Math equations on the web

Question

How can I render Math equations on the web? I am already familiar with LaTeX\'s Math mode.

Answer 1

The jsMath package is another option that uses LaTeX markup and native fonts. Quoting from their webpage http://www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/:

The jsMath package provides a method of including mathematics in HTML pages that works across multiple browsers under Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux and other flavors of unix. It overcomes a number of the shortcomings of the traditional method of using images to represent mathematics: jsMath uses native fonts, so they resize when you change the size of the text in your browser, they print at the full resolution of your printer, and you don't have to wait for dozens of images to be downloaded in order to see the mathematics in a web page. There are also advantages for web-page authors, as there is no need to preprocess your web pages to generate any images, and the mathematics is entered in TeX form, so it is easy to create and maintain your web pages.

See for example this page or that one.

Answer 2

I've written an open source javascript module to do this, named jqmath. See http://mathscribe.com/author/jqmath.html. You type equations in a simplified TeX-like syntax, and jqmath converts them to MathML or simple HTML and CSS, depending on the browser. This is more efficient and accessible than using images.

By the way, some of the summaries and notes mentioned in the other answers here are pretty outdated now. Also, Firefox supports MathML now, and webkit (Chrome and Safari) have it in their nightly builds, though they haven't released it yet. Internet Explorer renders MathML if you have the MathPlayer plugin. Opera fakes MathML with a stylesheet. MathML is part of the HTML 5 standard, so presumably all these browsers will natively support it sooner rather than later. It's true that until then, jqmath's output will not look as good as TeX's, but it's certainly readable, and is definitely a better solution for web pages going forward.

Answer 3

There is a little Mac App called LatexIt that makes it very easy to convert LaTeX equations to PDF, PNGs etc.

(I use it to create equations for my slides in Keynote or PowerPoint. It's very nice, with drag 'n drop support, so you can just 'drag' the equations anywhere to insert them.)

Answer 4

I've used ASCIIMathML for this in the past. It's essentially a JavaScript library and can use a plugin in IE to optimize performance, but also works without it in IE & Firefox/Mozilla (although a bit slower). The syntax supports a subset of LaTeX, but the differences cause some confusion, so it may confuse your users, depending on where they are coming from.

Here are some links so you can check it out yourself:

• ASCIIMathML
• ASCIIMath Tutorial

Not perfect and doesn't work in all browsers (Safari, etc) but it's something that works today at least, albeit in a somewhat selective subset of the web.

Answer 5

The other answers are out-of-date. As of 2012, beautiful math is easy to write and render. The technology is called MathJax. You can see it in quiet action on MathOverflow and hundreds of math blogs.

MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers. No more setup for readers. No more browser plugins. No more font installations… It just works.

Mathjax is reliable and unobtrusive, so you just need to write the math. You do so in Tex (Latex), a concise syntax with which most scientists and mathematicians are familiar (and have shared decades of good tutorials). For Mathjax, you simply write Tex code in-line in your HTML between double dollar signs, eg.

When $$a \ne 0$$, there are two solutions to $$ax^2 + bx + c = 0$$ and they are $$x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}.$$

To use Mathjax to render your math, put a Javascript line in your HTML header:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js"></script>

If you publish on a platform such as Wordpress, Tumblr or Blogger there are plug-ins in their galleries to do this (Wordpress).

How does Mathjax render math? With Javascript it renders your math to beautiful HTML and CSS (remarkably resembling Latex) in a fraction of a second. If a browser supports MathML, it can render math through that too, but that's not important. It's a popular success because the end-user workflow is easy, not because of the technology behind it.

You can choose to use Mathjax (over png images) on Wikipedia if you have an account. Look for Special:Preferences / Appearance.

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MathML is ridiculous. It's neither human-readable nor human-writable (the quadratic equation takes 800 characters - it's 50 in Tex). It's just another pointless XML language . Thankfully, it's obsolete before most browsers support it. It doesn't even look as good as Tex or Mathjax's HTML-CSS!

Answer 6

You can do more math directly in HTML than most people realize. See these notes.

The only safe way to render LaTeX is to save the output as an image. Some sites try to use tools to do this on the fly, and they never work reliably. For example, on some blogs, this works if you visit the web page directly but not if you go through Feedburner/Google Reader.

I've had terrible experience with MathML browser support, both in Firefox and IE. Don't even try it. Not yet. Maybe in a few years.

Here's the site I use to compile LaTeX to gifs.

If you're willing to use PDF instead of HTML, things get much easier. Just create your LaTeX document and use pdflatex to compile it to PDF. If you do go the PDF route, you may be interested in how to include PDF properties such as author, keywords, etc. in your LaTeX file. Also, this page explains how to mark up the LaTeX to make links in your PDF.