diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/templates/latex/latex_base.tplx b/IPython/nbconvert/templates/latex/latex_base.tplx
index 70044ab..0ad51fa 100644
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/templates/latex/latex_base.tplx
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/templates/latex/latex_base.tplx
@@ -43,15 +43,45 @@ This template does not define a docclass, the inheriting class must define this.
     \definecolor{inputbackground}{rgb}{.95, .95, .85}
     \definecolor{outputbackground}{rgb}{.95, .95, .95}
     \definecolor{traceback}{rgb}{1, .95, .95}
-    % new ansi colors
-    \definecolor{brown}{rgb}{0.54,0.27,0.07}
-    \definecolor{purple}{rgb}{0.5,0.0,0.5}
+    % ansi colors
+    \definecolor{red}{rgb}{.6,0,0}
+    \definecolor{green}{rgb}{0,.65,0}
+    \definecolor{brown}{rgb}{0.6,0.6,0}
+    \definecolor{blue}{rgb}{0,.145,.698}
+    \definecolor{purple}{rgb}{.698,.145,.698}
+    \definecolor{cyan}{rgb}{0,.698,.698}
+    \definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.5}
+    
+    % bright ansi colors
     \definecolor{darkgray}{gray}{0.25}
     \definecolor{lightred}{rgb}{1.0,0.39,0.28}
     \definecolor{lightgreen}{rgb}{0.48,0.99,0.0}
     \definecolor{lightblue}{rgb}{0.53,0.81,0.92}
     \definecolor{lightpurple}{rgb}{0.87,0.63,0.87}
     \definecolor{lightcyan}{rgb}{0.5,1.0,0.83}
+    
+    % commands and environments needed by pandoc snippets
+    % extracted from the output of `pandoc -s`
+    
+    \DefineShortVerb[commandchars=\\\{\}]{\|}
+    \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{Highlighting}{Verbatim}{commandchars=\\\{\}}
+    % Add ',fontsize=\small' for more characters per line
+    \newenvironment{Shaded}{}{}
+    \newcommand{\KeywordTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.00,0.44,0.13}{\textbf{{#1}}}}
+    \newcommand{\DataTypeTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.56,0.13,0.00}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\DecValTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.25,0.63,0.44}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\BaseNTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.25,0.63,0.44}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\FloatTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.25,0.63,0.44}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\CharTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.25,0.44,0.63}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\StringTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.25,0.44,0.63}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\CommentTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.38,0.63,0.69}{\textit{{#1}}}}
+    \newcommand{\OtherTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.00,0.44,0.13}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\AlertTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{1.00,0.00,0.00}{\textbf{{#1}}}}
+    \newcommand{\FunctionTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{0.02,0.16,0.49}{{#1}}}
+    \newcommand{\RegionMarkerTok}[1]{{#1}}
+    \newcommand{\ErrorTok}[1]{\textcolor[rgb]{1.00,0.00,0.00}{\textbf{{#1}}}}
+    \newcommand{\NormalTok}[1]{{#1}}
+    
     % Define a nice break command that doesn't care if a line doesn't already
     % exist.
     \def\br{\hspace*{\fill} \\* }