Install hevea with Homebrew, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• bibhva
• esponja
• hacha
• hevea
• imagen

Project history

The official home page describes HEVEA as a quite complete and fast LaTeX-to-HTML translator written in Objective Caml. The README says it accepts a fairly complete subset of LaTeX2e, understands LaTeX macro definitions, lets users customize output by writing LaTeX code, and can translate large manuals or books quickly.

HEVEA's source distribution history predates the GitHub mirror. The Inria distribution directory preserves version 1.99 artifacts from August 30, 2012, and the old-version index shows the 2.00 series beginning in January 2013. The GitHub repository was created on May 7, 2018 as a public source-control home for continued development.

The CHANGES file records a long evolution: version 1.99 was the last release targeting HTML 4.0 output, version 2.00 moved to HTML 5.0 output, version 2.29 added MathJax support, version 2.36 added OCaml 5.0 compatibility, and version 2.38 included Windows adaptation work and numerous fixes.

Adoption history

HEVEA's adoption belongs to the TeX and OCaml worlds: it is useful where authors have LaTeX sources but want navigable, static HTML without running a full browser-side rendering stack. The official site links to examples and a paper describing the use of HEVEA to translate 14 documents by 14 authors.

The home page documents availability through opam, Windows porting, Linux package systems, and MacPorts. The Homebrew package sits in that wider cross-platform packaging trail, alongside Debian, Fedora, Nix, Arch, Ubuntu, and other distribution packages recorded in the input facts.

How it is used

Users run `hevea` on LaTeX input to produce one HTML file, then use `hacha` to cut that output into smaller files when a multi-page HTML manual is desired. The manual also documents `imagen` for handling constructs that need help from LaTeX, `bibhva` for bibliographies, and `esponja` for HTML processing.

HEVEA is highly style-file oriented. Its manual covers standard and additional style files, CSS support, macro customization, raw HTML insertion, alternate text and info outputs, and practical invocation of `hevea`, `hacha`, and `imagen`.

Why package nerds care

HEVEA matters to package nerds because it is a specialized converter with a very Unixy shape: a compiler-like command, companion filters, source distribution, man-page-style documentation, and long distribution life across TeX, OCaml, and OS package ecosystems.

It also represents a different branch of LaTeX-to-web tooling from Pandoc, LaTeXML, lwarp, or TeX4ht. Instead of treating LaTeX mainly as markup to parse into a general document AST, HEVEA leans on an OCaml implementation that understands a large useful subset of LaTeX and emits direct HTML.

Timeline

• 2012-08-30: Inria distribution directory preserved HEVEA 1.99 artifacts and manual files.
• 2013-01-24: Inria old-version index listed HEVEA 2.00, whose CHANGES entry moved output to HTML 5.0.
• 2016: CHANGES recorded MathJax support in the 2.29 series.
• 2018-05-07: `maranget/hevea` GitHub repository creation date recorded by GitHub.
• 2022: CHANGES recorded OCaml 5.0 compatibility in version 2.36.
• 2026-02-05: Inria distribution index listed HEVEA 2.38 artifacts.

Related projects

• HACHA, imagen, bibhva, and esponja are companion tools distributed with HEVEA.
• Related LaTeX-to-web tools include LaTeX2HTML, TeX4ht, LaTeXML, lwarp, and Pandoc, but HEVEA's official sources emphasize its OCaml implementation and LaTeX-macro customization model.

Sources

• CHANGES and Inria distribution indexes for version evolution and dated artifacts.
• GitHub README for implementation, input/output model, and installation notes.
• Inria home page and online manual for purpose, documentation, distribution, and companion tools.