Extension:Math/en

The Math extension provides support for rendering mathematical formulae. An overview of what can currently be done with this extension is available at m:Help:Displaying a formula.

More information about installing and configuring this extension, including for older versions, can be found at.

Viewing math
The Math extension tries to deliver MathML output, with fallback to images in SVG (converting characters to &lt;path>s) or PNG (least preferentially). Depending on the capabilities of the device you are using, the sort of output is chosen. Basic math support works for all browsers. However, for optimal rendering specific tuning may be needed:


 * For Firefox or other Gecko browsers, it is required to install the Native MathML extension and math fonts. Accessibility support is provided by NVDA, VoiceOver or Orca. Additionally, NVDA requires the MathPlayer plugin to read mathematics.
 * For Safari or other WebKit browsers, you may also install math fonts and enable native MathML rendering by inserting some CSS rules into the custom style sheet of your browser preference.

Accessibility support is provided by the VoiceOver screen reader but not by Orca yet.


 * For Chrome you must insert some CSS rules into the custom style sheet of your browser preference in order to get accessibility support via ChromeVox or visual rendering via the MathJax plugin.
 * In some versions of Internet Explorer, it is possible to use MathPlayer as an assistive technology.

Installation
You should additionally go to the page Special:MathStatus to see whether all of the components of the Math extension now work. For any problems you see, the best option is to create a task on https://phabricator.wikimedia.org

Unfortunately, there is no well tested guide on installing and  to work with the Math extension, but there is at least a working draft. please contribute.

In addition, there is a Guide for Installing and Setting up Mediawiki with Restbase and Mathoid in MW1.28.

Math output modes
The setting $wgMathValidModes holds an array with the names of output modes that can be used for rendering. If multiple modes are enabled, logged-in users can set a personal preference in the appearance pane of their user preferences page.

You can also use the $wgDefaultUserOptions setting to set which of these modes should be the default, e.g.:

Mathoid
Mode: 'mathml'

You can use Mathoid, an application that uses MathJax on the server side to convert texvc input to MathML+SVG rendering. This is the most recommended option; Mathoid is the Math rendering mode used on Wikipedia.

Mathoid as a service
"Mathoid as a service" is the recommended approach for the Math extension, and the default one. If you do not add any additional settings to LocalSettings.php, Math will use the Wikimedia Mathoid and services to do all math formula rendering. The default settings are:

You can modify these settings in order use different Mathoid and RESTBase services, potentially including your own.

Mathoid's CLI interface
You can instead run Mathoid as a command-line utility on the local server. This option is possibly easier to set up and will result in less permanent memory consumption. However, performance will probably be lower. To use this approach, the following settings are recommended:

LaTeX
Mode: 'png'

Since MediaWiki 1.32, this mode will also require a Mathoid server to work. In older versions, it requires installing texvc and texvccheck, which may require the most setup work.

LaTeXML
Mode: 'latexml'

Uses the LaTeXML utility. The rendering is done via an online service (set with $wgLaTeXMLUrl, which has a default value of https://latexml.formulasearchengine.com/convert).

No rendering
Mode: 'source'

This mode will forward the Latex input without rendering, presenting it in a element, surrounded by $ :formula $.

Make sure to set $wgMathDisableTexFilter to 'always' (see below) if you only want the raw latex formula, else an error will appear due to the failed check for PNG depictions.

Tracking categories
The extension creates a number of tracking categories to detect errors and deprecated features. The exact name of the categories is determined by pages in the MediaWiki namespace.

Tips and tricks

 * You can use the Firefox MathML copy addon to copy formulae to other applications such as Microsoft Word (video), or Google docs with the g(Math) plugin (video)
 * You can override the user preferred and default rendermode by adding the  attribute to the  element. e.g. to force an image being rendered.
 * All images of rendered formula are stored in a cache and not automatically recreated if the page is viewed or edited. To force the re-rendering of all formulas of a page, purge using the  action. For example the URL https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Integral&action=purge&mathpurge=true will force re-rendering of the Integer article. Afterwards you need to bypass your browser cache so that the new created images of the formulas are actually downloaded.

Error reporting
If something is wrong with the math extension you can report that at Phabricator. In addition you should check how your problem relates to the automated unit tests that are generated from the page CoverageTest.