How to send an email with LaTeX

Question

Risking of this question being closed, I'm just wondering if any of your use ---or know--- of any email platform that supports writing in LaTeX.

I made a quick search around the site and found this question:

LaTeX on Gmail (GmailTex?)

So I'm guessing Gmail is not supporting it... or at least that seemed so as of 2012. Maybe this changed in the last year?

But what about other services? Do you know if Yahoo!, hotmail, or any other in particular is capable of handling it? How do you send e-mails with LaTeX?

PS: Using an editor and then attaching the pdf is not a valid answer :P

For the math part you can use the thunderbird addon LaTeX It — student, Jun 08 '13 at 13:16
\immediate\write18 outlook.exe can be used to run outlook from inside the TeX input file. — kiss my armpit, Jun 08 '13 at 13:27
Note that the answer you reference is out of date: the current version of GmailTeX (as of June 8, 2013) seems to work fine. — Charles Staats, Jun 08 '13 at 13:56
Email, as it is currently standardised, simply does not support LaTeX – it supports plain text or (simplified) HTML, and that’s it (as far as I know). That’s not to say that individual email clients all comply with that standard and don’t add their own extensions … — Konrad Rudolph, Jun 09 '13 at 02:03
I do not know and I really do not care if any platform supports writing e-mails in LaTeX even though that I use TeX/LaTeX circa 1992. E-mail messages should be pure text-files preferably only ascii for languages which use Latin characters. They should be wrapped to 72 characters so that can be displayed in standard terminal 80x24 so that people who use text-based mailers can actually read them. For the record I use heirloom mailx. — Predrag Punosevac, Jun 09 '13 at 04:30
I think in Emacs email client it's somehow possible to get a preview of LaTeX fragments. — giordano, Jun 09 '13 at 09:10

score 64 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '13 at 13:55

64

On some browsers you can install an extension called Markdown Here, which is capable of rendering markwdown syntax into HTML in some rich-editing boxes. In particular it works with the Google Mail composing message box.

Admittedly, markdown is not LaTeX, but you get anyway a simple and familiar syntax (it is the one used here at stackexchange) to format your messages. In addition, it supports TeX equations (you surround them with dollars), but the method is sub-optimal, since it calls google to render them (did you know that google can render TeX math into images? I didn't) and paste a link to the resulting image. This feature is disabled by default for privacy issues.

Here is a pair of screenshots of the compose box, first while I write the message:

Then after converting it (Ctrl-Alt-M or toolbar button):

answered Jun 28 '13 at 13:55

JLDiaz

55,732

5

Now, the real subquestion: why are there privacy issues? – Mario S. E. Jun 28 '13 at 14:22
29

@MarioS.E. Your formula is converted to a tag, whose src points to a google service, so the image is not part of the email, but instead it is rendered and fetched when the mail is read. This can serve to track (at least by google) when the mail is read. Some people deactivates external images in emails for this reason, and thus they won't see the formula. Also, the code of the formula is shared with google, which is again a privacy issue (perhaps it is a secret formula! :-) – JLDiaz Jun 28 '13 at 14:25
1

Will the math display on the recipient's side if the recipient doesn't use Gmail? – tvk Jan 26 '15 at 17:36
4

@FangJing Yes. The plugin translates your markdown into standard HTML, replacing equations with <img> tags. Then Gmail sends your message as a multi-part MIME message. One part contains "plain text" which should be visible in any email client (but you loss formatting and equation). The other part is HTML visible in any html-capable email client (almost all, nowadays). This client could block however the rendering of the IMG, because it contains a link to an external site. Nevertheless, the image contains a text-version in its alt attribute. – JLDiaz Jan 27 '15 at 14:53
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Why won't it convert it to MathML? – gerrit Apr 17 '15 at 22:55
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@gerrit: Mathml currently is supported only in Firefox and Safari. Hence currently it is no option for emails. Try e.g. looking at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/MathML_Project/MathML_Torture_Test with Chrome. Sadly though, currently the extension doesn't seem to support equations in Gmail at all (they are displayed as plain source after conversion). – kdb Apr 29 '15 at 11:13

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '14 at 11:56

23

Maybe it's too late to answer now, but what about Thunderbird? Thunderbird is open source software. You just have to install "LaTeX It" (it's an addon in Thunderbird). Hope it helped :-)

Some information about the Addon. But download it directly in Thunderbird addon center! That's easier than installing it by the link.

answered May 14 '14 at 11:56

Conrad Kopernikus

559

Unfortunately the LaTex It add-on doesn't work with Thunderbird 78 or later. – remcycles Jul 18 '23 at 14:18

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 22 '20 at 20:01

21

There is a Chrome extension called TeX for Gmail (available from the Chrome Web Store), which can typeset math expressions, equations, and theorems, among other things. I experimented with it and it has been working for me.

edited Apr 22 '20 at 20:01

Sebastiano

54,118

answered Jan 26 '15 at 17:56

tvk

1,637

7

I want to point out that this extension has been significantly streamlined in the past year and is now very polished. I use it daily. Crucially, it allows you to quickly convert an image back to the original TeX, modify it, and then re-convert to an image. The messages seem to look good to non-Gmail users and Gmail users alike. Highly recommended. – Jess Riedel Jul 08 '16 at 16:04
I saw in several places (like here: http://mathandmultimedia.com/2012/03/20/using-latex-in-gmail/) a claim that it has a Firefox version as well. But I couldn't find such a version. Does anyone know if it exists? And if not - of an alternative? – et_l Oct 05 '20 at 08:53
Here's an explanation of how TeX for Gmail works: http://alexeev.org/help.html – krumpelstiltskin Dec 07 '20 at 15:33
TeX for Gmail works like Markdown Here by replacing equations with links to a LaTeX --> image converter. This leads to potential security issues, as some mail programs block external images by default (see http://alexeev.org/help.html) – divenex Nov 21 '23 at 21:12

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 28 '13 at 13:10

On Mac OS X, one can install the utility LaTeXiT: http://www.chachatelier.fr/latexit/ which will allow one to type LaTeX in any Mac OS X app which understands Services and will accept an image, and then Typeset the equations in place, replacing them w/ a .pdf in situ.

The recipient will receive a .pdf as an attachment (it will display in-line on mail programs which display .pdfs), and then may invoke LaTeXiT's ``linkback'' support to untypeset the equations, reverting them to their source form (the source is attached to the .pdf as an attachment).

Thanks (from the far future) for this suggestion, I've been using latexit but never thought of trying to invoke it as a service! — Se314en, May 01 '20 at 16:39

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 19 '17 at 17:18

As an old-school (and quite primitive) alternative I may suggest using ascii-art to render LaTeX. The only requirement is that both of you need to use monospaced font:

     +-+                              
 ,- \|x   2                              
 | e    /x    dx                              
-'

Quite obviously it has a limited use.

There are scripts to make the formulas from latex, the above was generated with tex2mail. One can add some unicode to it to produce nicer output:

┬─┬oo ⎛   1  ⎞   ⎛ ┬─┬oo   1   ⎞-1           1            1     6 
│ │   ⎜ 1-── ⎟ = ⎜ │ │   ───── ⎟   = ───────────────── = ──── = ──  ≈ 61%
┴ ┴p  ⎜    2 ⎟   ⎜ ┴ ┴p     -2 ⎟         1    1          ζ(2)    2
      ⎝   p  ⎠   ⎝       1-p   ⎠     1 + ── + ── + ∙∙∙          π 
                                          2    2
                                         2    3

But be careful, not all monospaced unicode is rendered as truly monospaced.

Also helpful https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/149303/software-to-render-formulas-to-ascii-art

Humanity spent centuries to arrive at cat videos, yet we are stuck in ASCII art — percusse, Oct 19 '17 at 22:37

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 25 '21 at 22:01

5

Here is an obvious but super useful point, at least for me:

To insert LaTeX into an email composed in Outlook or some other mail client, first compose the message in Gmail using Alexeev's TeX for Gmail, then copy and paste it into your mail client's compose window! Of course, all mail client must be composing in HTML.

answered Sep 25 '21 at 22:01

Omar Hijab

71

1

Welcome to TeX.SE! – Mensch Sep 25 '21 at 22:24
Underrated answer! – odea Mar 27 '23 at 16:12

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 25 '19 at 08:51

0

Recently I have found the following Chrome extension with the help of which it is possible to send email with MathJaX equations (however I am not sure whether to read the sent emails if the receiver also needs to add the extensions). The extensions is, Math Anywhere.

edited Dec 25 '19 at 08:51

Kevin O'Bryant

153
5

answered Aug 18 '17 at 05:22

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 22 '20 at 16:23

Just wanted to mention that KLatexFormula is extremely easy to use, lets you copy and paste images directly into email text fields (works on email clients that aren't in browser), and has a formula history that you can use in case you messed up and want to go back to a previous image without having to type out the whole formula again.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 15 '20 at 05:49

0

Go to https://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php

Write LaTex in above textarea. Select svg in below and select font size as your wish. Now copy the image (svg) only now paste it in your Gmail.

That's it (•‿•)

answered Sep 15 '20 at 05:49

Farhan

1

"PS: Using an editor and then attaching the pdf is not a valid answer :P" I suppose OP meant attaching an SVG file is also not a solution. – andselisk Sep 15 '20 at 08:21

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 03 '21 at 10:28

0

I have just noticed that Thunderbird, without add-ons, now allows inserting Mathematics as LaTex code and will display it using MathML. In other mail clients you can more or less read the original LaTeX.

answered Jun 03 '21 at 10:28

jmatos

1

This doesn't happen for me in Thunderbird 102. – remcycles Jul 18 '23 at 17:05
Ah, you have to "Insert -> Math..." from the menu bar. It won't pick up on equations in the body of the email automatically, even when surrounded with $, $$, or . – remcycles Jul 18 '23 at 17:11

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 30 '21 at 21:42

The Google Charts API service (https://developers.google.com/chart) includes typesetting LaTeX math snippets as images, which can then be included as an inline image in the email with Insert Photo -- Web Address (URL). For example,

In terms of the syntax, in the URL below replace the LaTeX math expression following "chl=" with your own LaTeX math expression. This is tedious and useful only for small snippets.

https://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}

Google Charts API is the service used by Markdown Here to render LaTeX into emails, as mentioned in one of the previous answers (see https://markdown-here.com/) — divenex, Nov 21 '23 at 21:20

How to send an email with LaTeX

11 Answers11

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