DeTeXt — Find the LaTeX Command You Want

Finding the symbol you want to use in LaTeX can be hard since you can’t memorize all the commands and packages for every symbol. DeTeXt tries to solve this problem by giving you two ways to find the command you want:

• Draw the symbol you want and DeTeXt’s neural image classification engine will identify what it thinks are the 20 most likely LaTeX commands that will generate a symbol closest to the one you drew. DeTeXt supports Apple Pencil drawings on the iPad.

• Search the entire symbol set of 1098 symbols from packages like tipa, amsmath, amssymb, textcomp and more, in addition to the default mathematical symbols.

Privacy

DeTeXt does not collect or store any personal data or information. All processing of drawings to find the corresponding symbol happens on your device.

DeTeXt does not display any advertisements, use any trackers or analytics, or send any data to any server.

Support

Contact me on Twitter or email me.

FAQ

1. Why doesn’t the app recognize my drawings correctly sometimes?

   There are a few bugs in the classification model I haven’t worked out yet. The model gets confused if the drawings are really small or really big (within the canvas), but should work with most drawings. I’m working on improving the classification engine. If you find any bugs or have any feedback to offer, please do contact me on Twitter or file an issue on the GitHub repo

2. Where is the app available?

   The app is currently available on the App Store for iPhones and iPads running iOS 14 and higher.

3. Will there be an Apple Watch app?

   Maybe. It’s one of the top things I want to do, but I haven’t figured out yet how.

4. Will there be a Mac app?

   Maybe. I would like to make a native Mac app, rather than an iPad port. That will take time.

5. Will there be a Web app/Android app?

   No.

   Detexify is a great web app that you can use to find the command corresponding to a LaTeX symbol. My classification engine is based on the Detexify’s training data, which they’ve made publicly available.

   I will not be making this app for Android. I built this app in any free time I can get away from graduate school, and it was primarily a means for me to explore and learn CoreML, SwiftUI and Combine. I don’t have the time nor expertise to learn new APIs to build this app for Android (nor have I ever used Android), so I will focus on updating the iOS app.

6. Can I see the source code?

   Yes. The source code for my app is available under the MIT License.

Version History

1.0.2

• Added support for double tap to clear canvas with 2nd generation Apple Pencil
• Added subtle haptic feedback when detecting symbols and clearing canvas. Only works on modern iPhones (iPhone 7 and later).
• Created a separate ‘About’ tab item that gives details on how to give feedback, as well as the above privacy policy, details on how the app works and credits.

1.0.1

• Added support for iPad multitasking. Latest version

1.0.0

• Initial Release.