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I suspect this might easily be a clone question, it seems impossible that nobobdy would've asked this before, but my searches seem to return nothing.

I've grown very used to the MathJaX input here. So much, that when I need to show some maths to somebody, I'd go to Math.SE "Ask Question" and then just type it up there and then usually send it as a picture or something along those lines.

This is, however, very impractical (not to say lame)

My question therefore is: is there any way how to do this in a more sophisticated and practical way? Either output the Math.SE preview in a better way, or a (not necessarily) online editor. I've tried many different online editors, but they all fail at different details such as recognizing stars as bold/italic, characters such as $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathscr{U}$, general formatting, etc.

Thanks!


Edit: I wouldn't want to turn this into a LaTeX online editor question. I am well aware of that and I can always give up and go to LaTeX. It's just that I love the input on Math.SE and would like to use it not just for asking questions here.

To demonstrate further - I sometimes take an existing answer on Math.SE and make edits on it (and/or translate it) for my own purposes. What would be the easiest way to do this?

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    $\begingroup$ May be we should add download as pdf option at the side of share edit retag flag in this machine. :) $\endgroup$
    – 007resu
    Jan 11, 2013 at 23:53
  • $\begingroup$ If that were to happen, I'd probably open a bottle of champagne or something. $\endgroup$
    – Dahn
    Jan 11, 2013 at 23:55
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    $\begingroup$ In that case you could always use something like CutePDF or PDFCreator to print to a PDF file. $\endgroup$ Jan 12, 2013 at 0:17
  • $\begingroup$ For printing purposes there is also the stackprinter. See meta.math.stackexchange.com/q/3079 $\endgroup$
    – Martin
    Jan 12, 2013 at 2:06
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    $\begingroup$ See also: MathJax: better way to prepare a Math.StackExchange question? on meta. (And some of the posts linked there.) $\endgroup$ Nov 28, 2019 at 14:49

6 Answers 6

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For later reference - this question is now obsolete, as https://stackedit.io/ exists.

edit: as mentioned in the comments, StackEdit has switched from MathJax to KaTeX

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    $\begingroup$ I have used Qute. Pretty useful. This may be better. $\endgroup$ May 11, 2015 at 21:30
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    $\begingroup$ I see that StackEdit allows you to type in MathJax, but I don't see any equation-writing tools to allow you to type an equation and have the code generated. Is that right? Is there any tool that allows you to enter an equation as you would in Microsoft Equation Editor (i.e. without knowing the Markdown code)? $\endgroup$
    – Hack-R
    Jul 30, 2015 at 17:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Hack-R: I highly recommend taking a look at some basic latex anyway. It will help you a lot for writing down anything remotely mathematical. And if you know some basic latex syntax you should be good to go with Mathjax and Markdown. $\endgroup$
    – Wizard
    Dec 30, 2015 at 18:55
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    $\begingroup$ Note that stackedit 5 switched from MathJax to KaTeX, which makes it basically useless for writing math.se questions... :-( $\endgroup$ Jun 2, 2018 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ As an example, stackedit.io doesn't support \begin{align} due to KaTeX. $\endgroup$
    – Tom Hale
    Jun 5, 2020 at 4:10
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[Last update 2015-05] Just to add some options for people stumbling upon this.

  • stackedit comes closes to regular StackExchange-like Markdown and MathJax behavior.
  • marx works similarly.
  • MathBin is focused on sharable snippets. The already mentioned MathB.in has been retired and points to texpaste which does have markdown support.
  • Notepag.es's website appears dead, but you can find the source on GitHub if you want to host it yourself.
  • Authorea can also do markdown with MathJax.
  • Qute is a desktop application. There are now a gazillion others and many text editors have plugins (e.g., Atom, Sublime)

All of these should work for markdown+mathjax but might not behave identical to the SE-flavored combination.

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  • $\begingroup$ Notepag.es looks really great, but I can't figure out how to do in-line math. Any ideas? (there's also no help page that I can find...) $\endgroup$
    – JeremyKun
    Jan 9, 2014 at 19:58
  • $\begingroup$ Actually, that link revealed Stackedit.io, which appears to be less simple but way better for me. $\endgroup$
    – JeremyKun
    Jan 9, 2014 at 20:02
  • $\begingroup$ Not a big fan of MathBin, simply because all the output is in red. $\endgroup$ Oct 30, 2014 at 1:19
  • $\begingroup$ MathBin and Notepag.es give "Forbidden" and "502 bag Gateway" errors respectively, but maybe it's just my network? $\endgroup$
    – Hack-R
    May 13, 2015 at 15:02
  • $\begingroup$ Right. The original answer is very old. I only updated the links to the MathJax docs recently. I'll check later if I can find working links for those. But there are lots of editors and plugins out there now and of course Stackedit is great which was released after my original posting. $\endgroup$ May 13, 2015 at 15:11
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Most sites offer no assistance in entering formulas, these ones do:

Excellent online mathjax editor with clean interface

http://www.texpaste.com/

Other options, interface a bit more complicated though but that's a personal choice

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The meta site has a sandbox for drafts. You can type your post there and share a direct link to it.

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    $\begingroup$ I quite like this solution, thanks. (And it's probably the best I can do now) $\endgroup$
    – Dahn
    Jan 13, 2013 at 12:37
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I use MathBin to send quizzes or notes to students.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. That is, however, a "last resort" for me - I'd very much like to write my maths exactly as here on Math.SE. If that's possible, though.. $\endgroup$
    – Dahn
    Jan 11, 2013 at 23:35
  • $\begingroup$ @DahnJahn The only difference I've noticed is that you have to use [EQ][/EQ] and [IEQ][/IEQ] instead of $$ $$ and $ $ there. Is that what you're referring to? $\endgroup$ Jan 11, 2013 at 23:37
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, that itself makes it less useful for purposes than any LaTeX online editor out there. I've added an example in the main post to demonstrate this further. $\endgroup$
    – Dahn
    Jan 11, 2013 at 23:48
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    $\begingroup$ MathBin is now shut down. The page points to TexPaste as a replacement. $\endgroup$ Nov 28, 2014 at 6:09
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Check out: https://www.mdraft.net/

Features:

  • Uses MathJax, so it allows named equations, unlike KaTeX.
  • One-click to publish a shareable snippet.

Seems to reproduce math.SE posts faithfully, as far as I've tested.

Disclaimer: I'm the developer.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, that's the best available option. Quite narrow on mobile though, maybe a horizontal split would be better ? $\endgroup$
    – Adrien
    Feb 8 at 15:40
  • $\begingroup$ Please add the possibility to select all text on mobile $\endgroup$
    – Adrien
    Feb 8 at 20:05
  • $\begingroup$ @Adrien Thanks for the feedback, if you try now on mobile it should look better. Instead of selecting all text on mobile, I made it so the welcome message only displays at the very first page load, which I think the issue was? $\endgroup$
    – Attila Kun
    Feb 10 at 8:46
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks. I still need to copy all the text in the clipboard in order to save it on my phone. Maybe with a copy button ? Also I'd like a black on white appearance and an option for vertical split, my formula is too wide to fit even on my tablet so i have to use a stackexchange draft for now. $\endgroup$
    – Adrien
    Feb 10 at 16:12

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