LaTeX: VS Code instead of TeXstudio – step-by-step

Step-by-step LaTeX setup in VS Code: installing TeX Live, configuring LaTeX Workshop with latexmk, enabling PDF preview and SyncTeX, and organizing the build directory with Git.

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By Marcin Szewczyk
5 min read
LaTeX: VS Code instead of TeXstudio – step-by-step

In TeXstudio, I wrote, typeset, and prepared the graphics for the book Analytical Methods in Calculations of Switching Processes in Power Systems, published by OWPW in 2024.

For this blog, I moved my workflow from TeXstudio to VS Code VS Code to work in a single environment covering Markdown, HTML, CSS, Python, C++, Git, and LaTeX. Future books will likely be prepared here as well.

LaTeX document is a text file that describes structure and typesetting using commands and environments. It is compiled into output formats such as PDF.

There are several ways to create LaTeX documents:

  • Overleaf is a cloud-based solution – convenient for collaborative work and submitting articles directly to publishers, but dependent on a web browser.
  • TeXstudio is a classic, dedicated IDE designed exclusively for working with LaTeX.
  • VS Code is a powerful general-purpose editor, extensible via extensions. With proper configuration, it can serve as a full LaTeX environment and replace TeXstudio, while integrating with GitHub at the same time.

Below is a step-by-step configuration of LaTeX in VS Code.

Installing LaTeX

VS Code is “only” an editor. Compilation requires a LaTeX distribution.

I use the full TeX Live distribution, available at: https://www.tug.org/texlive/

To verify the installation in the VS Code terminal (`Ctrl + ``):

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pdflatex --version
latexmk --version

If the commands return version numbers, LaTeX is installed correctly (in my case: TeX Live 2025).

Where:

  • pdflatex is the engine that compiles LaTeX documents directly to PDF
  • latexmk is an automation tool that runs the required programs (e.g., pdflatex, biber) as many times as needed to generate the document

Installing the LaTeX Workshop Extension

In VS Code:

  1. Ctrl + Shift + X or click the Extensions icon in the sidebar\
  2. Search for: LaTeX Workshop (James Yu)\
  3. Install

This extension provides:

  • LaTeX-to-PDF compilation\
  • built-in PDF viewer\
  • SyncTeX (synchronization between source code and PDF)\
  • bibliography support (BibTeX / biber)\
  • built-in LaTeX environment templates (snippets)\
  • command and environment auto-completion

Setting a Build Shortcut

VS Code has its own project build mechanism (“Run Build Task”), independent of LaTeX Workshop.

The default build shortcut may trigger that mechanism instead of: LaTeX Workshop: Build LaTeX project.

To ensure compilation uses LaTeX Workshop, assign a shortcut directly to this command.

Set a custom shortcut:

  1. Ctrl + K, Ctrl + S\

  2. Search for:
    LaTeX Workshop: Build LaTeX project\

  3. Assign, for example:

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    Ctrl + Alt + B

  4. Remove the shortcut assigned to:

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    Run Build Task

From now on, Ctrl + Alt + B triggers compilation via LaTeX Workshop.

Setting latexmk as the Default Compilation Method

We now set latexmk as the default compilation method used by LaTeX Workshop: Build LaTeX project.

Open:

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Ctrl + Shift + P
→ Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)

Add:

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{
    "latex-workshop.latex.recipe.default": "latexmk",
    "latex-workshop.latex.autoBuild.run": "onSave"
}

If the .json file already contains other settings, add only these internal lines (preserving JSON commas).

What does this provide?

  • uses latexmk\
  • automatically detects bibliography and multiple compilation passes\
  • compiles on save (Ctrl+S)

PDF Preview in VS Code

In Settings set:

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latex-workshop.view.pdf.viewer → tab

The PDF opens as a tab in VS Code.

To reopen the PDF tab after closing it:
Ctrl + Shift + P, then LaTeX Workshop: View LaTeX PDF file.

Bidirectional Synchronization (SyncTeX)

Code → PDF

Press Ctrl + Shift + P and type:

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LaTeX Workshop: SyncTeX from cursor

PDF → Code

In the PDF preview:

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Ctrl + click

The editor jumps to the corresponding location in the source file.

Separate build Directory

To avoid cluttering the project directory with auxiliary compilation files, you can define a separate output directory.

How to configure it

In settings.json
(Ctrl + Shift + P → Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)) add:

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"latex-workshop.latex.outDir": "%DIR%/build"

This means:

  • %DIR% – the directory containing the current .tex file\
  • build – a subdirectory where auxiliary files will be stored

After compilation, files such as .aux, .log, .fls, .synctex.gz will be placed in build/.

build Directory and Git

The build/ directory contains intermediate files generated by latexmk:

  • .aux\
  • .log\
  • .fls\
  • .fdb_latexmk\
  • .synctex.gz

These are compilation artifacts, not source files.

For this reason, build/ should not be versioned in Git.

Add to .gitignore:

    build/

The repository will then contain only:

  • .tex files\
  • bibliography files\
  • graphics\
  • optionally the final PDF (if intended for publication)

PDF in the Root Directory

If the PDF file is to be versioned in the repository, you can compile into build/ and then copy the generated PDF from build/ to the project root.

Create a file named latexmkrc in the project directory (next to the .tex file) with the following content:

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$out_dir = 'build';
$pdf_mode = 1;
$success_cmd = 'cp build/%R.pdf %R.pdf';

On Windows (cmd / PowerShell), replace cp with copy and use Windows path separators:

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$out_dir = 'build';
$pdf_mode = 1;
$success_cmd = 'copy build\\%R.pdf %R.pdf';

After each successful compilation, the PDF will be copied from build/ to the project root.

The repository will therefore contain the sources and a copy of the final PDF, while build/ remains a technical directory and is not versioned in GitHub.

Final Result

After configuration:

  • Ctrl+S → automatic compilation, Ctrl+Alt+B → manual build\
  • PDF in a VS Code tab\
  • latexmk automatically performs required compilation passes\
  • SyncTeX works in both directions

This setup allows working within a single VS Code environment for code, documentation, and Git repositories.

Summary

The configuration comes down to:

  1. TeX Live – installation from https://www.tug.org/texlive/ (MiKTeX is also possible)\
  2. LaTeX Workshop – installing the extension from the VS Code Marketplace\
  3. Configuring latexmk in settings.json

And that’s it.

LaTeX
latex vscode texstudio overleaf workflow setup
© Marcin Szewczyk. All rights reserved.