Show HN: Retex, a Faster LaTeX Engine

On Hacker News

retex is a clean-room, CC0, reimplementation of LuaLaTeX in rust. It can either be used as a faster (x2-3) drop-in replacement for LuaLaTex (--compat mode) , or as a more modern TeX engine, with much nicer error messages, support for SVG, ODP/ODT output, native PDF/X1 and PDF/X4 for printing, auto-download of missing packages (like eg Miktex), python bindings, etc. User manual with examples: https://retex-ef747d.gitlab.io/retex-manual.pdf retex has been entirely generated by a Large Language…

Points: 3
Comments: 0
Submitted by: skadge
Posted: Nov 7, 2026
Site: gitlab.com

Story details from Hacker News ↗ · linked article on gitlab.com.

Trending history

Show HN: Retex, a Faster LaTeX Engine was first seen on Hacker News · Show HN on Nov 7, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 43 checks on 2 different days. Its best position was #18 of 30, reached on Nov 7, 17:20 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 8, 10:20 UTC.

Rank history

Position on Hacker News · Show HN at every check (lower is better).

Last 14 days

Best rank per day (UTC).

18

Oct 26today

Metric history

Platform metric as reported by Hacker News.

Featured in

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Show HN 2 days, best #18

Nov 8 #18 Nov 7 #18 Week 45 November 2026

Questions

Is Show HN: Retex, a Faster LaTeX Engine trending on Show HN right now?

Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 8, 10:20 UTC, after 2 days of trending.

What is the highest rank Show HN: Retex, a Faster LaTeX Engine reached?

#18 on Hacker News · Show HN, on Nov 7, 17:20 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 30 minutes.

How long has Show HN: Retex, a Faster LaTeX Engine been trending?

It was first seen on Nov 7, 2026 and has been on the list on 2 days (43 checks) since.