add kable_as_image; don't use this feature
diff --git a/R/column_spec.R b/R/column_spec.R
index 3af165b..1702f2d 100644
--- a/R/column_spec.R
+++ b/R/column_spec.R
@@ -135,9 +135,6 @@
     message("Usually it is recommended to use column_spec before collapse_rows,",
             " especially in LaTeX, to get a desired result. ")
   }
-  if (!is.null(background)) {
-    warning("Column background color for LaTeX has not yet been implemented.")
-  }
   align_collapse <- ifelse(table_info$booktabs, "", "\\|")
   kable_align_old <- paste(table_info$align_vector, collapse = align_collapse)
 
diff --git a/R/kableExtra-package.R b/R/kableExtra-package.R
index 4690022..2664c4d 100644
--- a/R/kableExtra-package.R
+++ b/R/kableExtra-package.R
@@ -61,11 +61,12 @@
 #' xml_child xml_children xml_name xml_add_sibling xml_add_child xml_text
 #' xml_remove write_xml xml_text<-
 #' @importFrom rvest html_table
-#' @importFrom knitr knit_meta_add
+#' @importFrom knitr knit_meta_add include_graphics
 #' @importFrom rmarkdown latex_dependency
 #' @importFrom magrittr %>%
 #' @importFrom utils read.csv
-#' @importFrom readr read_lines read_file
+#' @importFrom readr read_lines read_file write_file
+#' @import magick
 #' @name kableExtra-package
 #' @aliases kableExtra
 #' @docType package
diff --git a/R/tex2image.R b/R/tex2image.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ce27cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/tex2image.R
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#' @export
+kable_as_image_latex <- function(kable_input, width = NULL,
+                                 latex_header_includes = NULL,
+                                 keep_pdf = FALSE) {
+  temp_tex <- c(
+    "\\documentclass[border=1mm, preview]{standalone}",
+    "\\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}",
+    "\\usepackage{varwidth}",
+    "\\usepackage{booktabs}",
+    "\\usepackage{longtable}",
+    "\\usepackage{array}",
+    "\\usepackage{multirow}",
+    "\\usepackage[table]{xcolor}",
+    "\\usepackage{wrapfig}",
+    "\\usepackage{colortbl}",
+    "\\usepackage{graphicx}",
+    latex_header_includes,
+    "\\begin{document}",
+    as.character(kable_input),
+    "\\end{document}"
+  )
+  temp_tex <- paste(temp_tex, collapse = "\n")
+  temp_file <- paste0("table_", format(Sys.time(), "%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S"))
+  write_file(temp_tex, paste0(temp_file, ".tex"))
+  system(paste0("xelatex -interaction=batchmode ", temp_file, ".tex"))
+  temp_file_delete <- paste0(temp_file, c(".tex", ".aux", ".log"))
+  unlink(temp_file_delete)
+
+  table_img_pdf <- image_read(paste0(temp_file, ".pdf"), density = 300)
+  if (!keep_pdf) {
+    unlink(paste0(temp_file, ".pdf"))
+  }
+  table_img <- image_convert(table_img_pdf, "png")
+  if (!is.null(width)) {
+    table_img <- image_scale(table_img, as.character(300*width))
+  }
+  temp_img <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
+  image_write(table_img, temp_img)
+
+  include_graphics(temp_img)
+}