What is Mathpix Snipping?

Snip is a tool for extracting text, and particularly math, from images and documents. This text/LaTeX can then be pasted into a document editing tool such as a LaTeX or Markdown editor.The goal of Snip is to save you time typing time-consuming LaTeX or data from tables.It is also useful for note-taking, which can be done by incorporating the mobile and desktop apps into your current workflow or by using Snip Notes, which is an online Markdown editor with extended support for LaTeX features.

Snip on desktop

Snip on desktop is especially convenient for extracting information from PDFs and pasting the resulting text into an editor. With a single keyboard shortcut, you can crop an equation or piece of text, and have the text/LaTeX copied to your clipboard.Desktop apps for each platform (MacOS, Windows, and Linux) can be downloaded from mathpix.com.Watch a short demo of extracting equations from PDFs with Snip on Youtube.

Snip on mobile

Snip on mobile is available for iOS and Android. It allows you to take pictures with your phone of content in notebooks, textbooks, blackboards, and whiteboards that you want to digitize.The mobile app syncs images and results with your desktop apps and Snip Notes.

Snip Notes

Snip Notes is a web editor that provides an HTML-first note taking experience, and provides shareable web links. It is especially suited for:

• Sharing homework assignments via web links
• Creating homework answer sets
• Class notes
• Blog posts

Users can paste images into the editor, and they will be converted into text / LaTeX. Get started with Snip Notes.

HOW TO INSTALL MATHPIX SNIPPING TOOL

Installing Snip from your Terminal

1. Open your terminal.
2. Make sure that you have the snap command on your system. If you do not, install snapd on your system.
3. Once snapd is installed, you can install Snip from the Snap store. Enter this on your command line: sudo snap install mathpix-snipping-tool
4. Applications on the Snap store update automatically. If you want to update manually, you can use this command: sudo snap refresh mathpix-snipping-tool
5. If you want to uninstall this app, use this command: sudo snap remove mathpix-snipping-tool

How To Use Mathpix Snipping Tool

sudo snap install mathpix-snipping-tool

Using Mathpix is simple. Once installed, open the tool. You’ll find it in the top panel. You can start taking the screenshot with Mathpix using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M. 

It will instantly translate the image of equation into a LaTeX code. The code will be copied into clipboard and you can then paste it in a LaTeX editor. 

Mathpix’s optical character recognition technology is being used by a number of companies like WolframAlpha, Microsoft, Google, etc. to improve their tools’ image recognition capability while dealing with math symbols.

Altogether, it’s an awesome tool for students and academics. It’s free to use and I so wish that it was an open source tool. We cannot get everything in life, can we?

Do you use Mathpix or some other similar tool while dealing with mathematical symbols in LaTeX? What do you think of Mathpix? Share your views with us in the comment section.

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