/usr/share/doc/libjs-mathjax-doc/html/misc/faq.html is in libjs-mathjax-doc 2.7+20171212-1.
This file is owned by root:root, with mode 0o644.
The actual contents of the file can be viewed below.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 | <!DOCTYPE html>
<!--[if IE 8]><html class="no-js lt-ie9" lang="en" > <![endif]-->
<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> <html class="no-js" lang="en" > <!--<![endif]-->
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>MathJax Frequently Asked Questions — MathJax 2.7 documentation</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/css/theme.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="index" title="Index"
href="../genindex.html"/>
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="../search.html"/>
<link rel="top" title="MathJax 2.7 documentation" href="../index.html"/>
<link rel="next" title="MathJax In Use" href="mathjax-in-use.html"/>
<link rel="prev" title="Using MathJax in popular web platforms" href="platforms.html"/>
<script src="../_static/js/modernizr.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body class="wy-body-for-nav" role="document">
<div class="wy-grid-for-nav">
<nav data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-side">
<div class="wy-side-scroll">
<div class="wy-side-nav-search">
<a href="../index.html" class="icon icon-home"> MathJax
</a>
<div class="version">
2.7
</div>
<div role="search">
<form id="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="../search.html" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" />
<input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
<div class="wy-menu wy-menu-vertical" data-spy="affix" role="navigation" aria-label="main navigation">
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Basic Usage</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../mathjax.html">What is MathJax?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../start.html">Getting Started with MathJax</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../installation.html">Installing and Testing MathJax</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../configuration.html">Loading and Configuring MathJax</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../config-files.html">Combined MathJax Configurations</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../tex.html">MathJax TeX and LaTeX Support</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../mathml.html">MathJax MathML Support</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../asciimath.html">MathJax AsciiMath Support</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../output.html">MathJax Output Formats</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../font-support.html">MathJax Font Support</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../localization.html">MathJax Localization</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../safe-mode.html">MathJax Safe-mode</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../community.html">The MathJax Community</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Configuration options</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../options/index.html">Configuration options</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Advanced topics</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/model.html">The MathJax Processing Model</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/startup.html">The MathJax Startup Sequence</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/synchronize.html">Synchronizing Your Code with MathJax</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/dynamic.html">Loading MathJax Dynamically</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/typeset.html">Modifying Math on the Page</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/toMathML.html">Obtaining the MathML for an Expression</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/extension-writing.html">Writing MathJax Extensions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/debugging-tips.html">Debugging Tips</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../advanced/mathjax-node.html">MathJax on NodeJS</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">The MathJax API</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../api/index.html">Details of the MathJax API</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Miscellanea</span></p>
<ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="accessibility-features.html">Accessibility features</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="browser-compatibility.html">Browser Compatibility</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="epub.html">EPUB3 Reading Systems</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="badges.html">MathJax Badges and Logo</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="articles.html">Articles and Presentations</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="platforms.html">Using MathJax in Web Platforms</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">MathJax FAQ</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#which-license-is-mathjax-distributed-under">Which license is MathJax distributed under?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#will-mathjax-make-my-page-load-slower-even-if-there-s-no-math">Will MathJax make my page load slower even if there’s no math?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#mathematics-is-not-rendering-properly-in-ie-how-do-i-fix-that">Mathematics is not rendering properly in IE. How do I fix that?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#some-of-my-mathematics-is-too-large-or-too-small-how-do-i-get-it-right">Some of my mathematics is too large or too small. How do I get it right?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i-access-the-mathjax-cdn-using-a-https-secure-connection">How do I access the MathJax CDN using a https secure connection?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#my-mathematics-is-private-is-it-safe-to-use-mathjax">My mathematics is private. Is it safe to use MathJax?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#does-mathjax-support-presentation-and-or-content-mathml">Does MathJax support Presentation and/or Content MathML?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i-create-mathematical-expressions-for-display-with-mathjax">How do I create mathematical expressions for display with MathJax?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#i-ran-into-a-problem-with-mathjax-how-do-i-report-it">I ran into a problem with MathJax. How do I report it?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-mathjax-font-folder-is-too-big-is-there-any-way-to-compress-it">The MathJax font folder is too big. Is there any way to compress it?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#why-is-mathjax-using-image-fonts-instead-of-web-fonts">Why is MathJax using image fonts instead of web fonts?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#why-doesn-t-the-tex-macro-something-work">Why doesn’t the TeX macro <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\something</span></code> work?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#what-should-ie-s-x-ua-compatible-meta-tag-be-set-to">What should IE’s X-UA-Compatible meta tag be set to?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#does-mathjax-support-tex-macros">Does MathJax support TeX macros?</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="mathjax-in-use.html">MathJax in Use</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Upgrading MathJax</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../upgrading/index.html">Upgrading MathJax</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Reference Pages</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/HTML-snippets.html">HTML snippets</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/CSS-styles.html">CSS style objects</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/localization-strings.html">Localization strings</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../reference/glossary.html">Glossary</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</nav>
<section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap">
<nav class="wy-nav-top" role="navigation" aria-label="top navigation">
<i data-toggle="wy-nav-top" class="fa fa-bars"></i>
<a href="../index.html">MathJax</a>
</nav>
<div class="wy-nav-content">
<div class="rst-content">
<div role="navigation" aria-label="breadcrumbs navigation">
<ul class="wy-breadcrumbs">
<li><a href="../index.html">Docs</a> »</li>
<li>MathJax Frequently Asked Questions</li>
<li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside">
<a href="../_sources/misc/faq.rst.txt" rel="nofollow"> View page source</a>
</li>
</ul>
<hr/>
</div>
<div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article">
<div itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="section" id="mathjax-frequently-asked-questions">
<span id="faq"></span><h1>MathJax Frequently Asked Questions<a class="headerlink" href="#mathjax-frequently-asked-questions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="which-license-is-mathjax-distributed-under">
<h2>Which license is MathJax distributed under?<a class="headerlink" href="#which-license-is-mathjax-distributed-under" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MathJax is distributed under the <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax/blob/master/LICENSE">Apache License, Version
2.0</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="will-mathjax-make-my-page-load-slower-even-if-there-s-no-math">
<h2>Will MathJax make my page load slower even if there’s no math?<a class="headerlink" href="#will-mathjax-make-my-page-load-slower-even-if-there-s-no-math" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MathJax loads components only when needed so there is a big difference
between what is loaded on a page without mathematics and one that does
include mathematics. On a page with no mathematics, loading MathJax
requires two files: MathJax.js and a configuration file. If taken from
the MathJax CDN, the actual (compressed) data transferred for MathJax.js
will be about 14.4KB. The configuration file can vary greatly in size
depending on what is included; minimal configurations can be as small as
3.7KB, reasonable configurations vary between 25KB and 40KB – bringing
us to a total of 18KB to 55KB, i.e., roughly a small to medium sized
image. To learn more about configuring MathJax, see <a class="reference internal" href="../configuration.html#loading"><span class="std std-ref">our
documentation</span></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="mathematics-is-not-rendering-properly-in-ie-how-do-i-fix-that">
<h2>Mathematics is not rendering properly in IE. How do I fix that?<a class="headerlink" href="#mathematics-is-not-rendering-properly-in-ie-how-do-i-fix-that" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>First, please open the MathJax homepage at
<a class="reference external" href="https://www.mathjax.org">www.mathjax.org</a> in IE to see if that loads
correctly. If it does, this indicates that there may be something wrong
with the webpage you were trying to view initially. If appropriate,
upgrade the website to <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.mathjax.org/en/v2.6-latest/start.html#downloading-and-installing-mathjax">the latest version of
MathJax</a>. If the MathJax homepage
does
not display mathematics properly, there may be an issue with your
security settings in Internet Explorer. Please check the following
settings:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>“Active Scripting” under the Scripting section should be enabled, as
it allows JavaScript to run.</li>
<li>“Run ActiveX controls and Plugins” should be enabled (or prompted) in
the “ActiveX Controls and Plugins” section.</li>
<li>“Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting” needs to be
enabled (or prompted) in the same “ActiveX Controls and Plugins”
section. Note that it requires a restart of IE if you change this
setting.</li>
<li>“Font Download” has to be enabled (or prompted) in the “Downloads”
section. This is required for MathJax to use web-based fonts for
optimal viewing experience.</li>
</ul>
<p>You may need to select Custom Level security to make these changes. If
you have verified that the above settings are correct, tried clearing
your cache and restarting IE, and are still experiencing problems with
displaying mathematics on www.mathjax.org, we would appreciate it if you
reported the problem to the MathJax User Group so we can look into it.
Please follow the <a class="reference external" href="#problem-report">guidelines for reporting
problems</a> described below.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="some-of-my-mathematics-is-too-large-or-too-small-how-do-i-get-it-right">
<h2>Some of my mathematics is too large or too small. How do I get it right?<a class="headerlink" href="#some-of-my-mathematics-is-too-large-or-too-small-how-do-i-get-it-right" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MathJax renders mathematics dynamically so that formulas and symbols are
nicely integrated into the surrounding text - with matching font size,
margins, and baseline. So, in other words: it should look right. If your
mathematics is too large or too small in comparison to its surroundings,
you may be using the incorrect typesetting style. Following LaTeX
conventions, MathJax supports two typesetting styles: inline and
paragraph (or “display”) equations. For inline equations, MathJax tries
hard to maintain the inter-line spacing. This means things like
fractions and roots are vertically compressed, and smaller fonts are
used. Paragraph equations are shown as a separate paragraph and can be
displayed with more space and slightly larger fonts. The standard
delimiters for inline equations are <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\(...\)</span></code>, while for paragraph
equations they are <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$$...$$</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\[...\]</span></code>, but they can be
customized. For how to configure MathJax to scale all mathematics
relative to the surrounding text, check our documentation for <a class="reference internal" href="../options/output-processors/HTML-CSS.html#configure-html-css"><span class="std std-ref">the HTML
output</span></a> and
<a class="reference internal" href="../options/output-processors/SVG.html#configure-svg"><span class="std std-ref">the SVG output</span></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="how-do-i-access-the-mathjax-cdn-using-a-https-secure-connection">
<h2>How do I access the MathJax CDN using a https secure connection?<a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i-access-the-mathjax-cdn-using-a-https-secure-connection" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The MathJax CDN can be accessed via <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">https</span></code>. We advise to always use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">https</span></code>. For more
information, see <a class="reference internal" href="../start.html#secure-cdn-access"><span class="std std-ref">our documentation</span></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="my-mathematics-is-private-is-it-safe-to-use-mathjax">
<h2>My mathematics is private. Is it safe to use MathJax?<a class="headerlink" href="#my-mathematics-is-private-is-it-safe-to-use-mathjax" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Yes. MathJax is JavaScript code that is run entirely within the browser
of the user, and so your site’s actual content never leaves the browser
while MathJax is rendering. If you are using MathJax on the CDN, it
interacts with a web server to get font data but this is all put
together in the browser of the reader. In case you have concerns about
cross-site scripting, you can access the MathJax CDN service using the
secure <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">https</span></code> protocol to prevent tampering with the code between the
CDN and a browser. Or, if you prefer, you can
also install MathJax on your own web server. MathJax does not reference
script codes on other websites. The code is, of course, open source
which means that you can <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/mathjax/mathjax">review it and inspect its
integrity</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="does-mathjax-support-presentation-and-or-content-mathml">
<h2>Does MathJax support Presentation and/or Content MathML?<a class="headerlink" href="#does-mathjax-support-presentation-and-or-content-mathml" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MathML comes in two types: Presentation MathML, which describes what an
equation looks like, and Content MathML, which describes what an
equation means. By default, MathJax works with Presentation MathML
and offers an extension for Content MathML, see <a class="reference internal" href="../mathml.html#content-mathml"><span class="std std-ref">the
documentation on MathML
support</span></a>.
You can also convert your Content MathML expressions to
Presentation MathML using xslt, see for example David Carlisle’s <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/davidcarlisle/web-xslt">web-xslt
collection</a>. A more
detailed explanation of the difference between Content and Presentation
MathML can be found in the module <a class="reference external" href="https://cnx.org/content/m31620/latest/">“Presentation MathML Versus Content
MathML”</a> at cnx.org.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="how-do-i-create-mathematical-expressions-for-display-with-mathjax">
<h2>How do I create mathematical expressions for display with MathJax?<a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i-create-mathematical-expressions-for-display-with-mathjax" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>MathJax is a method to display mathematics. It is not an authoring
environment, and so you will need another program to create mathematical
expressions. The most common languages for mathematics on the computer
are (La)TeX and MathML, and there are many authoring tools for these
languages. MathJax is compatible with both MathML and (La)TeX. LaTeX
code is essentially plain text, and so you do not need a special program
to write LaTeX code (although complete authoring environments exist). If
you are not familiar with LaTeX, you will need some determination to
learn and master the language due to its specialized nature and rich
vocabulary of symbols. There are various good tutorials on the net, and
there is not a one-size-fits-all best one. A good starting point is the
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.tug.org/begin.html">TeX User Group</a>, or have a look at
the <a class="reference external" href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX">LaTeX Wiki book</a>.
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.w3.org/Math/">MathML</a> is an XML-based web format for
mathematical expressions. MathML3, the latest version, has been an
official W3C recommendation since October 2010. MathML is widely
supported by Computer Algebra Systems and can be created with a choice
of authoring tools, including Microsoft Office with the
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.dessci.com/en/products/MathType/">MathType</a> equation
editor. A list of software the supports MathML may be found in <a class="reference external" href="http://www.w3.org/Math/wiki/Tools">The W3C
MathML software list</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="i-ran-into-a-problem-with-mathjax-how-do-i-report-it">
<h2>I ran into a problem with MathJax. How do I report it?<a class="headerlink" href="#i-ran-into-a-problem-with-mathjax-how-do-i-report-it" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>If you come across a problem with MathJax, please report it so that the
development team and other users are aware and can look into it. It is
important that you report your problem following the steps outlined here
because this will help us to rapidly establish the nature of the problem
and work towards a solution effectively. If you have are experiencing a
problem, please follow these steps:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Have you cleared your browser cache, quit your browser, and restarted
it? If not, please do so first and check if the problem persists.
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache">These
instructions</a>
tell you how to clear your cache on the major browsers.</li>
<li>Have you turned of other extensions and plugins in your browser, and
restarted it?</li>
<li>Have a look at the math rendering examples on
<a class="reference external" href="https://www.mathjax.org">www.mathjax.org</a> to see if you experience
problems there as well. This might help you to determine the nature
of your problem.</li>
<li>If possible, check whether the problem has been solved in the latest
MathJax release, cf. <a class="reference internal" href="../installation.html#installation"><span class="std std-ref">the installation instructions</span></a>.</li>
<li>Search through the <a class="reference external" href="https://groups.google.com/group/mathjax-users">MathJax User
Group</a> to see if
anyone else has come across the problem before.</li>
<li>Found a real and new problem? Please report it to the <a class="reference external" href="https://groups.google.com/group/mathjax-users">MathJax User
Group</a> including the
following information:<ul>
<li>A detailed description of the problem. What exactly is not working
as you expected? What do you see?</li>
<li>The MathJax version you are working with, your operating system,
and full browser information including all version information.</li>
<li>If at all possible, a pointer to a webpage that is publicly
available and exhibits the problem. This makes sure that we can
reproduce the problem and test possible solutions.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-mathjax-font-folder-is-too-big-is-there-any-way-to-compress-it">
<h2>The MathJax font folder is too big. Is there any way to compress it?<a class="headerlink" href="#the-mathjax-font-folder-is-too-big-is-there-any-way-to-compress-it" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>No, there is no simple way to make the fonts folder smaller. We have
tried to make the fonts folder as small as possible, but in order to
render math on some older browsers, you need image fonts, which take up
most of the space. This is because you need an individual image file for
each character in each font in each of a dozen different sizes, and each
file must be at least the block size of the hard drive it is stored on
(usually 4 kb). With nearly 30,000 separate image files, this adds up to
a lot. Some users have suggested using a “sprite font” that has all the
characters in a single image, from which MathJax could show only the
particular character it wants. This is a nice idea, but it does not
work well in practice (at least not if you want it to work reliably
across multiple browsers). Since the image fonts are intended as a last
resort for browsers whose functionality is not well behaved, relying on
fancy CSS tricks to clip large images is not going to be a viable
strategy. This approach also has performance and printing problems.</p>
<p>The single-glyph-per-file approach has proven to be the only truly
reliable and maintainable approach that we have found. If you want to
disable image fonts altogether, however, in order to save space, you
can. <strong>Note:</strong> If you disable image fonts, MathJax might not work on
some users’ browsers. With image fonts disabled, users must either have
the MathJax or STIX fonts on their computer or their browser must
support the @font-face CSS directive. This means IE6+, Chrome, Safari
3.1+, Firefox 3.5+, and Opera 10+, or other browsers based on their
rendering engines. On earlier browsers (without local fonts) or if
webfonts are blocked , MathJax will not be able to render math reliably (though
it will try its best). To disable image fonts, edit the MathJax config
file at <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[MathJax]/config/MathJax.js</span></code> or the custom config inside your
template’s <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><script></span></code> tag and set imageFont to null.</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">imageFont</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">null</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will tell MathJax that there are no image fonts available and it
will no longer look for them. You can then delete the
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[MathJax]/fonts/HTML-CSS/TeX/png/</span></code> directory, which takes up the most
space in the fonts folder. Do <strong>*not*</strong> delete the other font directories,
as they are needed to handle @font-face for other browsers. For more
advanced reductions, see our <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax-grunt-cleaner">MathJax-grunt-cleaner</a> tool.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="why-is-mathjax-using-image-fonts-instead-of-web-fonts">
<h2>Why is MathJax using image fonts instead of web fonts?<a class="headerlink" href="#why-is-mathjax-using-image-fonts-instead-of-web-fonts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Web fonts are supported by all popular browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari,
Opera…) and they are scalable, which means much better display and print
quality. Clearly, you want to make sure this is working on your install of
MathJax. Here are several reasons web fonts might not be working for you:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>Config not specifying web fonts:</strong> Web fonts are enabled by
default, but double check your MathJax configuration if you have done
any tweaking. The default config file is at
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[MathJax]/config/defaults.js</span></code>. Don’t forget that you might have
custom config in the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><script></span></code> tag where you include MathJax in
your template. In your config, make sure you set <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">webFont:</span> <span class="pre">"TeX"</span></code>.
This will make MathJax try to load the TeX web font from the fonts
folder.</li>
<li><strong>MathJax times out waiting for fonts to arrive:</strong> You can tell by
entering <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">javascript:alert(MathJax.Message.Log())</span></code> into the URL
location type-in area (and pressing RETURN), and checking if there is
a message about switching to image fonts. This can happen in
particular if your network connection is relatively slow. In v2.0,
the timeout was lengthened somewhat, and MathJax will switch only if
the first font fails to arrive (if it succeeds in obtaining one font,
it assumes it can get the rest).</li>
<li><strong>Missing font files:</strong> In order for MathJax to send web font files
to the client, the font files need to be in the right place on the
server. Different browsers accept different font files, so there are
different folders for the various font files. Make sure that the eot,
otf, and svg folders are in the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[MathJax]/fonts/HTML-CSS/TeX/</span></code>
directory.</li>
<li><strong>Firefox local @font-face feature:</strong> Firefox’s interpretation of the
same-origin security policy is more strict than most other browsers,
and it applies to fonts loaded with the @font-face CSS directive.
Firefox will not load such fonts if they are stored outside the
directory containing the page that requests the fonts. That means
that if your MathJax directory is in a higher-level directory,
Firefox wont be able to read the font files from it when you load the
file locally (this does not affect MathJax when used from an actual
web server). In order to fix this, you can install the MathJax TeX
fonts in the system fonts folder on the computer where you are
viewing the files locally, or you can put the MathJax folder in the
same directory as (or a subdirectory of) the web page you are
viewing. A symbolic link to a MathJax installation at another
location should be sufficient, but that will depend on the operating
system. Neither of these is an ideal solution and we are looking for
a better one, if you find one, please let us know.</li>
<li><strong>Firefox font preferences:</strong> Firefox has a setting to disable the
use of webfonts, which forces MathJax to fallback to picture fonts.
You can change these settings under Edit => Preferences => Content =>
Fonts => Advanced => “Allow pages to select their own fonts instead
of my selections above”.</li>
<li><strong>IIS configuration:</strong> Microsoft’s IIS web server by default doesn’t
recognize files with unknown extensions such as .otf and .svg, and
doesn’t know how to serve them. This results in a <em>HTTP Error 404.3 -
Not Found</em> error message, causing MathJax to fall back to image
fonts. If you are using IIS, you can enable the delivery of these
file types by setting a custom mimetype configuration. See, for
example, <a class="reference external" href="http://madskristensen.net/post/Prepare-webconfig-for-HTML5-and-CSS3">Mads Kristensen’s
blog</a>
and <a class="reference external" href="http://www.paulirish.com/2010/font-face-gotchas/">Paul Irish’s
blog</a> for
instructions on how to do this (as well as more background
information).</li>
<li><strong>Cross-domain access on shared installations:</strong> When you are using a
shared installation, where MathJax is installed on a different server
than the webpages using it, Firefox’s and IE9’s same-origin security
policy for cross-domain scripting may prevent MathJax from loading
web fonts. This specific problem, and a possible resolution, are
described in more detail in these <a class="reference internal" href="../installation.html#cross-domain-linking"><span class="std std-ref">installation
instructions</span></a>.</li>
<li><strong>Local pages on IE9:</strong> IE9’s same-origin security policy, which also
affects shared installations (see above), has implications for the
viewing of local files (with a <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">file://[filename]</span></code> URL). See these
<a class="reference internal" href="../installation.html#ie9-local-fonts-solution"><span class="std std-ref">installation
instructions</span></a>
for details and a suggested resolution.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="why-doesn-t-the-tex-macro-something-work">
<h2>Why doesn’t the TeX macro <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\something</span></code> work?<a class="headerlink" href="#why-doesn-t-the-tex-macro-something-work" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>It really depends on what <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\something</span></code> is. We have a full list of the
<a class="reference internal" href="../tex.html#tex-commands"><span class="std std-ref">supported TeX
commands</span></a>. If the
command you want to use is not in this list, you may be able to define a
TeX macro for it, or if you want to get really advanced, you can define
custom JavaScript that implements it (see the files in the extensions
folder for some examples). Keep in mind that MathJax is meant for
typesetting <strong>math</strong> on the web. It only replicates the math
functionality of LaTeX and not the text formatting capabilities. Any
text formatting on the web should be done in HTML and CSS, not TeX. If
you would like to convert full TeX documents into HTML to publish
online, you should use a TeX to HTML converter like
<a class="reference external" href="http://dlmf.nist.gov/LaTeXML/">LaTeXML</a>,
<a class="reference external" href="http://www-sop.inria.fr/apics/tralics/">Tralics</a> or
<a class="reference external" href="http://www.tug.org/applications/tex4ht/mn.html">tex4ht</a>, but you should
realize that TeX conversion tools will never produce results as good as
controlling the HTML and CSS source yourself.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="what-should-ie-s-x-ua-compatible-meta-tag-be-set-to">
<h2>What should IE’s X-UA-Compatible meta tag be set to?<a class="headerlink" href="#what-should-ie-s-x-ua-compatible-meta-tag-be-set-to" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>We strongly suggest to follow Microsoft’s suggestion to use <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">IE=edge</span></code>. That
is, in the document <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre"><head></span></code> include</p>
<div class="highlight-default"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o"><</span><span class="n">meta</span> <span class="n">http</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">equiv</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"X-UA-Compatible"</span> <span class="n">content</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"IE=edge"</span><span class="o">></span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This will force all IE versions to use their latest engine which is the
optimal setting for MathJax. For more information, see the <a class="reference external" href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn384051(v=vs.85).aspx">Microsoft
documentation on compatibility modes</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="does-mathjax-support-tex-macros">
<h2>Does MathJax support TeX macros?<a class="headerlink" href="#does-mathjax-support-tex-macros" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Yes. You can define TeX macros in MathJax the same way you do in LaTeX
with <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\newcommand{cmd}{args}{def}</span></code>. An example is
<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\newcommand{\water}{H_{2}O}</span></code>, which will output the chemical formula
for water when you use the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\water</span></code> command. <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\renewcommand</span></code> works
as well. You can also store macros in the MathJax configuration. For
more information, see <a class="reference internal" href="../tex.html#tex-macros"><span class="std std-ref">the
documentation</span></a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="articleComments">
</div>
</div>
<footer>
<div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="footer navigation">
<a href="mathjax-in-use.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="MathJax In Use" accesskey="n" rel="next">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right"></span></a>
<a href="platforms.html" class="btn btn-neutral" title="Using MathJax in popular web platforms" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-left"></span> Previous</a>
</div>
<hr/>
<div role="contentinfo">
<p>
© Copyright 2017 The MathJax Consortium.
</p>
</div>
Built with <a href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> using a <a href="https://github.com/snide/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a> provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org">Read the Docs</a>.
</footer>
</div>
</div>
</section>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
URL_ROOT:'../',
VERSION:'2.7',
COLLAPSE_INDEX:false,
FILE_SUFFIX:'.html',
HAS_SOURCE: true,
SOURCELINK_SUFFIX: '.txt'
};
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/underscore.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/js/theme.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function () {
SphinxRtdTheme.StickyNav.enable();
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
|