Easy WP LaTeX

Easy WP LaTeX provides a very easy way to display equations or mathematical formulas (typed in as TeX or LaTeX code) in your posts. It lets you customize colors and sizes of your equations to match your blog theme.

Live Demo

If you would like to see this plugin action, visit this physics post. You can even play with its admin interface at the live demo site.

Most LaTeX/equation plugins I have seen suffer from a few drawbacks.

  1. They require installations of TeX or other packages on your server.
  2. They are fairly inflexible in terms of colors of text and background.
  3. Each time you switch your theme, you have to re-configure your color scheme.
  4. They may not let you choose how to input LaTeX code. ([math]...[/math] or $$...$$) without editing the plugin code.

My plugin aims to be flexible, and easy to install (no geeky code editing etc.). It is now available in your own language using machine translation curtsey of Google and Microsoft.

Pro Version

This release is the freely distributed version of Easy WP LaTeX. It is fully functional. But the Pro Version gives you more features and benefits.

  1. In the Pro version, the plugin caches the formula images so that your pages load faster.
  2. You also get an option to align the formula image with respect to the text around it by tweaking the vertical alignment of your equations.
  3. Option to store the images in the database using WP transients API for potentially faster page loads.

New features and bug fixes will first appear in the Pro version before being ported to this freely distributed edition.

Alternatives

  1. Latex for WordPess by zhiqiang, on which this plugin is based, has caching and JS based image generation. But it lacks intuitive color matching and theme-dependent settings.
  2. JetPack also lets you insert LaTeX formulas, again color matching is not easy.

Installation

Searching

The easiest way to install this plugin is to use the WordPress Admin interface. Go to your admin dashboard, find the "Plugins" menu, and click on "Add New". Search for this plugin and click on "Install Now" and follow the WordPress instructions.

Uploading

If you want to download it and manually install, you can again use the WordPress dashboard interface. First download the plugin zip file to your local computer. Then go to your admin dashboard, find the "Plugins" menu, and click on "Add New". After clicking on the "Add New" menu item as above, click on "Upload" (below the title "Install Plugins" near the top). Browse for your downloaded zip file, upload it and activate the plugin.

To install the professional version of the plugin, please deactivage the Lite version (if any) first. Then upload the zip file that you download after your purchase using the WordPress admin interface shown below.

[install]

The plugin is updated also by following the same process, preferably from the plugin Admin page where you will see a file-upload form when an update is ready. The first update for your purchased plugin is always free.

Screenshots

  1. How to set the options for Easy WP LaTeX.  Screenshot [easy-wp-latex] 1
  2. Easy WP LaTeX in action - on my own blog.  Screenshot [easy-wp-latex] 2

Change Log

  • V5.20: Compatibility with WP4.8. Sunset edition. [Aug 1, 2017]
  • V5.10: Compatibility with WordPress 4.5. [May 12, 2015]
  • V5.01: Minor interface and documentation changes. [Feb 25, 2016]
  • V5.00: Deprecating translation interface in favor of Google translation. [Feb 23, 2016]
  • V4.90: Compatibility with WordPress 4.4. [Dec 5, 2015]
  • V4.82: Refactoring changes. [Nov 7, 2015]
  • V4.81: Enhancements in the admin interface. [Oct 17, 2015]
  • V4.80: Adding a filter to ensure that post excerpts show equations as well. Adding an option (in the Pro version) to cache equations in the database and moving the cache directory to WP uploads folder. [Sep 16, 2015]
  • V4.71: Documentation changes. [Sep 13, 2015]
  • V4.70: Compatibility with WordPress 4.3. [Aug 10, 2015]
  • V4.60: Compatibility with WordPress 4.2. [April 25, 2015]
  • V4.51: Launching a demo site. [April 11, 2015]
  • V4.50: Admin page and documentation changes. [April 8, 2015]
  • V4.30: Compatibility with WP4.1. [Jan 8, 2015]
  • V4.21: Minor change to the admin interface. [Sep 9, 2011]
  • V4.20: Compatibility with WP4.0. [Sep 7, 2014]
  • V4.13: Updating a few language files, minor documentation changes. [Jun 18, 2014]
  • V4.12: Updating a few language files, minor documentation changes. [Jun 18, 2014]
  • V4.11: Compatibility with WordPress V3.9. [Apr 18, 2014]
  • V4.10: Major refactoring changes in options handling. [Apr 16, 2014]
  • V4.00: Major changes to the design -- adding a translation interface, getting ready to change options handling. [Mar 24, 2014]
  • V3.41: Minor compatibility and documentation changes. [Dec 27, 2013]
  • V3.40: Compatibility checks for WordPress V3.8. Admin page enhancements. [Dec 19, 2013]
  • V3.30: Compatibility checks for WordPress V3.7. [Nov 11, 2013]
  • V3.20: Now available in your own language using machine translation curtsey of Google and Microsoft. [May 22, 2013]
  • V3.12: Documentation changes only. [Apr 6, 2013]
  • V3.11: Bug fixes (Fatal error: Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed). [Jan 28, 2013]
  • V3.10: Admin interface modifications. [Sep 30, 2012]
  • V3.05: Taking care of some debug notices from WordPress debug mode. [Aug 28, 2012]
  • V3.04: Testing for WP3.41. [July 11, 2012]
  • V3.03: Renaming the plugin -- dropping the word Lite. [May 7, 2012]
  • V3.02: Minor bug fix. [Apr 21, 2012]
  • V3.01: Documentation changes and minor code cleanup. [Apr 21, 2012]
  • V3.00: Lite version release to WP repository. [Mar 3, 2012]
  • V2.01: Documentation and admin-page display changes. Non-critical. [Aug 30, 2011]
  • V2.00: Renaming the plugin to Easy WP LaTeX to avoid name clash with another program (unrelated to WordPress). [Jun 23, 2011]
  • V1.40: Making caching optional, improving the admin page interface, W3C certification. [Jul 15, 2009]
  • V1.31: Coding improvements, replacing "absmiddle" attribute with style:vertical-align. [Jan 5, 2009]
  • V1.30: Theme-specific configurations saved, so that if you switch back and forth between themes, you don't have to change the settings. [Dec 28, 2008]
  • V1.20: Tested with Wordprss 2.7. Style modifications in the Admin-menu page to match the new Wordprss. [Dec 13, 2008]
  • V1.10: Added a color picker to customize the color. (Color picker by http://jscolor.com). Implemented Wordpress style sheets for better look and feel integration. Added an option to change the output font size. Coding improvements. [Dec. 7, 2008]
  • V1.01: Added "Settings" link to the WP plugin page. [Nov 30, 2008]
  • V1.00: Initial release. [Nov 29, 2008]

Frequently Asked Questions

How come there is not a single frequently asked question?

Two possible reasons.

  1. Easy WP LaTeX is so simple and straight-forward that no question could be thought of.
  2. More likely, the plugin is too new for any questions.

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