Hi, I write mathematics and physics lectures notes on Mac, using LaTex in Obsidian. Lately, I have found myself wanting to add images and figures similar to these in quality and detail. The author was using InkScape with a drawing tablet. But, I don't know how to do it without a drawing tablet. Are there any workaround? If not, which drawing tablet would you recommend, and why?

Hello community, this is my first post here. Thank you for reading it!

A while back, I wanted an MCP server for Overleaf that works on the normal Community Edition and CEP and can interface with the live editing functions. I couldn't find one, so I built one myself. It's still a very early prototype, so please try it on recoverable projects first and report any bugs you notice. I will do my best to fix it quickly.

The unique features of this project are:

• It uses the web API, not git integration. This allows it to be used with standard Overleaf CE, which doesn't have Git integration. Additionally, it can operate on other functions on Overleaf, not just using it as a file storage
• It also supports Overleaf CEP, with extra features for review workflows, GitHub integration, sandboxed compiling, and Zotero integration. It automatically detects the server's capabilities and exposes the correct toolset to clients.
• Running in both stdio and streamable HTTP mode for different client requirements

Supported tool sets include:

• Project tools: list, fetch, create, delete, and clone projects; download a project as a zip; list collaborators.
• File tools: read, list, create, rename, move, overwrite, patch, and delete files; create/refresh linked files
• Compile tools: trigger a compile (draft or full), fetch compile logs/errors, download an output file, and get a word count
• Editing tools: search across a project or within a file, outline a file's structure, and read a specific line range. This gives the AI agents more semantic information on a file
• Config tools: read/update project config: compiler, root document, main bibliography, spell-check language, and the sandboxed-compile TeX Live image
• Citation tools: list .bib files and their entries, look up a citation key, find where it's used, and check for broken/duplicate citations. This gives academic writing workflow a dedicated toolset to work with bibliography
• History tools: list project history, diff a file between versions, restore a file to a prior version, and manage history labels
• Review tools (CEP only): track changes and comment threads in reviewer mode
• GitHub tools (CEP only): Read GitHub sync state and trigger a sync
• Pandoc tools (CEP only): Export a whole project to .docx/Markdown/HTML, and import a .docx/.md file into a project

Because I don't have a paid subscription to Overleaf SaaS or a Server Pro license, I can't test some functions with the SaaS, so please assume they might not work. If you have the chance, feel free to test it and let me know!

I've been going in circles looking for how to do this. Is there a guide on how to set the math font plus babel[japanese,english]?

Unicode-math and mathfont are the two prospects that I've seen recommended but I haven't understood the docs well enough to make them work predictably with babel. For instance, the smallcaps sequence sometimes disappears, and sometimes the mathfont reverts to Computer Modern. It feels random but of course it won't be. It might depend on load order. I can't yet tell.

I'm hoping to set a single European typeface (maybe Minion Pro) for both text and math, plus regular+bf Japanese typefaces that is still to be chosen.

I have a few coauthors who insist on using Word. But I have a draft that is written in LaTeX with quite some formulas, what is the best and fastest way to convert this Tex file into a Word file without destroying the formulas? Thanks in advance!

Hi r/LaTeX — I’m the developer of DPaper, and I’d appreciate some honest technical feedback.

I’m currently a second-year student at National Taiwan University (NTU). I started building DPaper during my first year while writing a course report in LaTeX.

I was learning LaTeX from scratch, so even small formatting changes meant stopping to look up another command. Chat-based AI could generate LaTeX quickly, but describing visual changes through prompts was awkward. There was often a gap between what I meant and what it changed, and the returned source could be difficult to inspect and adjust.

DPaper is my attempt at a workflow where visual editing and optional AI assistance still produce visible, editable LaTeX.

Current features include:

• direct controls for sections, math, tables, lists, spacing, and indentation;
• reusable report templates;
• floating text and image frames that can be adjusted visually;
• AI-generated content inserted as editable LaTeX structures;
• PDF pages reconstructed as a new editable LaTeX representation.

An important qualification: DPaper does not recover the original .tex source. A PDF no longer contains the original macros, comments, package choices, bibliography setup, or author intent. DPaper approximates the visible layout and creates a new editable starting point.

The project is still an alpha. Complex equations, tables, multi-column reading order, custom packages, and scanned PDFs may fail or require manual correction. The demos are working examples, not benchmarks or claims of pixel-perfect reconstruction.

The alpha is currently free to try and accepts PDFs of up to three pages. Please do not upload confidential or unpublished documents during this testing stage.

GitHub project page:
https://github.com/AACHIWRONG/dpaper

6-minute demo:
https://youtu.be/UzQsH_3W_r4

Alpha:
https://dpaper.vercel.app

The GitHub page currently contains the documentation,gif demos, and known limitations.

After an initial launch in Taiwan, the alpha received around 1,800 site visits. That showed me there was some interest, but I still do not have enough feedback from experienced LaTeX users—which is why I’m bringing it here.

I’m especially interested in three questions:

1. Is PDF-to-editable-LaTeX reconstruction useful to you, or is it solving the wrong problem?
2. What would you need to see before trusting a visual editor to modify your LaTeX?
3. Which type of document would you expect to break this first?

I’m the author, so this is self-promotion in the literal sense. I’m posting because I want the idea and its technical boundaries challenged. Critical feedback and difficult test cases are more useful to me than stars.

Hello.

When I use " LuaLaTeX + View PDF " as quick build command, the PDF in the build-in viewer never refresh itself automatically, I need to refresh it manually to see the result.

Is there a way to make the " + View PDF " part work ?

The oldest reproducibility trap in latex is a doc that builds fine on overleaf and then explodes on your local texlive, because overleaf just has everything installed. missing .sty, undefined control sequence, the usual. the fix has always been discipline: pin your packages, keep the environment minimal, actually know what you depend on.

what's new, and kind of worse, is that the remote end doing the compiling isn't a static full install anymore. hand your .tex to one of these agent editors and it'll tlmgr install a package the second it hits an error, because from its side that's the path of least resistance. so the set of packages your document needs isn't fixed, it grows every time the agent digs itself out, and you don't really see it happen.

The way you notice is a build that was green for a while suddenly needs a package you never typed a \usepackage for. compiles everywhere the agent has touched, nowhere else.

so what's the actual move here, diff tlmgr state after each run, freeze the agent to a fixed package set, or just compile in the same container it uses so you never diverge?

• One paper per week
• Participants read the paper beforehand
• 10 min: paper overview
• 15 min: methods/statistics
• 15 min: results and figures
• 15 min: limitations/critical discussion
• 5 min: takeaways

Workshop will be completely free and surround around LaTeX and typst(optional)

What would people be more interested in talking about??

which field would be interesting - mathematics, physics, biology, engineering, computer science?

Hi everyone,

I hold a Master's degree in Geology (Geo-resources) and offer technical document formatting and scientific translation services for researchers, students, and technical projects.

Services Offered:

• LaTeX Typesetting: Converting raw Word documents, handwritten notes, or messy manuscripts into publication-ready PDFs (articles, tables, equations, citations).
• Scientific Translation (EN ↔ FR ↔ AR): High-accuracy technical translation specializing in Earth sciences, mining, raw materials, and energy.
• Document Cleanup: Fixing broken LaTeX code, overflow tables, and spacing issues.

Pricing: Starting at $10–$15 per task (depending on length and complexity).

Payouts: Exclusively accepting USDT via Binance Pay ID or RedotPay (Visa).

Turnaround: Fast delivery with complete .pdf and editable .tex source files provided.

PM/DM me here with your document details or word count for a quick quote! Sample PDF available upon request.

Hi,

So I used to edit latex with vim and then I moved to overleaf during a period I was jumping between computers and enjoyed the synchronization.

Now I'm getting annoying with the need for internet connection just to edit and I'm really enjoying using VS code (because I also got code related to my projects and it's nice that everything is in the same place), but I'm collaborating with someone using overleaf.

I saw that overleaf has built in git capabilities (that is, not through github) and it looks like it could work for my use case (i'll work on the file offline and push it at the end of the day or maybe twice a day), but I'm worried that I'll erase my collaborator's work, if we ever diverge into two branches.

I know I can look at the history on overleaf and I won't erase completely anything, but I don't want to bother myself with that kind of work.

Does anyone have experience working like this? is this normally working OK or is this a genuine risk I'll erase their work?

I'd also be happy to hear any other recommendations for working on VS code and synchronizing with overleaf!

Thanks in advance.

I've been working on a LaTeX (plus Markdown) editor that comes bundled with an engine (Tectonic, based on XeTeX) and would like your feedback.

Here's Deft. It's somewhat early in development. Bibliography management and PDF-source sync are planned but not there yet.

Would you find a local, live-preview based LaTeX editor (similar to Overleaf's live editor) useful? Also curious about whether anyone wants Markdown and LaTeX in the same editor.

Edit: This is not a WYSIWYG editor by any means. The live preview is only meant to make writing LaTeX a bit more pleasant by rendering some formatting and isn't forced.

https://github.com/forloop11/markdown-cornell-notes

A LaTeX and Markdown build pipeline that generates printable Cornell style note pages for meetings. Each page carries a header with topic, date, attendees, and time, a large notes panel with a cue column beside it, and a summary band below, all left blank for handwriting on the printout.

Header fields live in YAML and note content lives in Markdown, so the LaTeX template itself never needs hand editing. Python generator scripts convert both into TeX fragments, pandoc handles the Markdown to LaTeX conversion, and a single make command produces a PDF named automatically from the topic, date, and location fields. Content is measured and paginated automatically, with optional directives for forcing page breaks and for routing text into the cue column or summary band of a specific page.

The project also includes a Streamlit editor app that places the header form, a CodeMirror Markdown editor, and a live PDF preview side by side in the browser. The editor adds a formatting toolbar, slash command snippets, and autocomplete for asset paths and code fence languages. Its JavaScript bundle is vendored rather than loaded from a CDN so the app works offline, and it relies on native browser spellcheck rather than any app side state.

Built with Python, LaTeX, pandoc, Streamlit, CodeMirror, JavaScript, and Make. Released under the MIT license.

honestly, im gonna dump Word and start writing every document using LaTeX
i really love how efficient this format is, Word sucks.

Can someone identify this math font please

I've recently been having trouble concentrating when reading long LaTeX documents using the default Computer Modern font. I tried Lexend, but it didn't work for me.

What font do you use when writing, editing, and reading long LaTeX documents?

Hello, i come looking for latex wisdom. Whenever i got an equation environment
at the very end of a theorem environment, a large unaesthetic space is automatically generated (as in the attached photo). It can be removed with a negative \vspace, but I don't like it, because I have to go by "trial and error" to set it just at the right amount. Is there a more elegant, native way to do this?

Edit: source code is something like this, and the problem disappears if the label is taken away

\begin{teo}[name]
    My theorem with my equation
    \begin{equation*}
        Some math    
   \end{equation*}
    \label{mylabel}
\end{teo}
\begin{proof}
…
\end{proof}

I have tried, eb garamond, times new roman, palatino, tex gyre, Euler math, stix, but none of them matched,

I want to know the math font to be exact

Most of my writing lives in a multi-file setup. one main.tex and a folder of chapter files that each get \input, plus a preamble.sty full of macros I barely remember adding.

For the longest time the only place main-document detection ever bit me was opening a chapter file in a fresh editor and hitting compile out of habit, then drowning in errors because the fragment has no \documentclass. Dropping a % !TEX root line in the fragment mostly fixed that. editor reads the comment, builds the real root, moves on.

what i didn't expect is how much that little convention decides once something other than me is doing the compiling. i've been poking at editors that edit a chapter and then recompile on their own, and the whole thing quietly breaks if the compile step targets the file that just changed instead of the root. best case it compiles the fragment and floods you with errors. worse case, in a project with two \documentclass files lying around, it picks the wrong root and hands you a perfectly clean pdf of the wrong document.

so main-document resolution went from a convenience to the thing that decides whether hands-off compiling is even trustworthy. for the multi-file thesis crowd: do you put % !TEX root in every chapter file, or lean on the editor guessing the root? the guessing is the exact part i've stopped trusting. written with ai

fwiw Sundial compiles LaTeX across the whole workspace in a sandbox, not just the file you have open, and shows inline diffs of what the agent changed before it touches the manuscript, https://s4l.ai/r/wzxb7gxr

i use texstudio to compile my latex document, and it had error like this. what should i do?

Knurl is a small native macOS app (SwiftUI, Universal arm64+x86_64, macOS 15+)

for anyone who writes LaTeX on a Mac. Point it at a .tex project and it maps

every \usepackage to the correct TeX Live package, shows what's missing, and

installs it through tlmgr — only prompting for admin rights when a system-wide

install actually requires it.

- Detects missing TeX Live / BasicTeX and can install BasicTeX

- Glass/modern Sequoia UI, drag-and-drop, live log

- Free, MIT, source on GitHub

Site : https://gilsonolegario.github.io/knurl

Repo: https://github.com/gilsonolegario/knurl

Note: signed with a personal free Apple ID, not notarized, so first launch

needs the usual right-click → Open (or xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine).

Feedback and PRs welcome.

I am making a document class for a ttrpg game, but the example file is starting to get a little slow to compile. I know there are some ways to speed up compilation on the user end, but is there anything else I can do to make it faster by default?

Currently, I have split the project up into several packages which are loaded by the document class depending on the options passed into it. I fear the slow compilation times are due to using quite a few custom tcolorbox styles and icons defined by TikZ.

I recreated my hardcopy of the ESV Study Bible (for personal use only, observing all copyright protection and fair use to be legal) of all of it's nearly 3000 pages. I learned LaTex as I went!

• Features: hyperlink navigation system
• includes all charts (which I redrew with tiki functions) and images. I even added the images that spanned two pages onto a single landscape view
• includes all margin references, which are hyperlinked
• included all footnotes, with a color coded template
• included a topical concordance, with a colored tempate of entries, hyperlinked back to the verse.

This was an amazing project ... I used python to reformat three raw text streams: the margin references, the main text, and the commentary.

I made a private youtube video a few months before it was complete, where most of the progress is shown in the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Su4eJp1DY&t=1704s

I'm fairly new to LaTeX and have been looking into different options for collaborative writing.

Overleaf seems to be the obvious choice, but one of the reasons I started looking around is the cost once you need more than the free plan offers. I'm curious whether there are good alternatives, particularly for university projects, theses and research.

So far I've come across:

Overleaf

• Easy to get started
• Good real-time collaboration
• Large community and lots of documentation
• Well-established workflow
• Can get relatively expensive depending on your needs

Inscrive

• Browser-based collaborative LaTeX editor
• Unlimited collaborators
• Integrations with reference managers and GitHub
• Real-time collaboration
• EU-hosted with EU sovereign cloud infrastructure (I do like the idea of supporting European alternatives)
• The free plan seems to offer a lot of value, including unlimited collaborators
• Pro plan is €7/month

CoCalc

• LaTeX combined with programming and other technical tools
• Good for collaborative and technical projects
• Built-in version history
• Useful for reproducible research with code, data and LaTeX in the same environment
• Seems more complex if you only need LaTeX

Local LaTeX + Git

• Full control and proper version control
• No dependency on a hosted platform
• Complete project history and easy rollback to previous versions
• Each collaborator has a full copy of the repository and its history
• Works well with different editors and custom workflows
• More setup and a steeper learning curve for collaboration

I'm sure there are plenty of options I'm missing.

For people who use LaTeX regularly:
What do you use for collaborative projects, and why?

I'm particularly interested in the trade-offs around price, ease of use, collaboration, version control, bibliography management, reliability, data integrity and privacy/data hosting.

Are there any tools or workflows you would recommend to someone starting today?

And what alternatives should I be looking at that aren't on this list? 

I'm mainly trying to get a feel for what's actually out there, including the downsides. I don't necessarily expect there to be one "best" solution.