Extension:Math/en

The Math extension provides support for rendering mathematical formulae. An overview of what can currently be done with this extension is found at the English Wikipedia's documentation.

This extension was part of core MediaWiki until MediaWiki version 1.18.

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 SVG or PNG images respectively. 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.

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' (pre-July 2015: MW_MATH_MATHML)

For MW 1.23 and higher, you can use a Mathoid server that uses MathJax to convert texvc input on the server side to MathML+SVG rendering. This is the most recommended option; Mathoid is the rendering mode that will be used on Wikipedia in the future.

To use Mathoid, the following settings are recommended:

See Mathoid for instructions on how to run your own Mathoid server.

LaTeX
Mode: 'png' (pre-July 2015: MW_MATH_PNG)

This is the mode that requires the most setup work, since at least the texvc utility has to be installed for it to work, and ideally texvccheck as well. See Installing texvc for how to install both of these.

LaTeXML
Mode: 'latexml' (pre-July 2015: MW_MATH_LATEXML)

Uses the LaTeXML utility. The rendering is done via an online service (set with $wgLaTeXMLUrl, which has a default value).

No rendering
Mode: 'source', (pre-July 2015: MW_MATH_SOURCE)

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

Make sure to set $wgMathFullRestbaseURL 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.

MathJax
Mode: MW_MATH_MATHJAX

This mode uses the MathJax application for client-side rendering. It is now deprecated, and requires MediaWiki 1.25 or lower in order to run. See Client-side rendering with MathJax for how to use it.

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)

Forcing a re-render of equations
Specifying the URL-parameter action=purge does not force the math equation to re-render the math tags. If a complete re-rendering of the math tags is desired the URL-parameter action=purge&mathpurge=true has to be passed. Be aware that this might cause side effects with other pages since the math extension uses the hash of the input TeX-input-string as the caching key. e.g. if you would force the re-rending with mathpurge option for a page containing the equation, the new rendering result would be used on all other pages containing   after the individual page caches are invalidated.

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.