LaTeX in Slack

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LaTeX in Slack

3,000 users

2019-11-25

Sophie Huiberts

Extension Information

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Supported Languages

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Description

Render LaTeX in Slack chat.

Renders LaTeX math formulas in Slack.
Similar to the Chrome extension math-with-slackb, except this plugin uses
the KaTeX library instead of MathJax for better compatibility with the
latest version of Slack.


Usage instructions:
Mostly works like standard LaTeX.

Default delimiters are as follows (this avoids issues with dollar signs being used for other purposes):

Inline math:
\( .. \)
$$ .. $$

Display math:
\[ .. \]
$$$ .. $$$

Alternatively, in the options of the extension one can also choose to work with the usual LaTeX delimiters:

Inline math:
\( .. \)
$ .. $

Display math:
\[ .. \]
$$ .. $$


Newlines in formulas can be inserted with \newline. Double backslash \\ is ignored.

Blackboard bold letter shorthands:
\R is short for \mathbb{R}
\N is short for \mathbb{N}
\Z is short for \mathbb{Z}


Downloads:
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/latex-in-slack/
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/latex-in-slack/pfcfelfnpbnboelkjedecjipaibpnfja


Troubleshooting:
1.
Slack uses _ for _italics_ and * for *boldface*. This can interfere with your LaTeX formatting if your message
has multiple underscores or asterisks in it.
The developers of Slack are not big on having a consistent way to escape these special characters, but you can try:
a) escaping using two backslashes: $$\bar\chi^{\\*}\\_W$$
A single backslash is interpreted by the LaTeX rendering library as part of a command, but two of them will be ignored.
b) putting spaces around it: $$\bar\chi^ * _ W$$

2.
Sometimes Slack does something funny to double space " " making the plugin unable to recognize a piece of LaTeX
that contains it, like $$\R $$.


Plugin by Sophie Huiberts and Bento Natura (2019-2020).
Option to choose $/$$/$$$ delimiters added by Nicolas Boumal (2020).

Licenced under the MIT licence.


katex.js is taken straight from the KaTeX project, from the url
https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/[email protected]/dist/katex.js
as indicated by
https://katex.org/docs/browser.html

auto-render.js is adapted from the KaTeX project:
https://github.com/KaTeX/KaTeX/blob/master/contrib/auto-render/auto-render.js

This plugin is not associated with the KaTeX project
nor with Slack or Slack Technologies, Inc.