How To Fix Manim LaTeX Error Converting To Dvi

When trying to animate math text with Manim using LaTeX, sometimes you can get a ValueEoror saying that it got an “error converting to DVI. See log output above or the log file”.

That’s what happened to me when I first installed Manim.

However, the issue for me was not a faulty Manim or LaTeX installation but my lack of understanding of LaTeX syntax.

Whenever you type math text with LaTeX in Manim add the letter r in front of your text and then inside of quotation marks surround your text with dollar signs.

You can test if this fix works with this code.

from manim import *

class dvi_error(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        t = Tex(r"$y = x^2$")
        t.scale(2)
        self.add(t)
        self.wait()

It should output this:

This fixed the issue for me. You don’t have to type the letter r or the dollar signs if your Tex() command contains only words and no math symbols.

The letter r tells Python to treat your text as an “r-string, ” essentially telling it to ignore backslashes (/) as escape symbols and treat them as normal text.

The dollar signs tell Python that this text is LaTeX math text, not regular text.

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