Your particular problem really calls for for the use of a Templating system, such as Template Toolkit. I just finished an application which takes data out of a database, munges the data, creates some graphs and puts it all in a LaTeX file through the use of a template and then runs pdflatex a few times on it and out comes a beautiful report, complete with table of contents and fully indexed.

Not a difficult problem for Perl and probably don't need to do anything special with LaTeX if you have a good template (ie, example file with proper LaTeX included).

Show what you've got and you could get some help.

Ooops, sorry, I just haven't used perl in a while ... and I realised that this task is easy as pie in perl.

I cannot believe I was doing this semi-manually in vim the other day. I wasted hours of repetitive keying. I've been too long away from perl-land.

I include it for anybody stumbling in (still a bit messy, mind you, only the essentials...)

#!/usr/bin/perl

$fname = shift @ARGV;
open(fi,"<$fname");
@text = <fi>;
close fi;

# First, the header of the latex
print("
\\documentclass{article}
\\usepackage{graphicx}
\\usepackage{fullpage}
\\begin{document}
");

while (@text) {
        $imfile = shift @text;
        chop($imfile);
        print("
        \\section{$imfile}

        \\begin{figure}[!hbp]
        \\centerline{\\includegraphics[width=9cm, height=9cm]{ims/$imf
+ile"."_gd.png}}
        \\end{figure}

        \\begin{figure}[!hbp]
        \\centerline{\\includegraphics[width=12cm, height=9cm]{$imfile
+"."mfm.png}}
        \\end{figure}

        \\newpage

        \n");
}

# And now the tail
print("
\\end{document}
\n");
[download]

I'm glad you found a solution for this problem, especially since it uses perl. Here are just a few suggestions:

1) Since LaTeX has uses backslashes a lot, you can make it easier on yourself by using a 'here'-document with single quotes:

print <<'END';
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\begin{document}
END
[download]

2) Unfortunately, perl's own variable interpolation syntax is disabled when using here-documents within single quotes. On the other hand, writing your own mini-templating system is just a few lines in perl:

sub substitute_vars {
  my ($template, $hash) = @_;
  (my $out = $template) =~ s/\${([^}]+)}/$$hash{$1}/ge;
  $out;
}
[download]

and here's how you could use it (write ${imfile} whenever you want to insert the value of imfile, etc.):

my $template = <<'TEMPLATE_END';
\section{${imfile}}
\begin{figure}[!hbp]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=9cm, height=9cm]{ims/${imfile}_gd.p
+ng}}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[!hbp]
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=12cm, height=9cm]{${imfile}mfm.png}
+}
\end{figure}

\newpage
TEMPLATE_END

for (@text) {
  chomp;
  print substitute_vars($template, { imfile => $_ } );
}
[download]

Of course, once your needs started to get more demanding, I'd consider using an existing templating system.

3) Finally, you can define your own macros in LaTeX with \newcommand. You might try something along the lines of this:

\newcommand{\insert_figures}[1]{
\section{#1}
...
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=9cm, height=9cm]{ims/#1_gd.png}}
...
\centerline{\includegraphics[width=12cm, height=9cm]{#1mfm.png}}
...
\newpage
}
[download]

However, if you have to manipulate the macro arguments, you might find using something you are familiar with (like perl) easier.

I personally believe that others already correctly confirmed your impression that Perl is perfectly apt for the task you're up to and the only thing I may want to add is that while most people either suggested some sort of handrolled template system or -as in the case of CountZero- of a "real" one, Perl and LaTeX can "go very well together" in another sense too: precisely by means of PerlTeX which basically lets you implement LaTeX macros in Perl and may be or not of your interest for this task, but is certainly worth mentioning anyway. (Also because IMHO it's less known than it should deserve to.)

(Apologies for replying so late.)