LaTeX equivalent to Google Chart API

Question

I'm currently looking at different solutions getting 2 dimensional mathematical formulas into webpages. I think that the wikipedia solution (generating png images from LaTeX sourcecode) is good enough until we get support for MathML in webbrowsers.

I suddenly realized that it might be possible to create a Google Charts API equivalent for mathformulas. Has this already been done? Is it even possible due to the strange characters involved in LaTeX-code?

I would like to hit an url like latex2png.org/api/?eq="E = mc^2" and get the following response: e=mc^2

edit: Thanks for the answers sofar. However, I am already aware of several tools to generate png images from latex source code (both online and from my commandline), but what I was looking for was a simple way to get the image via an Http GET request. Perhaps such a service does not exist.

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 23 '21 at 14:18

27

Update

As @hughes (and others) pointed out, the previous Google Chart API has been deprecated.

The example I wrote still works as of Sept 2015, but a new one shall be used now (documentation):

Old answer

Google Chart can do it (Documentation):

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=%5CLaTeX

I'm using this with Google Docs, because it doesn't support math yet.

edited Jul 23 '21 at 14:18

General Grievance

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answered Sep 04 '09 at 19:15

AkiRoss

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This API is deprecated and will be removed in April 2015. – hughes Dec 16 '13 at 21:13
Using the Auto-Latex equations add-on, one can easily use Google Docs to render beautiful, high-quality LaTeX math! – John Targaryen Sep 17 '15 at 02:48
So where is currently the new Google API to convert formula's to an image? I looked at https://developers.google.com/chart but can't find an example to convert a fomula – A.W. Dec 04 '19 at 16:19
Hm... I guess they never turned it off then. It still seems to be working. – General Grievance Jul 23 '21 at 12:30

FDisk · Answer 2 · 2022-04-11T08:27:29.330

12

chart.apis.google with background color changed

alt text

https://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chf=bg,s,FFFF00&chl=%0D%0A4x_0%5CDelta%28x%29%2B3%5CDelta%28x%29%2B2%5CDelta%28x%5E2%29%3E0%0D%0A

or chart.apis.google with background color transparent and resized

For better readability URL needs to be decoded.

https://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chs=428x35&chf=bg,s,FFFFFF00&chl=
4x_0\Delta(x)+3\Delta(x)+2\Delta(x^2)>0

Data structure looks like this

{
  "cht":"tx",
  "chs":"428x35",
  "chf":"bg,s,FFFFFF00",
  "chl":"n4x_0\Delta(x) 3\Delta(x) 2\Delta(x^2)>0"
}

alt text

https://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chs=428x35&chf=bg,s,FFFFFF00&chl=%0D%0A4x_0%5CDelta%28x%29%2B3%5CDelta%28x%29%2B2%5CDelta%28x%5E2%29%3E0%0D%0A

edited Apr 11 '22 at 08:27

answered Sep 25 '09 at 07:43

FDisk

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Looks like the 72pines host is dead. – General Grievance Jul 23 '21 at 13:52
@Calculuswhiz - yes sad :( – FDisk Aug 09 '21 at 14:23

Galwegian · Answer 3 · 2009-02-05T15:46:16.500

9

You could try the Online image generator for mathematical formulas for a start.

mathurl is a mathematical version of TinyURL.com. It allows you to reference LaTeXed mathematical expressions using a short url. For example, http://mathurl.com/?5v4pjw will show [LaTeX output Image] which you can then edit. More details on mathurl’s help page

edited Feb 05 '09 at 15:46

answered Feb 05 '09 at 15:40

Galwegian

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this service requires you to first POST an equation and then GET the image. I would like to embed the equation in the URL – Jonas Feb 05 '09 at 16:35

Weston Ruter · Answer 4 · 2021-07-23T17:56:33.340

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I just ran across MathJax on Ajaxian [via Wayback Machine]:

MathJax seems to have a chance at being a practical solution that offers a high quality display of LaTeX and MathML math notation in HTML pages.

The output is remarkably beautiful, and it's all pure HTML and CSS, which makes it scalable and selectable. Performance is currently a bit sluggish, but this is recognized.

edited Jul 23 '21 at 17:56

answered Dec 23 '09 at 17:20

Weston Ruter

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 05 '09 at 15:48

1

As everyone has said, there are many services that do this already. Here is another easy one that I've used a number of times (and you can install it locally on your server if necessary):
http://www.codecogs.com/components/equationeditor/equationeditor.php

answered Feb 05 '09 at 15:48

nlucaroni

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I think this is the equivalent now: https://editor.codecogs.com/ – General Grievance Jul 23 '21 at 13:29

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 31 '17 at 13:51

Please check out this site for a way to create TeX documents without any software installed. You can then snippet the result image with any screen capture method and embed the resulting image into a any website.

Go to http://sharelatex.com

The software is free to use, but you need to register to create documents.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 05 '09 at 15:39

0

I'd take a good look at how the MediaWiki LaTeX support does it and borrow from there.

answered Feb 05 '09 at 15:39

Joachim Sauer

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LaTeX equivalent to Google Chart API

7 Answers7

Update

Old answer

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