MathKey - LaTeX Converter

A critical tool in my kit for doing any kind of work with equations. Writing university reports is now 2 times faster than typing LaTeX by hand. Taking notes is now as easy by writing them by hand, but they don’t look horrible. Worth it 101%.

Generating equation images are timing out for me despite restarting and rebooting

After 2 days of using it, stopped working. When it would try to convert handwritten to image equations it would go - converting -generating - check your internet connection. My internet connection is not the problem it’s the app. It’s not a recommendation I will back up. For a payed app the least thing it should be able to do is work. Very frustrated.

This is a great idea, but really needs improvement. It’s not great for long math equations cause you can’t move the canvas or move text around. It also crashes when there too many characters completely destroying all your work. There’s also slow load speeds and a lack of an ability to edit mistakes in the handwriting recognition. You can barely see the preview when you’re copying it and by the time you pasted it it’s too late to change any errors so you have to go back and pray there are no errors again. Having the ability to have a larger preview function before inserting or pasting along with being able to directly edit the latex code for the copy function would fix a lot of the problems with this app. With Apple Pencil mode always on it works great. It recognizes my handwriting fairly well and even better than notability in a lot of cases. Though the automatic Apple Pencil mode is awful and doesn’t work well at all. At this stage it’s not worth the money. If it gets fixed then maybe.

I am much more disappointed in the Mac application to be honest, it cannot even do the example outlined in the pics provided. That said, the iPad application is significantly better, however, having to connect on the website and wait for the loading is quite bothersome.

This is an EXCELLENT app. Absolutely phenomenal in what it does. I’ve been searching for a LaTeX code convertor for almost my entire engineering degree, and now that I’m near the end, this falls into my lap. It’s lightweight, fast, usually accurate (although it could do better with 3, z, and a couple others, although if you’re looking to edit the code after export that’s not such a big issue. Two features I would like to see implemented are (1) the ability to wrap code with a pre-defined input, and (2) define line breaks differently. The reason for this is that I typically export the code to Obsidian Notes, which has an internal LaTeX compiler, and requires all LaTeX to be wrapped as such: $1+2=3$ Predefining the output of this app would streamline my workflow considerably, although even without these two changes this app has already been well worth its cost. I HIGHLY recommend it to any student who needs to take math-related notes and wants to keep them in a digital format - with a little practice, it’s even faster than writing them out by hand.

UPDATE: Developer responded quickly to this bug, and now this is a perfect companion to my iPad Pro, helping me to quickly render long equations into both LaTex and as an image copied into the clipboard. Highly Recomended. March, 2021: When trying to use the photo feature, the keyboard responds with a “check your internet connection” error each and every time. I’m sure this is a fine app, but until this is resolved it is not usable for my use case.

I use this app everyday - as far as I can tell this is the best app on the App Store for converting handwriting to Latex. However, there are a number of frustrations that keep be from loving it. Features I’d like to see: - Show a preview of the Latex before inserting it into the text field. Sometimes there’s an error in the way that my handwriting gets interpreted, and I either have to comb through the Latex to fix the mistake, or rewrite the equation all over again. A preview feature would help this. - Better formatted Latex strings. The generated Latex string has spaces in random places. This messes up working with certain apps, like for example WolframAlpha. I have to manually go and remove the spaces. - Ability to copy/paste the handwritten expression, like in Apple Notes. I’d often be writing something in notes, and want to convert an expression I wrote into Latex. Currently, I have to rewrite the expression on the Latex keyboard; I can’t just paste it. I’d be happy to talk about my thoughts more if you want. My email is sav01027 at gmail dot com.

This is a very strange app. Takes writing on the iPad and by passing a key to my iMac transfers the translated equations. Not at all what I expected but useable once you realize it’s just a desktop extension that uses the iPad as a drawing tablet.

It needs full access to the keyboard. And wont work without a conncection to the internet. This is strange behaviour for an app thats designed to convert pen script to latex equations. I will be avoiding this app.