LaTeX alignment issues

  • Unknown's avatar
    davidhonner · Member ·

    There have been a few posts on LATEX alignment issues. Unfortunately one of the most relevant is locked for other contributors. I’d like to add my own findings and suggestions. LaTeX is a big selling point for wordpress but so far it doesn’t live up to expectations.
    Horizontal Alignment
    This is where we need a few lines of equations to align with the equals sign “=”. This is a fundamental requirement for any webpage displaying mathematical expressions.
    This apparently works in the plug-in QuickLaTeX on wordpress.org sites, but not on the .com site. A good thread on this topic is here. This includes a suggested work-around which is pretty horrible, using LaTeX begin{matrix} tags.
    Question: why can’t we have access to the same plug-in on the .com site that others do on the .org? I am aware that no plug-ins are allowed, but surely the .com site using some similar mechanism to provide LaTeX? This would provide a short term solution.
    Vertical Alignment
    This is where inline depictions of LaTeX do not align correctly with the other text in the paragraph. Through experimentation, I have found that elements that include a subscript or a descender will line up correctly, whereas elements without a subscript or descender are set too low. A link here and here.
    A suggested workaround is to use <span style="vertical-align:10%;"> for all those LaTeX codes that don’t have a descender or subscript. However, it is a pain to set each and every instance, and I am concerned that this might break when using other browsers, or if the implementation of LaTeX changes in wordpress.
    Question: the LaTeX is displayed inline as an image – can we have the image correctly aligned (using perhaps CSS) so that it displays correctly? This will mean adjusting the default CSS for those wordpress sites that do not have access to customised CSS.
    Better Solutions?
    How about implementing MathJax, especially for .com wordpress users.
    Thanks, David

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremykun · Member ·

    I have solved the vertical alignment problem on any theme using CSS. See https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/bug-report-twenty-eleven-latex-vertical-alignment?replies=3

    It’s been six months and they haven’t fixed it yet, so I believe it’s pretty low on their priority list.

    Moreover, the align problem is not a problem with WordPress, but a detail of how LaTeX works. What WordPress does is use math mode for anything within the dollar sign syntax. But the align and align* environments don’t work in math mode! Instead, you have to use the “aligned” environment, which does work in math mode and does exactly what you want.

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