diff --git a/R/header.R b/R/header.R
index 824bb9460a..80b7b2783e 100644
--- a/R/header.R
+++ b/R/header.R
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ make_header_latex = function() {
             opts_knit$get('latex.options.color') %n% ''),
     .header.maxwidth, opts_knit$get('header'),
     if (getOption('OutDec') != '.') '\\usepackage{amsmath}',
-    if (out_format('latex')) '\\usepackage{alltt}'
+    if (out_format('latex')) '\\usepackage{alltt}',
+    if (test_latex_pkg('tikzscale', '', FALSE)) '\\usepackage{tikzscale}'
   ), collapse = '\n')
   if (opts_knit$get('self.contained')) h else {
     writeLines(h, 'knitr.sty')
diff --git a/R/hooks-latex.R b/R/hooks-latex.R
index b3e4fa855e..1b253d0000 100644
--- a/R/hooks-latex.R
+++ b/R/hooks-latex.R
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
   }
 
   tikz = is_tikz_dev(options)
+  tikzscale = test_latex_pkg('tikzscale', '', FALSE) & xor(!is.null(options$out.width), !is.null(options$out.height))
 
   a = options$fig.align
   fig.cur = options$fig.cur %n% 1L
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
 
   # open align code if this picture is standalone/first in set
   align1 = if (plot1)
-    switch(a, left = '\n\n', center = '\n\n{\\centering ', right = '\n\n\\hfill{}', '\n')
+    switch(a, left = '\n\n', center = '\n\n{\\centering ', right = '\n\n\\hfill{}', '%\n')
   # close align code if this picture is standalone/last in set
   align2 = if (plot2)
     switch(a, left = '\\hfill{}\n\n', center = '\n\n}\n\n', right = '\n\n', '')
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
   } else if (pandoc_to(c('latex', 'beamer'))) {
     # use alignment environments for R Markdown latex output (\centering won't work)
     align.env = switch(a, left = 'flushleft', center = 'center', right = 'flushright')
-    align1 = if (plot1) if (a == 'default') '\n' else sprintf('\n\n\\begin{%s}', align.env)
+    align1 = if (plot1) if (a == 'default') '%\n' else sprintf('\n\n\\begin{%s}', align.env)
     align2 = if (plot2) if (a == 'default') '' else sprintf('\\end{%s}\n\n', align.env)
   }
 
@@ -139,9 +140,9 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
 
   paste(
     fig1, align1, sub1, resize1,
-    if (tikz) {
+    if (tikz && !tikzscale) {
       sprintf('\\input{%s}', x)
-    } else if (animate) {
+    } else if (!tikz && animate) {
       # \animategraphics{} should be inserted only *once*!
       aniopts = options$aniopts
       aniopts = if (is.na(aniopts)) NULL else gsub(';', ',', aniopts)
@@ -151,7 +152,7 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
               sub(sprintf('%d$', fig.num), '', sans_ext(x)), 1L, fig.num)
     } else {
       if (nzchar(size)) size = sprintf('[%s]', size)
-      sprintf('\\includegraphics%s{%s} ', size, sans_ext(x))
+      sprintf('\\includegraphics%s{%s} ', size, x)
     },
 
     resize2, sub2, align2, fig2,
@@ -167,7 +168,7 @@ hook_plot_tex = function(x, options) {
   k2 = '\\end{kframe}'
   x = .rm.empty.envir(paste(k1, x, k2, sep = ''))
   size = if (options$size == 'normalsize') '' else sprintf('\\%s', options$size)
-  if (!ai) x = sprintf('\\begin{knitrout}%s\n%s\n\\end{knitrout}', size, x)
+  if (!ai) x = sprintf('\\begin{knitrout}%s%%\n%s%%\n\\end{knitrout}%%', size, x)
   if (options$split) {
     name = fig_path('.tex', options, NULL)
     if (!file.exists(dirname(name)))
@@ -267,7 +268,7 @@ render_latex = function() {
     inline = .inline.hook.tex, chunk = .chunk.hook.tex,
     plot = function(x, options) {
       # escape plot environments from kframe
-      paste('\\end{kframe}', hook_plot_tex(x, options), '\n\\begin{kframe}', sep = '')
+      paste('\\end{kframe}', hook_plot_tex(x, options), '%\n\\begin{kframe}', sep = '')
     }
   )
 }
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index f2f6e68d58..ba2ea4aa7f 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -273,11 +273,20 @@ eval_lang = function(x, envir = knit_global()) {
 isFALSE = function(x) identical(x, FALSE)
 
 # check latex packages; if not exist, copy them over to ./
-test_latex_pkg = function(name, path) {
+test_latex_pkg = function(name, path, copy=TRUE) {
   res = try_silent(system(sprintf('%s %s.sty', kpsewhich(), name), intern = TRUE))
   if (inherits(res, 'try-error') || !length(res)) {
-    warning("unable to find LaTeX package '", name, "'; will use a copy from knitr")
-    file.copy(path, '.')
+    args <- list("unable to find LaTeX package '", name, "'")
+    if (copy) {
+      args <- c(args, "; will use a copy from knitr")
+    }
+    do.call(warning, args)
+    if (copy) {
+      file.copy(path, '.')
+    }
+    FALSE
+  } else {
+    TRUE
   }
 }