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Basically what I would like is a possibility to copy-paste the LaTeX code of a formula from a PDF document (that has been created with LaTeX), for using it in another LaTeX document. Is this possible?

I'm not aquainted enough with the pdf format to know if this is feasible, I was thinking along the lines of the Text underlay archived works use.

Edit: What I was thinking of was something similar to MathJax

Jonas
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    Welcome to TeX.SX!. When asking questions it is better to provide a full minimal working example (MWE) both in order to demonstrate what you are trying to do and to help others help you. This saves everyone time:) –  Nov 20 '14 at 13:09
  • This doesn't really have a proper working example though, as it's more of a conceptual question. – lines Nov 20 '14 at 13:11
  • there's been some discussion about this, although mostly directed toward making pdf documents accessible to visually impaired readers. for one such question, see LaTeX accessibility and also search for the tag "accessibilty". – barbara beeton Nov 20 '14 at 13:14
  • Yes and no - you're right in that it doesn't need a \documentclass etc. On the other hand, what sort of text do you want to cut and paste? Certainly plan text is fine. Mathematics less so. More detail in your question wouldn't hurt:). The answer is probably no, however, as the PDF file doesn't keep track of the formatting... –  Nov 20 '14 at 13:15
  • @barbarabeeton unfortunately, the question is two years old, so one can't tell what the state-of-the-art is. – lines Nov 20 '14 at 13:26
  • ross moore, of macquarie university, has been working on this for years; he has presented updates at four of the last five tug meetings, but unfortunately, much of this didn't get into tugboat. his 2011 presentation is available as a video: Further advances toward Tagged PDF for mathematics; this year's presentation was also video'ed, and should appear on the same web site in due time. – barbara beeton Nov 20 '14 at 14:08
  • @lines Are you trying to embed a listing, like listings package does? – ajeh Nov 20 '14 at 14:30
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    This may help - it's not quite clear to me just what you want. http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/167714/writing-source-code-in-latex-as-text/167769#167769 – Ethan Bolker Nov 20 '14 at 15:17
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    The PDF specification allows for file attachments. You could attach a .tex to the PDF so you can open and copy-and-paste. See How do you store all your TeX files long-term? – Werner Nov 20 '14 at 20:24
  • @Werner I really want something as intuitive, or even more, than MathJax. I store all my Tex files in source control, but this is about sharing it with other people. – lines Nov 20 '14 at 20:31
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    I think this might be a duplicate of Making equations copyable in pdf. Yes it is conceptual question, but you could still provide a MWE as an example with one or two equations and the type of code you'd like to be able to cut and paste. – Peter Grill Nov 20 '14 at 22:16
  • Why don't you share the source? – cfr Nov 20 '14 at 22:57
  • @cfr I don't have source. – lines Nov 20 '14 at 23:14
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    Then I don't understand. If you don't have the source, how are you going to make whatever-it-is copy-paste-able? – cfr Nov 20 '14 at 23:20
  • I don't have a source I want to make copy-paste-able as of now. It could be any code. I'd have the source at that point. – lines Nov 26 '14 at 12:10
  • Please check out this question: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/119713/making-equations-copyable-in-pdf – Jonas Aug 13 '16 at 09:52

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