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I need mathematics on a WordPress site and I'm having trouble finding a suitable LaTeX plug-in. I've tried several solutions including MathJax (which is slow and renders inconsistently) and the WP QuickLaTeX plugin which works well but does not allow displayed equations (only inline equations) and stores all images on an external site.

I'd like a plugin that allows inline and displayed equations, stores images locally and does not take an age to render the maths on a page. Does it exist?

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I'm developer of WP-QuickLaTeX plugin. It is developed for mathematicians driven by feeling that math doesn't deserve to be published with poor quality on the Web.

In fact, besides correct formula positioning and meaningful error messages, WP-QuickLaTeX can store images on a local server too.

How to do that is explained on WP-QuickLaTeX home page:

"If you want maximum performance you might create ql-cache folder in wp-content. It will be used by WP-QuickLaTeX for caching necessary data to decrease loading time of your pages. Just make sure ql-cache is writable (by chmod 777 or through File Manager in cPanel)."

Soon we will release new version of the plugin. It will include such features:

  • Precise adjustment of font size (in pixels). Rendering in specified size will be done by high-quality rendering engine (with anti-aliasing, etc.) not by image interpolation.
  • Adjustment of foreground and background colors. Now we use black color for text and transparent background. New version will allow to set up colors a-la HTML/CSS way (i.e. using hex digits for RGB: #FFFFFF for white, #FF0000 for red, etc.)
  • Settings page in administrator dashboard for tuning up.

Anyone interested could check test page for the QuickLaTeX.com. I would appreciate any feedback (please leave comments on WP-QuickLaTeX home page or send me email via [email protected]).

Besides we have many plans for the future - stay tuned.

As for displayed equations, you can use LaTeX command \displaystyle to force this mode. And yes, another problem is that some environments cannot be used in inline mode. But there are exist some workarounds (like using aligned instead of align environment). Please use it for the moment. We are planning to implement displayed math mode in future versions.

2010-10-25 Update:
New version of WP-QuickLaTeX has been released. It includes displayed equations and custom LaTeX document preamble among other new features. I would appreciate any feedback on its usage.

2011-02-08 Update:
Now it allows native LaTeX syntax directly in the posts, display equations numbering, tikZ graphics, etc.

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  • Thanks Pavel. I didn't know about the local storage. I look forward to seeing the displayed math mode when you implement it.
    – Rob Hyndman
    Sep 8, 2010 at 11:08
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You didn't mention WP-LaTeX in your question, so if you haven't looked at it yet, I would encourage you to do so. While I don't think display mode is supported, it does have support for various font sizes and some other nice features, and is built and supported by Automattic. The plugin uses their LaTeX-ing service and, while very fast, it would be possible for you to create equivalent queries and cache the result images on your own server.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-latex/

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  • Thanks. I had also tried that one once before. You're right that it doesn't support display mode. Also, the vertical alignment of symbols is poor, while WP QuickLaTeX is very good on that score. Though WP-LaTeX does have the advantage of storing images locally which is one of my requirements.
    – Rob Hyndman
    Sep 2, 2010 at 6:07
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WPtex is an old project and is a solution for your question, please google for this. Maybe i can send my version via mail , when you like.

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  • WPtex seems to be a php program for converting WordPress posts into tex files. That is not what I want. I need something to render equations on a WordPress site.
    – Rob Hyndman
    Sep 1, 2010 at 0:29
  • How to render equations? It is not enough to export in a stream ans use this for the next steps?
    – bueltge
    Sep 1, 2010 at 5:01
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If you're able to install ImageMagick and LaTeX on your server, LatexRender might be useful.

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As an option I could recommend GFormula plugin. It allows you to insert LaTeX formulas into you post. Formulas are generated by Google Infographics. You can customize size of an image, background and text color.

GFormula plugin for LaTeX expressions

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