LaTeXiT fails to render equation, but does not throw an error

Question

Whenever I attempt to render LaTeX using LaTeXiT, the process appears to complete successfully, yet the display box is empty. Here is a picture of what I see after hitting "LaTeX it"

I have pasted the corresponding LaTeX execution log at the bottom of this post.

I am running the latest version of LaTeXiT on the latest version of macOS Catalina. As far as I can tell, my ghostscript installation is up-to-date.

Things I have tried, which did not resolve the issue:

Reinstalling LaTeXiT, and rolling back to previous versions
Attempting to update everything, including GhostScript
Changing from Dark to Light mode and back
Adjusting LaTeXiT settings for the output cropping, and output file type
Changing the LaTeXiT default environment

Execution log

Source :
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[usenames]{color} %used for font color
\usepackage{amssymb} %maths
\usepackage{amsmath} %maths
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} %useful to type directly diacritic characters
\pagestyle{empty} \begin{document}$\displaystyle 8
$
\end{document}
--------------- processing pdflatex ---------------
#!/bin/sh
export TMPDIR="/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.uJGrd1QwSc/Listeners" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SHELL="/bin/zsh" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export HOME="/Users/username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_SERVICE_NAME="fr.chachatelier.pierre.LaTeXiT.32160" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_FLAGS="0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING="0x1F6:0x0:0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/sw/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/texbin:/sw/usr/bin:/sw/usr/sbin:/usr/local/texbin:/usr/bin:/sw/local/bin:/sw/local/sbin:/sw/usr/local/bin:/sw/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/sbin" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export LOGNAME="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export USER="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
cd /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0
/Library/TeX/texbin/pdflatex -file-line-error -interaction nonstopmode /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-1.tex 1>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stdout.N43Z0ryK.log 2>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stderr.6XufxRyG.log </dev/null
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.21 (TeX Live 2020) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-1.tex
LaTeX2e <2020-02-02> patch level 5
L3 programming layer <2020-03-06>
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2019/12/20 v1.4l Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/color.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/color.cfg)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-def/pdftex.def))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/amssymb.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/amsfonts.sty))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amsmath.sty
For additional information on amsmath, use the `?' option.
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amstext.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amsgen.sty))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amsbsy.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsmath/amsopn.sty))
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/inputenc.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/l3backend/l3backend-pdfmode.def)
No file latexit-1.aux.
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/context/base/mkii/supp-pdf.mkii
[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
) (/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/umsa.fd)
(/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/tex/latex/amsfonts/umsb.fd) [1{/usr/local/t
exlive/2020/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./latexit-1.aux) )<
/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb>
Output written on latexit-1.pdf (1 page, 8925 bytes).
Transcript written on latexit-1.log.
--------------- bounding box computation ---------------
#!/bin/sh
export TMPDIR="/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.uJGrd1QwSc/Listeners" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SHELL="/bin/zsh" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export HOME="/Users/username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_SERVICE_NAME="fr.chachatelier.pierre.LaTeXiT.32160" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_FLAGS="0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING="0x1F6:0x0:0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/sw/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/texbin:/sw/usr/bin:/sw/usr/sbin:/usr/local/texbin:/usr/bin:/sw/local/bin:/sw/local/sbin:/sw/usr/local/bin:/sw/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/sbin" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export LOGNAME="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export USER="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
cd /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0
/usr/local/bin/gs-noX11 -sstdout=%stderr -dNOPAUSE -dSAFER -dNOPLATFONTS -sDEVICE=bbox -dBATCH -q /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-1.pdf 1>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stdout.74Kte83s.log 2>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stderr.07GZhLcY.log </dev/null
--------------- pdfcrop call ---------------
#!/bin/sh
export TMPDIR="/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SSH_AUTH_SOCK="/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.uJGrd1QwSc/Listeners" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export SHELL="/bin/zsh" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export HOME="/Users/username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_SERVICE_NAME="fr.chachatelier.pierre.LaTeXiT.32160" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export XPC_FLAGS="0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING="0x1F6:0x0:0x0" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export PATH="/Library/TeX/texbin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/sw/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/sw/sbin:/usr/texbin:/sw/usr/bin:/sw/usr/sbin:/usr/local/texbin:/usr/bin:/sw/local/bin:/sw/local/sbin:/sw/usr/local/bin:/sw/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/sbin" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export LOGNAME="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
export USER="username" 1>/dev/null 2>&1 
cd /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0
perl "/Applications/TeX/LaTeXiT.app/Contents/Resources/pdfcrop.pl" --clip --pdfversion 1.5 --gscmd /usr/local/bin/gs-noX11 --pdftex --pdftexcmd /Library/TeX/texbin/pdflatex --margins "0.000000 0.180000 0.000000 0.180000" /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-1-baseline.pdf /var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-1-crop.pdf 1>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stdout.tjJAiPrI.log 2>|/var/folders/g_/3gcjjjc12l9cjdh8drtctrdm0000gp/T/LaTeXiT-2.15.0/latexit-task-stderr.qhez8mhx.log </dev/null

EDIT: here is a picture of my Preferences panel. I have tried various permutations of the checkboxes, and I have also tried fiddling with both the background color and the text color. None of these resolved the issue.

EDIT: I found the solution in this answer. The problem is the version of GhostScript.

With \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document}$\displaystyle 8 $ \end{document} you ask LaTeX to produce a page with an 8 on it, and this seems to be what you get. — , Nov 03 '20 at 05:57
Hello, thank you. As far as I know, I haven't modified the template or style, and so I expect LaTeXiT to produce an image of an 8. As far as I can tell, there is not an 8 anywhere in the display box (I tried zooming in, etc). One option is that LaTeXiT's built-in autocropping could be causing issues. — wil3, Nov 03 '20 at 06:01
It looksw like you're in Dar ModeIn the General Pane of LaTeXiT->Preferences What do you have the preview pane background color set to? You probably have it set to Black so you are printing black on black. Set it to White. — Herb Schulz, Nov 03 '20 at 17:49
@HerbSchulz thank you, I tried changing the background (as well as various other Preferences), and I also tried disabling Dark Mode in macOS. Regrettably, none of them fixed the issue. I have updated the post with a picture of my preferences menu. — wil3, Nov 03 '20 at 20:15
I don't have a solution, but I'll just add that I can't reproduce this problem. — LaTeXereXeTaL, Nov 04 '20 at 18:32
@wil3, I have the same problem. I tried the LaTeXIt that came with the homebrew package mactex as well as the LaTeXiT homebrew package itself. Both have the same problem. — evenodd, Dec 16 '20 at 19:16
I have the same problem using Latexit! 2.16.5, MacTex 2023, and MacOS 13.4. I've tried everything on this page and nothing helps. My library entries display properly but if I relatexize the selection nothing displays. — George Colpitts, Jun 03 '23 at 14:59
I've noticed that the problem only happens after I display an equation from my library. In that case the display window is empty except for a red triangle in the middle. — George Colpitts, Jun 08 '23 at 14:50

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '20 at 19:27

I had the same problem. My LaTeXiT came with the mactex homebrew cask. I believe that the problem occured after I upgraded to MacOS Big Sur (and homebrew complained that they do not support this latest version of MacOS for a couple of weeks). Tried many ways to fix the problem, including reinstalling mactex cask and installing the standalone latexit cask, but none of them resolved the problem. Today I uninstalled mactex cask and directly installed the mactex package obtained from

https://www.tug.org/mactex/

The problem finally went away.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '20 at 05:38

0

I had exactly the same problem and here's what I did to fix it.

Delete LaTeXit preferences . (Library/Preferences/fr.chachatelier.pierre.LaTeXiT.plist)
Remove LaTeXit
Reinstall LaTeXit

answered Dec 02 '20 at 05:38

SYT

1

1

Thank you, I tried this solution, and unfortunately deleting the plist and reinstalling did not solve my problem – wil3 Dec 08 '20 at 06:18
2

I also tried this without luck... – evenodd Dec 16 '20 at 19:17

LaTeXiT fails to render equation, but does not throw an error

2 Answers2