LaTeX package reference for Scissor LaTeX

Most documents load their packages without errors. Math (amsmath, amssymb, bm), pgfplots and TikZ, graphics, tables, citations and code listings work fully or in large part; layout packages such as geometry and fancyhdr, siunitx and physics do not work yet. Each package page says exactly what works.

How to read these pages

Each page covers one package (or a few that belong together) in the same order: what the package does, a table of its commands with what happens here, rendered examples, and what to expect when you move a document between Scissor LaTeX and a TeX installation. The words in the tables mean:

Scissor LaTeX does not run package code. It reads your document with its own engine, so support is decided command by command, not package by package. A document that loads a package it does not support still typesets.

The packages at a glance

A typical preamble

A preamble with many common packages typesets as it is. The packages that have no effect here are simply accepted, and the document compiles unchanged in a TeX installation:

A typical preamble, accepted as it is

LaTeXCopyOpen in editor (opens in a new tab)

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,bm}
\usepackage{graphicx,booktabs}
\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{xcolor,hyperref}
\usepackage{microtype}
\begin{document}
\section{Results}
Erika Mustermann measured 44 samples. The mean
$\bar{x} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_i$ and the vector
$\bm{v} \in \mathbb{R}^3$ are typeset as usual.
\end{document}

All package pages

• amsmath in Scissor LaTeXThe amsmath package works in Scissor LaTeX: align and gather number every row, and \tag, \intertext, subequations, \numberwithin, \genfrac, split, cases, the matrix environments and \DeclareMathOperator work as in LaTeX.
• amssymb and amsfonts in Scissor LaTeXThe amssymb and amsfonts packages work in Scissor LaTeX with one exception: \mathbb, \mathfrak and the extra relations, arrows, circled operators and shapes work; only \Bbbk shows a red formula, so write \mathbb{k} instead.
• amsthm in Scissor LaTeXThe amsthm package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: \newtheorem, the starred \newtheorem*, optional notes such as [Mustermann] and the proof environment work, while \theoremstyle, shared or per-section counters, proof titles and \qedhere are not applied.
• mathtools in Scissor LaTeXThe mathtools package works in Scissor LaTeX: \DeclarePairedDelimiter, the colon relations such as \coloneqq, dcases, cases*, the starred matrices, \prescript and \shortintertext work; \splitfrac, multlined and a few rarer commands show a red formula.
• bm (bold math) in Scissor LaTeXThe bm package works in Scissor LaTeX: \bm{...} makes Latin letters, Greek letters and symbols such as \nabla bold, and \boldsymbol from amsmath does the same.
• cancel in Scissor LaTeXThe cancel package mostly works in Scissor LaTeX: \cancel, \bcancel and \xcancel work in formulas, while \cancelto is not supported and shows a red formula.
• mathrsfs, bbm and nicefrac in Scissor LaTeXYes. \mathscr (mathrsfs) gives script capitals, \mathbbm (bbm) and \mathds (dsfont) give double-struck letters such as the indicator 𝟙, and \nicefrac (nicefrac) and \sfrac (xfrac) give slanted fractions, in formulas and in text.
• physics package in Scissor LaTeXThe physics package does not work in Scissor LaTeX: commands from physics such as \abs, \norm, \dv, \pdv, \qty, \vb and \grad are unknown, so every formula that uses one is shown in red; define the few you need with \newcommand, or write them out.
• siunitx in Scissor LaTeXThe siunitx package does not work in Scissor LaTeX. \SI, \si, \qty, \unit and \num are unknown: in text the number stays but the unit disappears (with a Problems note), and in a formula the whole formula turns red; write units with \mathrm and a thin space \, instead.
• textcomp, gensymb, eurosym and latexsym in Scissor LaTeXMostly. The common textcomp symbols such as \textdegree, \texteuro, \textcelsius, \textmu and \textonehalf work, along with \euro and \EUR from eurosym and the latexsym math symbols except \Box; gensymb's \degree works only in formulas, and rarer symbols such as \textohm or \textnumero are skipped, so type the Unicode character instead.
• booktabs in Scissor LaTeXThe booktabs package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: \toprule, \midrule and \bottomrule work, while \cmidrule and \addlinespace are accepted but left out, and all rules have the same thickness.
• multirow in Scissor LaTeXThe multirow package works partly in Scissor LaTeX. \multirow{2}{*}{text} is accepted and its text appears, but the cell does not span the rows: the text sits in the first row and the rows below keep their empty cells.
• array, tabularx, longtable and tabulary in Scissor LaTeXThe array and tabularx packages and their relatives work partly in Scissor LaTeX: tabularx, tabulary, longtable and xltabular tables typeset like tabular, and long cells wrap when the table would be wider than the line; column widths (p{3cm}, X, the table width) and >{...}/<{...} code are ignored, \newcolumntype is unknown, and longtable headers do not repeat.
• graphicx and \includegraphics in Scissor LaTeXThe graphicx package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: \includegraphics shows PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF files from your project and reads width=; height, scale, angle, trim and clip are ignored, \rotatebox does not rotate, and \scalebox and \resizebox only resize a TikZ picture.
• caption and subcaption in Scissor LaTeXThe caption and subcaption packages work partly in Scissor LaTeX: \caption in figure and table works, \captionsetup is ignored, \captionof prints its text without a number, \caption* still gets a number, and subfigure/subtable count as separate figures, so numbers go wrong; put all parts in one figure with one caption instead.
• float, wrapfig and rotating in Scissor LaTeXThe float, wrapfig and rotating packages work partly in Scissor LaTeX: [H] from float keeps a figure exactly where you wrote it, while wrapfigure and wraptable become normal centred floats without text flowing around them, sidewaysfigure and sidewaystable are not rotated, and \newfloat and \restylefloat are unknown.
• placeins, afterpage and endfloat in Scissor LaTeXplaceins is accepted and \FloatBarrier does nothing, which is fine in ordinary documents because Scissor LaTeX keeps every figure and table where you write it. \afterpage is skipped with a note and its content runs at once, so \afterpage{\clearpage} breaks the page right there, and endfloat does not move floats to the end.
• xcolor in Scissor LaTeXThe xcolor package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: colours work in TikZ and pgfplots pictures (all base names, dvipsnames, mixes such as red!50!blue, \definecolor and \colorlet) and in formulas (17 basic names), but \textcolor, \color and \colorbox leave body text in black.
• hyperref and url in Scissor LaTeXThe hyperref and url packages mostly work in Scissor LaTeX: \href, \url, \hyperref[label]{text}, \autoref and \nameref work, while \hypersetup options such as link colours and PDF metadata are ignored and \nolinkurl is unknown.
• cleveref, nameref and varioref in Scissor LaTeXThe cleveref package mostly works in Scissor LaTeX: \cref and \Cref work with single labels, lists and ranges, along with \cpageref, \namecref, the options capitalise, noabbrev and nameinlink, and \crefname; \nameref prints a number instead of a title, and \vref gives no page hint.
• url, xurl and breakurl in Scissor LaTeXMostly. \url{...} prints a clickable address that breaks at the end of a line, after / and similar characters or, when there is no such place, between letters, which is what xurl adds; \path{...} prints a monospaced path. \urlstyle is ignored, and \url|...|, \urldef, \nolinkurl and breakurl's \burl are not supported.
• ulem and soul in Scissor LaTeXPartly. ulem's \uline, \sout and \xout and soul's \st work, and underlined text breaks across lines; \uuline gives a single line, \uwave and soul's \hl keep the text without the effect, and soul's \ul, \so and \caps are skipped with a note while the text stays.
• xspace in Scissor LaTeXNot yet. \usepackage{xspace} is accepted and \xspace causes no error, but it adds no space, so a command such as \tool defined with \xspace runs into the next word; write \tool{} or \tool\ before a space, which works here and in every TeX installation.
• geometry and page margins in Scissor LaTeXThe geometry package works in Scissor LaTeX: \usepackage[...]{geometry} and \geometry{...} in the preamble set the paper (a0paper to a6paper, letterpaper ..., or paperwidth and paperheight), landscape, and the margins and text block (margin, left, textwidth, includehead ...). \newgeometry is ignored, and options that are not applied are named in one note.
• multicol in Scissor LaTeXThe multicol package works mostly in Scissor LaTeX: \begin{multicols}{3} sets its text in three columns (two to six work), the optional heading spans the columns and \columnbreak starts the next column. The columns are filled one after the other instead of balanced, so end them with \columnbreak where you want.
• setspace and line spacing in Scissor LaTeXNot yet. setspace loads without errors, but line spacing cannot be changed: \onehalfspacing, \doublespacing, \singlespacing and \linespread are ignored, the doublespace and onehalfspace environments keep their text at normal spacing, and \begin{spacing}{1.5} prints "1.5" before the text, so leave that environment out.
• enumitem and paralist in Scissor LaTeXThe enumitem and paralist packages work partly in Scissor LaTeX: enumitem's options in brackets (label=, start=, resume, noitemsep) are accepted and ignored, and \newlist and inline lists are not supported; paralist's compactitem, compactenum and compactdesc work like the standard lists.
• Appendices and the appendix package in Scissor LaTeX\appendix works: the sections after it are lettered A, B, C, their subsections A.1, and references and \cref print the letters. The appendix package's appendices environment is not supported, since its sections keep ordinary numbers, and \appendixpage and \addappheadtotoc are skipped; a reference written before \appendix also shows a number instead of the letter.
• natbib in Scissor LaTeXThe natbib package mostly works in Scissor LaTeX: \citet, \citep, \citeyear and the capitalised forms work, and \bibliographystyle{plainnat} or unsrtnat gives author-year citations; package options such as numbers or round and \setcitestyle are ignored, so the style always comes from \bibliographystyle.
• biblatex in Scissor LaTeXThe biblatex package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: \addbibresource, \cite, \parencite, \textcite, \autocite and \printbibliography work, but package options such as style=authoryear are ignored (citations are numbered unless you add \bibliographystyle), \footcite stays inline, and \fullcite and \citetitle are not supported.
• listings in Scissor LaTeXThe listings package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: lstlisting keeps the code exactly as typed and colours it when you give language= on the environment, and \lstinline works; \lstset, line numbers, frames, captions and labels are ignored, and \lstinputlisting is skipped.
• minted in Scissor LaTeXThe minted package works partly in Scissor LaTeX: \begin{minted}{python} and \mintinline work without Python or -shell-escape, with syntax colours from a fixed scheme; options such as linenos, \setminted, \usemintedstyle, the listing caption, \mint and \inputminted are not supported.
• Algorithm packages in Scissor LaTeXThe algorithm packages work partly in Scissor LaTeX: the algorithm environment works with a numbered caption and \label; algorithmic's upper-case commands (\STATE, \FOR) are read only in conference layouts; algpseudocode (\State, \For) and algorithm2e (\KwIn, \For{}{}) are not supported, so put the steps in a verbatim block instead.
• verbatim, comment and fancyvrb in Scissor LaTeXMostly. The verbatim environment, \verb, fancyvrb's Verbatim and BVerbatim print text exactly as typed in a monospaced font, and the comment environment hides its content; fancyvrb's options are ignored, and \verbatiminput, \VerbatimInput, \Verb, \excludecomment, alltt and spverbatim do not work as in a TeX installation.
• pgfplots in Scissor LaTeXThe pgfplots package works in Scissor LaTeX for most 2D plots, drawn by its own renderer: axes, line, scatter and bar plots, formulas, tables and CSV files, log axes, error bars, legends, groupplots, fill between and heat maps seen from above; 3D views, axis equal and pgfplotstable's tables are not supported yet.
• TikZ in Scissor LaTeXThe TikZ package works in Scissor LaTeX for a common subset, which it draws itself: lines, shapes, arcs, curves, grids, nodes with names and anchors, arrows, the positioning library, \foreach, scopes and colours; \matrix, \pic, decorations, patterns, node shapes other than rectangle and circle, and tikz-cd, circuitikz and forest pictures are not supported yet.
• lipsum, blindtext and kantlipsum in Scissor LaTeXYes. \lipsum and \kant print the same paragraphs as the lipsum and kantlipsum packages, with paragraph and sentence ranges, the star and the nopar option; \blindtext, \Blindtext, \blinddocument and the blind lists work too, but with English placeholder text of their own.
• babel and polyglossia in Scissor LaTeXThe babel and polyglossia packages work partly in Scissor LaTeX: both load without errors and text in any language and script typesets from UTF-8, but the language settings are not applied: hyphenation stays English, names such as "Figure" and "References" stay English, \today prints nothing, and shorthands such as "a are not read.
• fontenc, inputenc, fontspec and font packagesinputenc and fontenc are not needed and are accepted without effect, since the source is always read as UTF-8. In ordinary documents, fonts are fixed to Latin Modern and New Computer Modern Math: fontspec's \setmainfont and packages such as times or libertine are ignored, and only a switch to sans serif with \familydefault (optionally with helvet) works.
• Sans-serif fonts in Scissor LaTeXWrite \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault} in the preamble, or start the body with \sffamily; the text is then set in Latin Modern Sans, or in TeX Gyre Heros, a Helvetica look-alike, when helvet or tgheros is loaded. sfmath, sansmath, cmbright and arev put formulas in sans serif too, and KOMA-Script classes set headings in sans serif.
• Packages that need no action in Scissor LaTeXPackages that only matter to a TeX engine, such as inputenc, fontenc, lmodern, fix-cm, bookmark, epstopdf, flafter or showframe, are accepted without a message and need nothing here, because Scissor LaTeX always reads UTF-8, uses OpenType fonts and writes the PDF itself. microtype and font packages such as times are accepted too, but their effect is not applied.
• Packages that do not work in Scissor LaTeXThe document still typesets. A package Scissor LaTeX has never heard of gives a note in the Problems tab; well-known packages it does not implement, such as fancyhdr, titlesec or tcolorbox, are accepted silently and have no effect; and unknown commands are skipped with a message while their text is usually kept.

The full manual of every package is on CTAN, the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network. Each page here links to it.

Every example on this page is typeset by Scissor LaTeX when the site is built. Last updated 2026-11-07.