from Hacker News

Mathify – Simple Text Equation to LaTeX

by wenqin123 on 3/26/17, 4:05 PM with 52 comments

  • by ephimetheus on 3/26/17, 4:53 PM

    I don't get it, why not just use LaTeX? The syntax is already almost the same anyway..

  • by simon_acca on 3/26/17, 5:03 PM

    Related: http://asciimath.org/

    Also, MathJax accepts asciimath as input, not sure if you can get LaTeX out of it though.

  • by kevindong on 3/27/17, 3:46 AM

    For Mac users, you can also use the built-in 'Grapher' application which comes with a decent GUI for writing equations/formulas.

    1) Open up the 'Grapher' application from the 'Applications/Utilities' folder.

    2) Click on 'Choose' (it doesn't matter what other options you pick from the initial loading screen).

    3) From here on, just type your equation into the main input field. You can also use the equation palette from the dropdown menu on the right side of the main input field to access the templates for things like integrals and summations. From the dropdown, you should be able to click on 'Show Equation Palette' to get a window of all of the math symbols Grapher supports.

    4) Once done writing your equation, select it all, right click, and then click on 'Copy LaTeX Expression'.

  • by lucb1e on 3/26/17, 8:38 PM

    Feedback for the author: this site is currently best viewed at 80% zoom and a browser width of 320 pixels. Originally (at 15.6", full hd screen) I have to keep jumping from center to left with nothing in between, which feels kinda weird on my eyes.

  • by amenghra on 3/26/17, 7:28 PM

    Is there any ocr to latex? Are they any good?

    For desktop-based equation writing, something like Microsoft's equation editor is perfect. For tablet/touch screen, a pen based OCR might work really well?

  • by idreyn on 3/26/17, 5:00 PM

    Bookmarked as my new fastest way to generate a small LaTeX graphic when I need one — though actually having the ability to input LaTeX might be useful as well for edge cases.

  • by wenqin123 on 3/26/17, 4:56 PM

    By the way if you find any bugs or something doesn't work the way you expect it please let me know!

  • by goerz on 3/26/17, 4:52 PM

    I could see this as being useful if it was available as a library

  • by gargarplex on 3/26/17, 6:03 PM

    Combine this with Detexify?

  • by umanwizard on 3/26/17, 6:41 PM

    Edit: apparently I didn't read the site closely enough!