MathJax
Beautiful math in all browsers
MathJax is an open-source JavaScript display engine for LaTeX, MathML,
and AsciiMath notation that works in all modern browsers. It was
designed with the goal of consolidating the recent advances in web
technologies into a single, definitive, math-on-the-web platform
supporting the major browsers and operating systems. It requires no
setup on the part of the user (no plugins to download or software to
install), so the page author can write web documents that include
mathematics and be confident that users will be able to view it
naturally and easily. Simply include MathJax and some mathematics in
a web page, and MathJax does the rest.
Some of the main features of MathJax include:
-
High-quality display of LaTeX, MathML, and AsciiMath notation in HTML pages
-
Supported in most browsers with no plug-ins, extra fonts, or special
setup for the reader -
Easy for authors, flexible for publishers, extensible for developers
-
Supports math accessibility, cut-and-paste interoperability, and other
advanced functionality -
Powerful API for integration with other web applications
See http://www.mathjax.org/ for additional details about MathJax,
and https://docs.mathjax.org for the MathJax documentation.
MathJax Components
MathJax version 3 uses files called components that contain the
various MathJax modules that you can include in your web pages or
access on a server through NodeJS. Some components combine all the
pieces you need to run MathJax with one or more input formats and a
particular output format, while other components are pieces that can
be loaded on demand when needed, or by a configuration that specifies
the pieces you want to combine in a custom way. For usage
instructions, see the MathJax documentation.
Components provide a convenient packaging of MathJax's modules, but it
is possible for you to form your own custom components, or to use
MathJax's modules directly in a node application on a server. There
are web examples
showing how to use MathJax in web pages and how to build your own
components, and node
examples illustrating
how to use components in node applications or call MathJax modules
directly.
What's in this Repository
This repository contains only the component files for MathJax, not the
source code for MathJax (which are available in a separate MathJax
source repository). These
component files are the ones served by the CDNs that offer MathJax to
the web. In version 2, the files used on the web were also the source
files for MathJax, but in version 3, the source files are no longer on
the CDN, as they are not what are run in the browser.
The components are stored in the es5 directory, and are in ES5 format
for the widest possible compatibility. In the future, we may make an
es6 directory containing ES6 versions of the components.
Installation and Use
Using MathJax components from a CDN on the web
If you are loading MathJax from a CDN into a web page, there is no
need to install anything. Simply use a script tag that loads
MathJax from the CDN. E.g.,
<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-mml-chtml.js">
</script>
See the
documentation
for more details.
Hosting your own copy of the MathJax Components
If you want to host MathJax from your own server, you can do so by
installing the mathjax package using npm and moving the es5
directory to an appropriate location on your server:
npm install mathjax@3
mv node_modules/mathjax/es5 <path-to-server-location>/mathjax
Note that we are still making updates to version 2, so include @3 when you install, since the latest chronological version may not be version 3.
Alternatively, you can get the files via GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax.git mj-tmp
mv mj-tmp/es5 <path-to-server-location>/mathjax
rm -rf mj-tmp
Then (in either case) you can use a script tag like the following:
<script id="MathJax-script" async
src="<url-to-your-site>/mathjax/tex-chtml.js"></script>
where <url-to-your-site> is replaced by the URL to the location
where you moved the MathJax files above.
See the
documentation
for details.
Using MathJax components in a node application
To use MathJax components in a node application, install the mathjax package:
npm install mathjax@3
(we are still making updates to version 2, so you should include @3 since the latest chronological version may not be version 3).
Then require mathjax within your application:
require('mathjax').init({ ... }).then((MathJax) => { ... });
where the first { ... } is a MathJax configuration, and the second
{ ... } is the code to run after MathJax has been loaded. E.g.
require('mathjax').init({
loader: {load: ['input/tex', 'output/svg']}
}).then((MathJax) => {
const svg = MathJax.tex2svg('\\frac{1}{x^2-1}', {display: true});
console.log(MathJax.startup.adaptor.outerHTML(svg));
}).catch((err) => console.log(err.message));
See the
documentation
for more details.
Reducing the Size of the Components Directory
Since the es5 directory contains all the component files, so if
you are only planning one use one configuration, you can reduce the
size of the MathJax directory by removing unused components. For
example, if you are using the tex-chtml.js component, then you can
remove the tex-mml-chtml.js, tex-svg.js, tex-mml-svg.js,
tex-chtml-full.js, and tex-svg-full.js configurations, which will
save considerable space. Indeed, you should be able to remove
everything other than tex-chtml.js, and the input/tex/extensions, output/chtml/fonts/woff-v2, adaptors, a11y, and sre directories. If you are using the results only on the web, you can remove adaptors as well.
If you are not using A11Y support (e.g., speech generation, or semantic enrichment), then you can remove a11y and sre as well (though in this case you may need to disable the assistive tools in the MathJax contextual menu in order to avoid MathJax trying to load them when they aren't there).
If you are using SVG rather than CommonHTML output (e.g., tex-svg.js rather than tex-chtml.js), you can remove the output/chtml/fonts/woff-v2 directory. If you are using MathML input rather than TeX (e.g., mml-chtml.js rather than tex-chtml.js), then you can remove input/tex/extensions as well.
The Component Files and Pull Requests
The es5 directory is generated automatically from the contents of the
MathJax source repository. You can rebuild the components using the
command
npm run make-es5 --silent
Note that since the contents of this repository are generated
automatically, you should not submit pull requests that modify the
contents of the es5 directory. If you wish to submit a modification
to MathJax, you should make a pull request in the MathJax source
repository.
MathJax Community
The main MathJax website is http://www.mathjax.org, and it includes
announcements and other important information. A MathJax user
forum for asking
questions and getting assistance is hosted at Google, and the MathJax
bug tracker is hosted
at GitHub.
Before reporting a bug, please check that it has not already been
reported. Also, please use the bug tracker (rather than the help
forum) for reporting bugs, and use the user's forum (rather than the
bug tracker) for questions about how to use MathJax.
