diff --git a/src/backends/pgfplots.jl b/src/backends/pgfplots.jl
index 0eb97fd8..b42e8629 100644
--- a/src/backends/pgfplots.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pgfplots.jl
@@ -314,12 +314,18 @@ function _show(io::IO, mime::MIME"application/pdf", plt::Plot{PGFPlotsBackend})
     PGFPlots.save(PGFPlots.PDF(fn), pgfplt)
 
     # read it into io
-    write(io, readall(open(fn)))
+    write(io, readstring(open(fn)))
 
     # cleanup
     PGFPlots.cleanup(plt.o)
 end
 
+function _show(io::IO, mime::MIME"application/x-tex", plt::Plot{PGFPlotsBackend})
+    fn = tempname()*".tex"
+    PGFPlots.save(fn, backend_object(plt), include_preamble=false)
+    write(io, readstring(open(fn)))
+end
+
 function _display(plt::Plot{PGFPlotsBackend})
     # prepare the object
     pgfplt = PGFPlots.plot(plt.o)
diff --git a/src/output.jl b/src/output.jl
index ff4a1def..ee9972ab 100644
--- a/src/output.jl
+++ b/src/output.jl
@@ -154,6 +154,7 @@ const _mimeformats = Dict(
     "application/postscript"  => "ps",
     "image/svg+xml"           => "svg",
     "text/plain"              => "txt",
+    "application/x-tex"       => "tex",
 )
 
 const _best_html_output_type = KW(