# codecogs like software/ IDE/ LaTeX environment ?

I have been using the website, codecogs for mathematical equations - and it is wonderful for a noob like me. However, I wish to avail of such support when I am offline, is there similar facility for providing a GUI for equations by any software/IDE/editors/LaTeX environment ? I am on Ubuntu 9.10.

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Yes, LaTeX. :D Could you explain a bit more about what feature of codecogs you would like to have offline? The palette? The gif generation? –  Matthew Leingang Feb 25 '11 at 16:46
I think Martin Scharrer's standalone class would suffie. And you can convert the pdf/ps result to png picture easily (using GhostScript or ImageMagick). –  Leo Liu Feb 25 '11 at 16:49
@Matthew Leingang : Well ! ... I have always found a GUI to be helpful for my equations ... –  Arkapravo Feb 25 '11 at 16:53
@Arkapravo: Now I understand the question. The most useful answers will depend on your operating system. Can you edit your question, incorporating your last comment, and providing this information? –  Matthew Leingang Feb 25 '11 at 16:56
@Leo: Funny, I was just thinking today about adding an automatic convert-to-png mode into standalone. Using -shell-escape and convert of course. I need this here often enough to post images of my results. –  Martin Scharrer Feb 25 '11 at 17:07

If you want to create and edit LaTeX equations with a point-and-click GUI, you could use for example KFormula, the equation editor of KOffice. It has a LaTeX import/export filter, so you can create formulas with the graphical interface provided by this program, and translate them into the "language" LaTeX understands afterwards.

Another possibility would be to use the Java applet DragMath. It doesn't seem to be as powerful as KFormula, but it is quite small and platform independent:

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I'm fairly new to LaTeX. When I first started I did all my LaTeX papers in LyX. It has a really good equation editor that provides a set of buttons to point and click on various math elements to insert into the equation. For example if you click the square root icon, LyX puts your cursor inside a root symbol where you can continue typing your equation.

As I learned more about LaTeX I started to drift away from the point and click style and started typing common math commands that I knew in manually. That is I would type

\sqrt<tab>


and LyX expands that as if I had pushed the sqrt button. LyX knows about a large number of LaTeX math commands and lets you tab complete them all in this way.

LyX also provides a "View Source" option which can be accessed under the "View" menu. Very useful for seeing exactly what LyX does.

Finally if you grab the LyX Beta, included is an awesome preview feature where you can preview pretty much any TeX code you like directly inside LyX.

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Lyx is not bad but it is not like codecogs, the codecogs GUI seems lot more complete more user friendly –  Arkapravo Feb 26 '11 at 7:14
@Arkapravo Are you comparing against the LyX beta? There is a 2.0.0b4 out at lyx.org/News (scroll down to the second entry from the top). Regardless I'm going to have to check this codecogs out! –  user2960 Feb 27 '11 at 4:35
I used 1.6.4 ..... that did not impress me ! I will check out 2.0.0b4 .. –  Arkapravo Feb 27 '11 at 7:40
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[active,displaymath,textmath]{preview}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}

foo $y=f(x)$ bar

foo $y=g(x)$ bar

\end{document}


Run it with latex and then dvips -E -i <file>, which will create for every math expression a single eps file file.xxx which then can be converted to any other type of image.

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If you want a graphical interface with real-time previews of what your equations etc. look like, I'd recommend Lyx. It is available on Linux, Mac, and Windows, but I've only tried it on Linux.

It includes toolbars, similar to the ones on codecogs. You can also view the code it generates.

You would have to make sure that Lyx still generates the type of file that you want, I'm not sure if you want a full page pdf, or a smaller picture.

Edit: It was pointed out in the comments that Lyx is not a WYSIWYG for LaTeX. Thinking about it I am inclined to agree, so I updated my answer to include a fuller description of what Lyx gives you.

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LyX is not a LaTeX WYSIWYG! –  Herbert Feb 26 '11 at 8:03
Oh, maybe I'm getting confused, as it is has a lot of real-time-previews. –  Dom Feb 28 '11 at 13:54
it tries to view how it might be, but that is far different from the generated pdf. Only the previews of math are correct. –  Herbert Feb 28 '11 at 14:02
I see, thanks for the clarification. Personally I use Kile myself, but my friend who sits just opposite me uses Lyx all the time, and from what I see, it looks like she directly edits the document. I just hadn't looked close enough. –  Dom Feb 28 '11 at 14:27