How to use LaTeX Squiggly

Video tutorials

Watch it work

Each step below has a short video, between 10 and 18 seconds long, made from the real app. New in Chrome: select any LaTeX on a page, right-click, and render it. The Chrome videos were made on a Mac, so they show ⌥⇧ and ⌘ where Windows and ChromeOS use Alt+Shift and Ctrl.

Everywhere

The basics

1. Type a command, then a space. The command is replaced with its character, right where you typed it. On the Mac and Windows, Tab works as well as space. Return never converts, so it cannot send a half-finished message.
2. Put scripts inside dollars. $x^2$ gives x² and $a_1$ gives a₁. The dollars say you meant maths, so an ordinary x^2 in a sentence is left alone.
3. Undo if you did not want it. ⌘Z or Ctrl+Z brings the command back.
4. Read the notice when one appears. If something can only be approximated, such as \frac{\alpha}{2} written as α∕2, or cannot be written in plain text at all, such as \vec{v}, a short note says what happened and why.

There are 202 symbols. Search them all on the home page, or in the app's or extension's settings, or on the iPhone keyboard's ∑ key.

It stays out of LaTeX editors. In Overleaf, TeX editors and code editors, \alpha has to stay \alpha, so LaTeX Squiggly does nothing there. You can add your own apps and sites to that list.

macOS 13 and later

The Mac app

Installing

1. Download the disk image, open it, and drag LaTeX Squiggly onto Applications.
2. Open it. The first time, macOS says it cannot be opened, because the app is signed but not notarized. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway.
3. An LS mark appears in the menu bar. Click it and grant the two permissions it asks for: Accessibility, to replace what you typed, and Input Monitoring, to notice you typing.
4. Open Notes, type \alpha and a space.

Using it

• Pause: click the LS mark and untick Enable conversion. The mark fades while it is off.
• Keep it out of an app: with that app in front, click the LS mark and choose Do not convert in ‹app›. Sites in your browser, such as Overleaf, are in Settings… → Exclusions.
• Find a symbol: Symbols… in the menu lists every command. Double-click one to copy its symbol.
• Make an image of an equation: press ⌃⌥⌘L from any app, or choose Render LaTeX as Image…. See Turning maths into an image.

Updating

Quit from the menu bar, drag the old app to the Trash, and install the new one. Your settings are kept. If macOS asks for the permissions again, first remove the old LaTeX Squiggly entries from both lists in System Settings → Privacy & Security. Left in place, they stay ticked but do nothing.

Windows 10 and later, beta

The Windows app

Installing

1. Download the .exe and double-click it. There is no installer and it needs no admin rights.
2. Windows may say Windows protected your PC, because the app is not code-signed. Click More info, then Run anyway.
3. An LS mark appears in the system tray, near the clock. Open Notepad, type \alpha and a space.

Using it

• Pause: right-click the tray mark and untick Convert LaTeX as I type.
• Keep it out of an app: with that app in front, right-click the tray mark and choose Do not convert in ‹app›.
• Settings and symbols: Settings and Symbols… in the tray menu. Open at login starts it with Windows.
• If it goes quiet: the tray menu says which rule it is following, and Copy diagnostics puts a summary on the clipboard for a bug report.

The Windows app also turns maths into an image: see below. It needs the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which Windows 11 has and Windows 10 gets through updates.

Chrome, Edge, Brave and other Chromium browsers

The Chrome extension

Installing

1. Add LaTeX Squiggly from the Chrome Web Store. A welcome page opens with a practice box to try it in.
2. Pin it: click the puzzle piece in the toolbar, then the pin next to LaTeX Squiggly.
3. Reload any tab that was already open. The extension only starts in pages loaded after it was installed.
4. Type \alpha and a space in any text box on a web page.

Using it

• Render LaTeX you see on a page: select it, right-click, and choose Render selection as image. It opens in the renderer, ready to copy as a picture.
• Pause: click the toolbar icon and switch off Convert as I type, or press Alt+Shift+L (⌥⇧L on a Mac) on any page. The icon turns grey wherever it is not converting.
• Keep it off a site: click the toolbar icon on that site and switch off Convert on this site. Overleaf and other LaTeX sites are off already.
• Google Docs: it works in documents. If Docs capitalises a Greek letter at the start of a sentence, turn off Tools → Preferences → Automatically capitalize words in Docs.
• Settings and symbols: right-click the toolbar icon and choose Options.
• Make an image of an equation: the toolbar icon's Renderer tab, or Alt+Shift+E. See below.

Only space finishes a command in the browser, because Tab moves between fields on a web page.

iPhone and iPad · coming soon to the App Store

The iPhone keyboard

On iPhone, LaTeX Squiggly is a whole keyboard. It types like the iPhone's own, converts LaTeX when you press space, and turns equations into pictures. It is on its way to the App Store; these are the steps for when it arrives.

Setting it up

1. Open Settings, then General → Keyboard → Keyboards.
2. Tap Add New Keyboard and choose LaTeX Squiggly.
3. Optional: tap LaTeX Squiggly and turn on Allow Full Access. It lets the keyboard copy rendered images, follow the app's settings and play haptics. Nothing you type leaves your phone either way.
4. In any app, hold the globe key and pick LaTeX Squiggly. Type \alpha and a space.

Using it

• Undo a conversion: tap Undo in the bar above the keys, or press delete straight after.
• Finish a command: type \ and a few letters, then tap a suggestion in the bar.
• Find a symbol: the ∑ key opens Greek letters and maths symbols. Hold a key for its relatives.
• Pause it: tap the LS mark at the left of the bar. Orange converts; dark keeps everything as typed.
• Make an image: type maths between $ signs, or select some, and tap Copy in the bar. From another app, select LaTeX, tap Share, then LaTeX Squiggly.
• In Messages: open LaTeX Squiggly in the Messages app drawer, write an equation, and send it as a picture.

The app has ten short lessons that walk through all of this, about three minutes in all.

Mac, Windows, Chrome and iPhone

Turning maths into an image

Fractions, matrices and sums with limits have no plain-text form. The renderer draws them as a picture you can paste into chats, slides, documents and emails.

1. Open it.
   Mac: ⌃⌥⌘L from any app, or Render LaTeX as Image… in the menu bar.
   Windows: Win+Alt+L from any app, or Render LaTeX as Image... in the tray menu.
   Chrome: the toolbar icon's Renderer tab, or Alt+Shift+E. Or select LaTeX on a page, right-click, and choose Render selection as image.
2. Type the LaTeX, without dollars. The preview updates as you type, and a list of commands appears when you type \.
3. Click Copy PNG, or press ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows). That copies the image and closes the window.
4. Paste it wherever you were, with ⌘V or Ctrl+V.

On iPhone

• From the keyboard: type maths between $ signs, or select some, and tap Copy in the bar above the keys. Tap the preview first to see it large and choose small, medium or large, on a light or dark card.
• From any app: select LaTeX in a note, an email or a web page, tap Share, then LaTeX Squiggly. Copy, share or save the image from there.
• In Messages: open LaTeX Squiggly in the app drawer, write an equation, and send it as a picture. Recent equations stay there to send again.
• The Render tab: for long or tricky equations. Type or paste LaTeX, choose the size and card, then Copy or Share. Text with $…$ in it keeps its words around the maths.

Options on the Mac, Windows and Chrome

• White or Transparent sets the background. White is safer: black text on a transparent background disappears in apps using dark mode.
• The colour dots change the colour of the selected part, or of everything if nothing is selected.
• Overbrace and Underbrace put a brace and a label over or under the selected part.
• History keeps your last 10 equations. Click one to load it again.
• Image settings sets the scale, from 1× to 4×, and Your commands: definitions such as \newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}} that are added to every image, so you can type \R for ℝ.

PNG or SVG? Use PNG. It is an ordinary picture and pastes everywhere. SVG is the same image stored as drawing instructions: it stays sharp at any size, but most apps paste it as a block of code. It is for design tools and web pages.

On the Mac, a copied PNG pastes at the size it was previewed and stays sharp. In Chrome, a browser cannot tell the clipboard the image's size, so a 3× image may paste larger than expected. Resize it after pasting, or lower the scale.

Help

If nothing happens

• Is it switched on? A faded or grey icon means it is paused or the app or site is excluded. The menu or popup says which.
• Did you press space? A command only converts when it is finished with a space (or Tab, on the desktop).
• Chrome: reload the tab. Pages open before the extension was installed or updated do not have it yet.
• Mac: check both Accessibility and Input Monitoring in System Settings → Privacy & Security. After an update, remove the old entries and grant them again.
• Scripts: put them in dollars. x^2 on its own is left alone, $x^2$ converts.
• Shortcut does nothing: another app may already use it. In Chrome, change it at chrome://extensions/shortcuts. On the Mac, the menu item always works.

Still stuck, or found a symbol that should be there? Open a GitHub issue.