Show HN: Latex.to – LaTeX to image converter running in the browser

latex.to

67 points by Wdorf 11 hours ago

I've made a website to easily share a LaTeX math formula.

- The image is created in the browser (i.e. the LaTeX is not send to a server for rendering)

- Native share dialog (share via WhatsApp etc.)

- Extra keyboard buttons for symbols like "$" or "\" on mobile

- Share via png or unicode

Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fGuTns5Nt9Q

Please let me know any feedback on how to improve the website.

mcraiha 8 hours ago

1. Add tooltips to the top icons 2. Support SVG output

  • Wdorf 8 hours ago

    Thank you, those are both very good suggestions I will look into!

mindv0rtex 7 hours ago

I was recently trying to solve a similar problem but on desktop platforms. I don't want to depend on LaTeX, but I'd like to be able to generate equation images inside a C++ desktop application. I tried to make MathJax run via QuickJS and extract the SVG for rasterization. But I couldn't make MathJax run with QuickJS.

Cieric 11 hours ago

Shorts link didn't work for me, here is the normal player link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGuTns5Nt9Q

I'm not to familiar with LaTeX so I much prefer a WYSIWYG editor. I mainly use things like wolframalpha's editor to really get a good representation of what I need.

I know something like that might be out of scope for something like this, but you could potentially do preprogrammed buttons like having a sqrt button insert "\sqrt{}" to the cursor position.

  • Wdorf 11 hours ago

    Thank you very much for your feedback, I will look into adding more keyboard buttons like "\sqrt{}"

mgt19937 10 hours ago

Cool project! I like the idea of easily sharing LaTeX formulas. It's impressive how smooth it works right in the browser.

I've always thought compiling LaTeX in WebAssembly would be a tough nut to crack, so I was curious if that's what you'd done here. Turns out you're using KaTeX.

Have you considered any WebAssembly approaches?

  • Wdorf 10 hours ago

    Thank you for your positive feedback.

    KaTeX does not support all LaTeX features but initializes very quickly.

    LaTeX via WebAssembly supports more features but might need longer to initialize.

    There's an existing WebAssembly project: https://www.swiftlatex.com

  • red_trumpet 9 hours ago

    There is TikZJax[1], which apparently compiles TeX to WebAssembly, to run TikZ in the browser.

    [1] https://tikzjax.com/

    • dunham 6 hours ago

      I played with web2js a couple of years ago. TeX ends up being a 500kb WASM file (88kb gzipped).

      The LaTeX format file or the memory image after LaTeX is loaded are a bit bigger though (2.3 MB and 6.3MB gzipped, respectively).

  • jszymborski 10 hours ago

    Not OP, but do you mind me asking what advantages you hope to achieve by using WebAssembly rather than KaTeX?

    • trurl42 10 hours ago

      Well, for one, KaTeX doesn't do "LaTeX" but a limited subset of the TeX equation syntax. As such, it can't handle more complicated macros or typesetting anything apart from equations.

ComputerGuru 9 hours ago

I’d be very interested in the opposite! Lots of scanned or legacy images that would be nice to convert to LaTeX, or to create a robust PDF ingestion pipeline.

Ennea 3 hours ago

It feels like I am seeing more and more websites lately that have a favicon that is deliberately broken, and I'm not sure why this appears to be a thing that is somehow gaining traction.

  • Wdorf 3 hours ago

    I will design a proper favicon! I think I implemented the current placeholder according to https://stackoverflow.com/a/13416784

    • Ennea 2 hours ago

      The data URI you're using has no MIME type, and even then the data is still an invalid PNG image. Not sure why the Stack Overflow answer is suggesting that.

vzaliva 9 hours ago

Have you considered translating formulae to MathML for rendering?

  • Wdorf 9 hours ago

    KaTeX has a build in MathML feature, but I haven't yet looked into it for rendering.

    The "Share text" functionality of the website uses KaTeX's MathML feature as an intermediate step.

  • einpoklum 9 hours ago

    It looks like OP is already doing that. Or rather, OP calls katex (https://katex.org/) to get MathML and HTML; then renders the HTML to a raster image. But he's throwing the MathML away.

KeplerBoy 10 hours ago

How does it work? Are you shipping a wasm latex distribution?

einpoklum 9 hours ago

> Please let me know any feedback on how to improve the website.

1. You can give credit where it is due - on the website, to katex and the HTML-to-image renderer library/engine. 2. You could offer any of the three possible outputs: Raster image, HTML, MathML - for exporting/sharing/downloading.

  • Wdorf 9 hours ago

    Thank you for your feedback.

    I've just added the links to both projects in the info modal.

    I will look into adding HTML and MathML exports in the next version.