hi Twitter

Looks like some new visitors coming this way thanks to AskAPhD on Twitter. Welcome to mathURL!

I like to think the site is pretty user friendly, but if you’re interested in learning more, check out the help page, or leave a comment or question here.

Welcome again!

now even shorter

As of today, the question mark has been removed from mathURLs, so they look like http://mathurl.com/5euwuy instead of http://mathurl.com/?5euwuy.

Even better is this: http://mathurl.com/5euwuy.png instead of http://mathurl.com/?img=5euwuy!

Of course, old-style mathURLs will continue to work.

Leave a note here if you notice any bugs.

colors

Now featuring color buttons under the “formatting” tab!

shiny

Introducing new and shiny features, like automatic previewing and clicky buttons for input!

Unfortunately these changes have upped our browser requirements–mathURL now needs JavaScript. I’ve tested on Firefox 2, Firefox 3, and Safari 3, and I believe it should work on Internet Explorer 7+. Please leave a comment here if you run into any problems.

As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

updates

As of tonight, mathurl has some new features:

1. Explicit mode selction. Choose whether your LaTeX should be interpreted in math mode, inline math mode, or text mode.
2. Faster previewing. On browsers supporting JavaScript, preview images are loaded faster, without having to reload the entire page.
3. Access keys. The “preview” and “make mathurl” buttons are access key enabled. Hit Ctrl+P (on a Mac) or Alt+P (on Windows) to activate the preview button, and likewise with M to make a mathurl.

Enjoy! (And please report any bugs you may encounter…)

two ways to make different sizes

Is mathURL showing up too big or too small for you? There’s two ways to change the size of your math. Click each equation to see the LaTeX source.

LaTeX size commands

The most obvious way to get your math in different sizes is to use the built-in LaTeX size commands.

\tiny


\scriptsize


\footnotesize


\small


\normalsize


\large


\Large


\huge


\Huge

Rendering resolution

However, since mathURL must rasterize the output of LaTeX, you can also specify the resolution you want this to occur at, using the \dpi psuedo-command.

\dpi{72}


\dpi{120}


\dpi{300}

The difference

Due to the magic of METAFONT, the Computer Modern TeX font changes shape subtly at different sizes, to make them easier to read: small fonts are proportionally wider and have heavier strokes, while large fonts have thinner strokes. For instance, compare these two examples:

\tiny


\dpi{72}

The first is a genuine small font as produced by METAFONT, whereas the second is the normal-size Computer Modern font, optically shrunk smaller.

Which to use? If you’re simply embedding equations in text, use the appropriate LaTeX command to go with your text size. On the other hand, if you’re generating high-resolution images to embed in your presentation, use the \dpi command. (And just say no to Microsoft Equation Editor. Blech!)

First post!

Welcome to the new mathURL blog. First order of business: note the “Feedback” and “mathURL zoo” links on the left. Have at it.