Decision Workspace
spandex vs oak-tex vs tectonic
Side-by-side comparison of Rust crates
36
spandex
growingv0.0.4
A modern LaTeX alternative
59
oak-tex
experimentalv0.0.10
TeX/LaTeX document preparation system parser with support for typesetting commands and macros.
52
tectonic
growingv0.15.0
A modernized, complete, embeddable TeX/LaTeX engine. Tectonic is forked from the XeTeX extension to the classic “Web2C” implementation of TeX and uses the TeXLive distribution of support files.
Core Metrics
| spandex | oak-tex | tectonic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Health Score | 36 | 59 | 52 |
| Total Downloads | 8.1K | 297 | 172.5K |
| 30d Downloads | 7 | 67 | 2.7K |
| Dependents | 0 | 0 | 144 |
| Releases | 5 | 10 | 46 |
| Last Updated | 2316d ago | 4d ago | 782d ago |
| Age | 6y 10m | 5m | 9y |
Health Breakdown
spandex
Maintenance
3
Quality
10
Community
6
Popularity
5
Documentation
12
oak-tex
Maintenance
19
Quality
14
Community
10
Popularity
3
Documentation
13
tectonic
Maintenance
6
Quality
12
Community
16
Popularity
6
Documentation
12
Technical Details
| spandex | oak-tex | tectonic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Version | 0.0.4 | 0.0.10 | 0.15.0 |
| Stable (≥1.0) | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| License | MPL-2.0 | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Dependencies | 9 | 11 | 41 |
| Crate Size | 3.6MB | 37KB | 1.4MB |
| Features | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Yanked % | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Edition | 2018 | 2024 | 2018 |
| MSRV | — | — | — |
| Owners | 1 | 2 (team) | 3 |
Links
Quick Verdict
- •oak-tex leads with a health score of 59/100, but none of the options score above 80.
- •tectonic has the most downloads (172.5K), suggesting wider adoption.
- •tectonic is depended on by 144 crates — strongest ecosystem trust.
- •⚠ spandex, tectonic have not been updated in over a year.