The main problem is that the latex->dvi invocation is hard-wired in org-create-formula-image-with-dvipng and in addition, when the latex file is created, the value of org-latex-packages-alist is spliced in.
That in itself is fine, except in the case when (for normal latex processing) I choose minted for code prettification. Following the docstring of or-export-latex-listings, I set: (setq org-export-latex-listings 'minted) (add-to-list 'org-latex-packages-alist '("" "minted")) in which case, I end up with a \usepackage{minted} in the preview latex file. But minted requires that latex be invoked with --shell-escape, which cannot be done because the latex->dvi invocation is hardwired. A customizable variable to hold such options could be used, but there might be cleaner ways. For now, I've used the even dirtier approach of hard-wiring the option into the latex->dvi call in the above function: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- ... (call-process "latex" nil nil nil "--shell-escape" texfile)) ... --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- If a customizable variable is added, then the docstring for org-export-latex-listings will need to be modified to mention it. And finally, the same docstring also refers to org-latex.el and org-latex-to-pdf-process, rather than using the 8.x names. If you want to experiment, here is a small file: --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- * Euler \[ e^{i\pi} = -1 \] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- Hit C-c C-x C-l for the preview, C-c C-c to go back. Org-mode version 8.0.2 (release_8.0.2-116-gd54209) GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.10) of 2013-04-09 -- Nick