This is an online, interactive LaTeX editor. The visitor's LaTeX, entered or copied into the editing window below, will be quickly rendered by up to three renderers (in different ways). To learn how this works, I suggest choosing an example from the "LaTeX Examples" drop-down list at the lower left.

Latex Entry Window:

Render Mode: CodeCogs   MathJax   Google Chart   All

Quick Introduction:

• UPDATE 2023.03.18: I recently updated this site's MathJax renderer version and some users have reported their line ending '\\\\' characters don't work as they did before. It turns out this was an intentional change by the MathJax developers to honor correct LaTeX syntax rules.

  To get the same line break behavior as in the prior version, use this form:

  \begin{array}{llll}
  aa \\
  bb \\
  cc \\
  dd \\
  \end{array} 
                

  Other approaches will work, example "\displaylines{x = a + b \\\\ y = b + c}" but the point is that a bare line break isn't correct LaTeX syntax and shouldn't have been accepted as it was in the prior version.
• Although three renderers are supported, the MathJax renderer is by far the best and fastest. This is partly because unlike the other choices the MathJax renderer is local to this Website, and partly because it has fewer limitations compared to the others. In most cases, selecting only the MathJax renderer gives best results.
• The goals of this project include a simple, intuitive LaTeX editor with near-real-time rendering updates, Web access, and the ability to save the user's work between visits. And yes — you can leave this page and come back, and your last edit will still be on display.
• To see examples of LaTeX syntax, choose some samples from the drop-down list below the editing window.
• If you create a useful LaTeX rendering and want to share it with others, copy the content of the editing window — select some text, then type Ctrl+C (Copy) or use menu item Edit ... Copy (more on this below).
• If instead you want a graphic image of the result and if you are using the CodeCogs renderer, just right-click the rendered equation and choose "Save As ...".
• If you accidentally erase some of your typing or just want to return to an earlier version, press the "Undo" button above the editing window.
• If you want to create an URL that calls this page with an included equation, press the "Make an URL" button, then copy the result by typing Ctrl+C (Copy). (click here for an example that calls this page with an equation URL.)
• Again, for an easier-to-use LateX scratchpad without this page's full feature set, click here.

More detail:

• If you visit a site that has LaTeX in text form, you can copy it here and render it. Like this:

  • Visit a site that has LaTeX content.
  • Drag your mouse over the LaTeX expression.
  • Press Ctrl+C (Copy) or use the menu item Edit ... Copy.
  • Move to this page.
  • Click your mouse in the green editing field above.
  • Press Ctrl+V (Paste) or use the menu item Edit ... Paste.
  • Press Ctrl+Enter or Shift+Enter while focused in the green editing field. This will render the LaTeX expression.

• If you want to use your edited expression elsewhere, you can copy it from here. Like this:

  • Click your mouse inside the green editing window.
  • Press Ctrl+A (select All) to or Edit ... Select All to select the expression.
  • Press Ctrl+C (Copy) or Edit ... Copy to copy the expression.
  • Move to the destination Web page or document.
  • Press Ctrl+V (Paste) or use Edit ... Paste to paste the expression.

• For best results, enable JavaScript and cookies for this Web page. JavaScript allows this page to work as intended, and your work is saved in a cookie between visits — with cookies enabled, you can simply leave this page and when you return, your most recent work will be on display.

• This page allows the user a choice between three rendering methods — CodeCogs, MathJax and Google Chart API. Each of these methods has advantages and drawbacks:

• CodeCogs

  • This renderer provides a graphic image, so it is free of some of the artifacts that plague character-based renderers like MathJax.
  • This renderer responds to some special, non-LaTeX extensions like "\300dpi", in advance of normal LaTeX, to produce a much bigger rendering.
  • To save this render as a graphic image, right-click the image and choose "Save As ...".
  • Graphics renders create prettier and more accurate TeX renderings overall, but only at one scale (zooming in on a graphic image usually spoils its appearance).
  • For very large LaTeX expressions, this renderer will print an error message instead of rendering.

• MathJax

  • This rendererer is fastest because (a) it's local to this Website, and (b) it renders using scalable fonts rather than graphics.
  • For some reason, using the same fonts, MathJax renderings look much better on Google Chrome than either Firefox or Microsoft Explorer.
  • The MathJax renderer works more efficiently if there are suitable local fonts (but it will work without them by using Web-based fonts). The font issue is explained here.

• Google Chart API

  • This renderer works much like CodeCogs, except that it has a smaller equation size limit of only 200 characters in the URL, which translates to about 1/3 this size in LaTeX.
  • As with the CodeCogs renderer, to save a render as a graphic image, right-click the image and choose "Save As ...".

• Each of these renderers has things it doesn't know about. Don't assume an error message from one of these renderers means your TeX syntax is wrong.
• Remember about these renderers that they only provide previews, and their rendering quality cannot compare with actual TeX typesetting.
• This page updates its LaTeX renders automatically at three-second intervals (for the MathJax display alone, 1/2 second).
 
• The Codecogs renderer home page: http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php.
• The MathJax renderer home page: http://www.mathjax.org/.
• The Google Chart API home page: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/.

• I have gotten a number of requests for various additional LaTeX packages that aren't supported by this page, so I need to explain something. This page doesn't generate LaTeX renderings, it only accepts plain-text entries and submits them to the supported renderers. I don't have any control over the packages supported by these renderers. To move beyond the limited capabilities of this page, I recommend that people download and try Texmaker, which I find to be a first-rate TeX/LaTeX editor (free, open source). For more than LaTeX rendering, for actual math as well as interactive equation rendering, I recommend the free, open-source Jupyter/JupyterLab environment (here's my Jupyter introduction).

• One final note. After much testing and evaluation, I can only recommend that people get rid of Microsoft's browser. Of the many browsers now available, it is the least stable and reliable. I have found that if I paste a large equation into the editing window, typical browsers like Firefox and Chrome simply render the LaTeX and wait for more input. But Microsoft Explorer often freezes up and then crashes.

LaTeX Resources:

• Getting Started with LaTeX
• LaTeX Tutorial
• Beginning LaTeX
• TeX Reference Card