Typesetting formulas, mathematical equations and symbols in LaTeX-style
When typesetting mathematical formulas, LaTeX is the way to go and is the standard in many scientific areas. But a problem arises when mathematical symbols should be used in figures. If these figures are e.g. created in Illustrator, it is always a bit inconvenient to include the symbols in the figure. It is e.g. necessary to render the symbols separately and include them as EPS files in Illustrator or the symbols are added later to the figure by another program.
It would be really cool to have a build-in feature in Illustrator which would allow direct typesetting in the common LaTeX-style. Ideally, symbols are typed as e.g. \vec{u}_i, the text area is marked as mathematical formula and are then transformed to the proper symbol with a setting for the font to use (e.g. Latin Modern).
This feature might be realised in a step-by-step way: typesetting symbols in the $$ style is probably the easiest and most beneficial change for the user. Allowing separate equations in the \begin{equation} \end{equation} style would could be the next step.
I see two main advantages of this feature:
1. It improves efficiency a lot since it is much easier to include symbols and equations to figures.
2. It allows to store related content together. The symbols used in a figure are part of the figure, so it is only natural to store both in the same file and edit it with the same program. This makes changes to the figure much easier since everything is located and edited at the same place.
Lirmeroli
shared this idea
-
Stéphane Blin
commented
15 years I'm waiting for such a feature...
I'm using LaTeXit as a solution, but if it could be implemented directly within Illustrator it would be great.
Keynote (Mac OS X) offers the possibility to directly write LaTeX equations now for example
Hopefully we will have some positive feedback soon from Adobe Illustrator ;) -
Joseph
commented
This would make a huge difference! Right now, any figure with equations is frustrating both to make and to edit, because the equations have to copied in from another program and cannot be edited easily in Illustrator. I prefer to make many figures directly in KeyNote because of its native support for LaTeX-style equations.
-
Michal
commented
I would be happy to have this feature!
-
Paul
commented
I would love this feature!
-
Anonymous
commented
I would love this feature! This is the main reason I still use Inkscape rather than Illustrator. Having some functionality equivalent to https://inkscape.org/~jcwinkler/%E2%98%85textext would be extremely convenient for people doing more mathematical work.
-
Paul
commented
This is long overdue!
-
anner_paldor
commented
I totally agree, this would be a fantastic upgrade to Illustrator!
The only time I still prefer Powerpoint over Illustrator is when I need to type an equation in my figure, and PP is way less convenient than Illustrator in all other aspects.