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Draw a math symbol and get the corresponding LaTeX code

detexify.kirelabs.org Tools, games & demos Interactive tools & demos Mathematics & science Candidate
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Resurfaced independently across 13 calendar years, with breakout response in 3 of them.

submissions
19
submitters
18
observed span
2009–2026
peak thread · 38 comments
193 pts
latest 20+ return · 2023-11-14
173 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

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Just showed this to a math PhD grad student. Her eyes immediately lit up. She instantly determined that who ever made this, is in fact a genius. Great idea and great implementation. I have seen so much LaTeX frustration. This will definitely ease a lot of pain.

Related (but not identical), Facebook research just released an open source pdf -> markdown reader (that does a good job w/ equations in latex). https://facebookresearch.github.io/nougat/

Excellent tool! Used it heavily while writing my lecture summaries during my studies. Also, interesting to know: the backend was re-written in Haskell at one time; it gets mentioned in Daniel's thesis [0] http://danielkirs.ch/thesis.pdf

giu·144-point thread·

More than symbol names, I can never remember details about package options. To set uniform margins with the geometry package, is the keyword "margin" or "margins"? If I want to scale tgschola, is the keyword "scale" or "scaled"? Why don't package writers anticipate this? Similarly, depending on the font, the command to get an upright lowercase alpha is either \upalpha, \alphaup, \otheralpha, or something else. Why?

gaur·91-point thread·

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
3

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
702

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
135

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission