown2TeX installs in 3 simple steps. No build step required.

Prerequisites

Required

  • Obsidian desktop (Electron) v1.0.0 or higher

For PDF/DOCX compilation

  • Podman or Docker (for container management)
  • TeX Live (inside container)
  • Pandoc (inside container)

!!! info "WASM Engine" The conversion from Markdown to LaTeX happens entirely inside Obsidian via WASM. No external tools are needed for this step.

Step 1: Download

Download the latest release from GitHub:

  • GitHub Releases

    Download main.js, manifest.json, vlatex_bg.wasm from the latest release

    Download v1.0.0

Step 2: Copy to Obsidian

Find your vault folder

  1. Open Obsidian
  2. Go to Settings → Files & Links
  3. Note your vault location

Create plugin folder

.obsidian/
└── plugins/
    └── mergdown2tex/    ← Create this folder

Copy files

Copy these 3 files into .obsidian/plugins/mergdown2tex/:

mergdown2tex/
├── main.js          56 KB
├── manifest.json   351 B
└── vlatex_bg.wasm  2.1 MB

!!! warning "File locations" All 3 files must be in the same folder. The WASM binary (vlatex_bg.wasm) must be named exactly this.

Step 3: Enable plugin

  1. Open Obsidian
  2. Go to Settings → Community plugins
  3. Click Turn on community plugins (if not already enabled)
  4. Find MergDown2TeX in the list
  5. Click the toggle to enable it

!!! success "Done!" You should see a notice: "MergDown2TeX (WASM) chargé avec succès !"

Verify installation

Check commands

Open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + P) and type "MergDown2TeX". You should see:

  • MergDown2TeX: Convertir la note active en LaTeX (.tex)
  • MergDown2TeX: Convertir et compiler en PDF
  • MergDown2TeX: Convertir et compiler en DOCX (Word)

Check settings

Go to Settings → Community plugins → MergDown2TeX → Options

You should see the settings panel with all configuration options.

Install compilation environment

For PDF/DOCX compilation

You need to build the LaTeX container:

# Download the Dockerfile from the release
# Or create it manually (see Dockerfile section below)

# Build with Podman
podman build -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

# Or with Docker
docker build -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:24.04

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    curl \
    unzip \
    texlive-latex-base \
    texlive-latex-recommended \
    texlive-latex-extra \
    texlive-fonts-recommended \
    texlive-plain-generic \
    texlive-science \
    texlive-pictures \
    texlive-bibtex-extra \
    biber \
    python3-pygments \
    pandoc \
    && apt-get clean \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

WORKDIR /vault

Verify container

# List images
podman images | grep mergdown2tex-env

# Test container
podman run --rm mergdown2tex-env pdflatex --version

Troubleshooting

Plugin not appearing

  • Ensure all 3 files are in the same folder
  • Check folder name matches manifest.json (mergdown2tex)
  • Restart Obsidian

WASM not loading

  • Check vlatex_bg.wasm file size (should be ~2.1 MB)
  • Ensure file is not corrupted (re-download if needed)
  • Check Obsidian console for errors (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + I)

Container build fails

  • Ensure Podman/Docker is installed and running
  • Check internet connection (downloading packages)
  • Try with --no-cache flag: 
    podman build --no-cache -t mergdown2tex-env -f Dockerfile .

Next steps