Formula editor

A formula editor is a computer program that is used to typeset mathematical formulas and mathematical expressions.

A typeset mathematical expression

Formula editors typically serve two purposes:

• They allow word processing and publication of technical content either for print publication, or to generate raster images for web pages or screen presentations.
• They provide a means for users to specify input to computational systems that is easier to read and check than plain text input and output from computational systems that is easy to understand or ready for publication.

Content for formula editors can be provided manually using a markup language, e.g. TeX or MathML, via a point-and-click GUI, or as computer generated results from symbolic computations such as Mathematica.

Typical features include the ability to nest fractions, radicals, superscripts, subscripts, overscripts and underscripts together with special characters such as mathematical symbols, arrows and scalable parentheses.

Some systems are capable of re-formatting formulae into simpler forms or to adjust line-breaking automatically, while preserving the mathematical meaning of a formula.

Available systems

Name	Keyboard input	GUI input	Handwriting recognition	TeX support	MathML support	Raster export	Automatic expression layout	Computation support	Platform	Notes	Output formats	Open source
Aibase	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Windows	Diagramming with formula editor for UnicodeMath	MathML, SVG	No
Alfred's Equation Editor (AlfredEq)	Yes but limited	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Flash Player	An embedded app to edit mathematical expressions on CMS/LMS/Blog web pages.		No
Atito Equation Editor	Yes but limited	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Android	Formula editor combined with embedded solver, graphs	LaTeX, PDF, PNG	No
AxMath	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Windows	AxMath is an interactive WYSIWYG formula editor which has a scrollable symbol panel and supports semantic math input.	PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, EMF, LaTeX	No
Aurora	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No		Microsoft Office addon. Renders using TeX.
Install Archived 2018-02-02 at the Wayback Machine	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No		Actively updated Google Docs add-on. Renders using TeX. Install Archived 2018-02-02 at the Wayback Machine
Calcinator Math Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Web, iOS	Web GUI generates pure HTML math and LaTeX	HTML, LaTeX	No
Cassiopeia	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mac OS X	Scientific Wordprocessing for Mac OS X
CodeCogs Equation Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Beta	Yes	Yes	No	Web	Produces HTML and graphics for inclusion of equations in any website. Can download graphics in various formats for use in reports and publications. Plugins for CK Editor, Tiny MCE, etc.	PNG, JPG, SVG, SWF, EMF, MathML, LaTeX, URL
CodeCogs Excel Render	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	MS Excel	Add-in to convert formulas into equations. Works offline and can also request 100% LaTaX from the online CodeCogs servers.
Collabora Office Math[1]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Online and Windows, Linux, Mac	Tool to create formulae that can be embedded inside other suite documents	png, jpg, pdf, html, xml, OLE. EPUB math-objects are not included in EPUB yet.	Yes
Daum Equation Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Chrome browser, Mac	Free Math equation editor for Chrome browser and Mac	PNG, LaTeX	No
EQ Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	iOS	iOS native app. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eq-editor/id468981237]	PDF, PNG, MathML, LaTeX	No
DragMath	Yes but limited	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		Java applet. Open source. supports AsciiMathML. Integrations with a VLE such as Moodle.	MathML, LaTeX	Yes
WebEQ Equation Editor	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Web	A Design Science product that has reached End of Life; replaced with MathFlow Software Development Kit		No
Equation Maker for Mac	Yes	No	No	Yes	No		No	No	Mac	Available on Mac App Store	PDF, PNG	No
Equation Notepad for Android	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No		For the Android mobile operating system. Can export LaTeX.
EqualX Equation Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Windows, Linux	Easy to use for beginners and advanced users. Highly customisable interface.	EPS, PS, PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, TEX	Yes
Firemath	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Addon for the Firefox web browser.		Yes
Formula Sheet Equation Editor[permanent dead link]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		Online LaTeX equation editor with real-time .png, .pdf, and .tex output. Customizable resolution, font, and color. One click copy to MS Word 2007+ using MathML.
Formulator MathML Weaver	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No		Dual-licensing (Open source and commercial). There is a special edition that works within a browser (using Silverlight plugin).
FxSolver	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes (print as PDF)	Yes	No	Web	Free. Registration needed only to share worksheets.	PDF	No
IguanaTex	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		Free PowerPoint plugin for inserting LaTeX equations
iMathEQ editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Web (Win, Mac, iOS, Android)	iMathEQ editor is an online WYSIWYG formula editor which can be easily integrated with online systems, like learning management system	PNG, MathML, SVG, LaTeX	No
Jex			No	Yes	Yes		No	No		Designed to insert and edit equations in Openoffice
Ket	Yes	Yes	No	Partial only	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Cross-platform (Java)	Ket provides commands to enable the user to solve back-of-the-envelope calculations.	ket, txt, png (single or sequence), LaTeX, HTML	Yes
KFormula		Yes	No	No	No		No	No
LaTeX4technics	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Web	Interactive online WYSIWYG LaTeX editor. Over 400 math symbols. Various helper programs e.g. for matrix input or colouring. Autocompletion and syntax highlighting	PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG, PDF, MathML, LaTeX
LaTeXiT	Yes	No	No	Yes	No		No	No		Mac OS X unofficial universal binary. Open source.
LibreOffice Math[2]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Windows, Linux, Mac	Tool to create formulae that can be embedded inside other suite documents	png, jpg, pdf, html, xml, OLE. EPUB math-objects are not included in EPUB yet.	Yes
LiveMath	Yes	Yes	No				No	Yes	Windows, Mac, Linux	LiveMath Maker, LiveMath View, LiveMath Plugins available.		No
LyX	Yes	Yes	No	Yes			No	No		LyX has a WYSIWYM ("what you see is what you mean") approach. Open Source	PDF, DVI, LaTeX, Text, Postscript	Yes
Maple	Yes	Yes	characters only	export only	export only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Windows, Linux, Mac		LaTeX, MathML, PDF	No
Mathcad	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Windows and Mac OS X (a 1998 version only)		HTML + jpeg	No
Mathcha Editor Mathcha	Yes	Yes	Character only	Yes	Yes	Yes (SVG, or print as PDF)	Yes	No	Web	Mathcha editor is an online WYSIWYG formula editor that provides very fast formula inputting, diagram(support drawing and insert math formula in diagram), saving documents and sharing materials (link, pdf, latex, png, SVG,...)	PNG, PDF, LaTeX, SVG	No
MathDox formula editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		JavaScript editor for creating OpenMath, Computations are now possible via external web services, but integration of these web services is under construction		Yes
MathEditor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Web	MathEditor is an online WYSIWYG formula editor which supports formula semantic recognition and advanced accessibility. Integrated with Computer Algebra Systems and plotting libraries.	json, LaTeX	No
Connexions' MathML Editor (Beta)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No		Javascript, WYSIWYG, Open Source, Content and Presentation MathML editor. Currently, the MathML editor is only supported in Mozilla Firefox.		Yes
Math Editor	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Windows			Yes
Math I Can Do	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Windows, Mac, Linux, Web	Math editor with a focus on long-form documents such as homework. Uses ISO 80000-2 notation. Available as a desktop app or Web API. Computation supported as an experimental feature, with the optional capability to export to third-party computation tools.	LaTeX (standard and MathJax-friendly), MathML, SVG, PNG, JPEG, WEBP, PDF	No
Mathematica	Yes	Yes, called "palettes"	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac		CDF, PDF, EPS, LaTeX, HTML, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, JPEG200, OpenEXR, BMP, PICT, WMF, EMF, XBM, PCX, FITS, DICOM, NETCDF, SVG, DXF, AVI, FLV, Quicktime, SWF, RTF, ASCII	No
MathQuill	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No		Yes	via MathJS	Web	WYSIWYG DHTML LaTeX math editor in the Web browser. Currently only supports IE8+ and other modern browsers.		Yes
MathLive	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes		Yes	No	Web	JavaScript-based editor	LaTeX, MathML, CSS+HTML, speech	Yes
MathType	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	via Wolfram Alpha	Windows, Mac	Works with Microsoft Office, Apple Pages (et al.), Maple, Mathematica, iBooks Author, Gmail and over 800+ other applications and websites. Compatibility database	GIF, EPS, TeX, LaTeX, MathML, PICT & PDF (Mac), WMF (Windows)	No
MathMagic	Yes	Yes	Windows only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	via Wolfram Alpha	Windows, macOS (32-bit, 64-bit), Android, iOS	Also supports Microsoft Word equations, Wolfram Alpha to see the computation results and answers, MathJax, Google Docs equations, MathType equations, Wiki equations, AsciiMathML, and Text-To-Speech to read out math expressions. Personal Edition is for general purpose use. Pro Editions mainly used with Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress for desktop publishing. Comes with many math symbol fonts, Greek fonts, text body fonts in OpenType and TrueType format. System installed fonts are also supported.	PDF, SVG, EPS, PNG, Transparent PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, PICT, WMF, TIFF, Plain TeX, LaTeX, AMS LaTeX, MathML, ASCIIMath, Wolfram Alpha, Google Docs, Zoho, Text-To-Speech (Voice, Sentence)	No
MathCast	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Open source		Yes
MathFlow	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Windows, Mac		MathML	No
Math-o-mir	Yes	Yes	No	No	export only	Yes	Yes	No		Intended to be used as math notepad. Freeware.		Yes
Math Expression Editor Light 1.2 (MEEL)	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes		.NET Framework component Math Expression Editor Light		No
Microsoft Equation Editor 3.0	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Windows, Mac	Deprecated editor included in Microsoft Office products, based on limited version of MathType.	OLE
Microsoft Word	Yes	Yes	(Only in Microsoft Word 2016 and later version)	partially	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Windows, Mac	A graphing-calculator plug-in is available for simple calculations and manipulations	MathML
MiraiMath	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No		Java WYSIWYG Editor, Open Source. Can be used as alternative front end to GNU Octave		Yes
MyTexPoint	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		a small free program for inserting LaTeX equations into PowerPoint with a screen-shot tool
OpenOffice Math	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Windows, Linux, Mac	Tool to create formulae that can be embedded inside other suite documents		Yes
Publicon	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No		Mathematica-based technical document system		No
Rapid-Pi	Yes	No	No	No	No		No	No	Windows	Microsoft Word plugin
Scientific Word	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Windows	WYSIWYM LaTeX editor
Scientific WorkPlace	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Windows	WYSIWYM LaTeX editor with symbolic math and plotting		No
Sentido	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No		JavaScript editor for creating OpenMath
ShareMath.com	Yes but limited	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Flash Player	Create, share and remix equations on the web. Embeds AlfredEq		No
Texify	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No		An online LaTeX equation writer. Based on open source mimeTeX library.
TeXmacs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No, but can be integrated	Windows, Linux, Mac	Free and open-source scientific WYSIWYG text editor. It offers a user-friendly interface, extensive mathematical typesetting, rich text formatting, document structure organization, collaborative editing, and extensibility. It combines the convenience of a graphical editor with the typesetting capabilities of LaTeX.	HTML, LaTeX, MathML, PDF, Postscript	Yes
TexPoint	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No		PowerPoint plugin for inserting LaTeX equations
TeXPPT	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Windows	Free PowerPoint 2010 plugin for inserting LaTeX equations, fully vector based, no rasters
TeXZilla	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Firefox Add-On		MathML	Yes
Tinkutara Equation Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Android	This is an Android only editor.	PNG, Latex	No
VisionObjects Equation Editor	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No		A handwriting recognizer for LaTeX and MathML equations.
WIRIS editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Web	WIRIS editor has been re-branded MathType in 2018	PNG, MathML, LaTeX, Flash	No
Name	Keyboard input	GUI input	Handwriting recognition	TeX support	MathML support	Raster export	Automatic expression layout	Computation support	Platform	Notes	Output formats	Open source

See also

• TeX, a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth
• LaTeX, a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program
• MathML, an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide Web pages and other documents. It is a recommendation of the W3C math working group

References

1. "Collabora Office Math Features". Collabora Office.
2. "The neat equations and formulas editor". libreoffice.org.