I gather that the method for adding arbitrary rich content to Apple's iBooks using iBooks Author is to install a "widget", bit none of the reconfigured widgets support LaTeX.
Is there a LaTeX widget for iBooks Author?
Asked
Active
Viewed 4,551 times
10
-
I seriously doubt it, at least for the moment. You'd be better off sticking with LaTeXiT to generate equations and such and then drag and drop. – qubyte Jan 20 '12 at 17:17
-
For simple equations see how to export a equation as a image without background, for figures see crop entire document around figure, and for more complicated stuff see minimize automatically the page size of the pdf outputs – Peter Grill Jan 20 '12 at 17:40
-
@PeterGrill: Just to note: Without background is the default behaviour of LaTeXiT, and LaTeXiT isn't limited to equations, and I regularly use it for pgfplots etc. The added benefit over the manual route is that the image can be dropped back into LaTeXiT to recover the original code. – qubyte Jan 20 '12 at 17:50
-
1What would be even more interesting is if widgets could support the use of MathJax. Where is the documentation for iBooks widgets? Stephen Moye – Jan 24 '12 at 15:44
-
1When you use this approach, the image file for the equation stay in between the text when the iPad is in portrait mode, or it's moved to the left side as every other image inserted to the page? – Jan 24 '12 at 21:28
4 Answers
7
The widgets available at the moment are listed here. There seems to be some confusion in the question though. Widgets are the name given to dynamic elements, such as audio or video, and other interactive elements. LaTeX does not really fit into that broad definition. If you need LaTeX for equations then the best option it to write equations or other self-contained snippets in LaTeXiT and use the generated pdf files in iBooks Author.
Update
MathJax 2.0 supports an SVG output and equation numbering. The SVG output is noted to be compatible with iBooks, so this would seem to be an ideal solution.
qubyte
- 17,299
-
I apologize for unaccepting this answer (which is still great): version 2.0 no supports LaTeX equations. – orome Oct 24 '12 at 16:57
-
No need to apologise! Kudos for keeping the question and answer fresh and relevant. :) – qubyte Oct 25 '12 at 01:28
2
As of version 2.0, iBooks Author now supports both LaTeX and MathML equations.
orome
- 10,459
-
1Barely! For example, iBooks Author version 2.0 does NOT support the
amsmathenvironments such ascases. – murray Oct 24 '12 at 17:36 -
@murray: Correct, as the Apple page indicates, the support is limited to simple insertable widget-type equations. – orome Oct 24 '12 at 17:48
0
Althogh iBooks Author offers the link to MathType, it looks MathType equations are not in PDF format.
LaTeXit or MathMagic equation editor supports PDF format, with the font embedding feature. You can also copy & paste the PDF equation back to the original equation editor to reedit if necessary. The quality of PDF equations looks much better and sharper, especially for the lines, root/radical signs, and small script/accent characters.
It turns out that using Insert... command in iBA is not faster than inserting via Drag&Drop or Copy&Paste, if you have to deal with many equations and symbols. Or, it would be better if there is an equation button on the toolbar.
Robert
- 1
-1
It seems that iBooks authors does support Mathtype which has some latex capabilities. I am not sure though that there is anything that allows for automatic equarion numbering and cross referencing. Hopefully in the future.
