Modern LaTeX Invoice Generator Kit

Generate pixel-perfect invoices with LaTeX templates. Customizable, PDF-ready, and built for freelancers who care about presentation.

Stack

• Next.js 16 — Server actions + API routes for LaTeX compilation.
• LaTeX — Unmatched typographic precision for professional documents.
• Node.js — Server-side PDF generation with child_process.

Features

• Professional LaTeX templates — Clean, customizable invoice templates with proper typography and spacing.
• PDF generation — Compile LaTeX to PDF on-demand. Download or email directly to clients.
• Invoice history — Store invoice metadata, track payments, and re-generate past invoices.

Install

npx create-bitroot@latest my-invoices --kit latex-invoice-kit
cd my-invoices
cp .env.example .env.local
npm run dev

Environment

NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=http://localhost:3000
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/invoices
LATEX_BIN=/usr/bin/pdflatex

Walkthrough

1. Install LaTeX distribution

Install TeX Live (Linux/macOS) or MiKTeX (Windows). Verify pdflatex is in your PATH.

# macOS
brew install --cask mactex

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install texlive-full

# Verify
pdflatex --version

2. Configure database

Point DATABASE_URL to your Postgres instance. Run migrations to create the invoices table.

npm run db:migrate

3. Customize templates

Edit templates in /latex/templates/. Variables use \VAR{} syntax. Change logo, colors, and layout to match your brand.

Gotchas

• LaTeX compilation can fail silently — check logs in /tmp/ if PDFs don't generate.
• Special characters ($, &, %) must be escaped in invoice line items.
• Large LaTeX installations (3+ GB) — use a minimal scheme if disk space is tight.

Why not just build it yourself?

If you need real-time collaborative editing or WYSIWYG, LaTeX is overkill. This kit is for developers who want programmatic control over document layout.

Links

GitHub

License: MIT