Added an option to disable syntax highlighting in code blocks. Simply add the -p or --plain_output tag to the command. This is a fix for issue #21

converters/base.py

@@ -90,8 +90,9 b' class Converter(object):'
     # they have specific requirements.
     display_data_priority = ['pdf', 'svg', 'png', 'jpg', 'text']
 
-    def __init__(self, infile):
+    def __init__(self, infile, highlight):
         self.infile = infile
+        self.highlight = highlight
         self.infile_dir, infile_root = os.path.split(infile)
         infile_root = os.path.splitext(infile_root)[0]
         self.clean_name = clean_filename(infile_root)

converters/html.py

@@ -102,7 +102,7 b' class ConverterHTML(Converter):'
             '<div class="prompt input_prompt">In&nbsp;[%s]:</div>' % n
         )
         lines.append('<div class="input_area box-flex1">')
-        lines.append(highlight(cell.input))
+        lines.append(highlight(cell.input) if self.highlight else cell.input)
         lines.append('</div>')  # input_area
         lines.append('</div>')  # input
 

nbconvert.py

@@ -45,7 +45,7 b' known_formats = \', \'.join([key + " (default)" if key == default_format else key'
                            for key in converters])
 
 
-def main(infile, format='rst', preamble=None, exclude=None):
+def main(infile, highlight, format='rst', preamble=None, exclude=None):
     """Convert a notebook to html in one step"""
     try:
         ConverterClass = converters[format]
@@ -53,7 +53,7 b" def main(infile, format='rst', preamble=None, exclude=None):"
         raise SystemExit("Unknown format '%s', " % format +
                          "known formats are: " + known_formats)
 
-    converter = ConverterClass(infile)
+    converter = ConverterClass(infile, highlight)
     converter.render()
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -77,9 +77,10 b" if __name__ == '__main__':"
                         help='Path to a user-specified preamble file')
     parser.add_argument('-e', '--exclude', default='',
                         help='Comma-separated list of cells to exclude')
-
+    parser.add_argument('-p', '--plain_output', action='store_false',
+                        help='Plain output which will contain no syntax highlighting.')
     args = parser.parse_args()
     exclude_cells = [s.strip() for s in args.exclude.split(',')]
         
-    main(infile=args.infile[0], format=args.format,
-         preamble=args.preamble, exclude=exclude_cells)
+    main(infile=args.infile[0], highlight=args.plain_output,
+         format=args.format, preamble=args.preamble, exclude=exclude_cells)