Online LaTeX Editor
Focus on writing LaTeX. CoCalc takes care of everything else.
Learn much more about LaTeX in CoCalc from this new blog post...
No software install required: 100% online
CoCalc's editor supports
- side-by-side preview with forward and inverse search,
- compiles upon saving and marks errors in the source file,
- periodically backups all your files,
- an AI-powered formula assistant typsets formulas for you
- runs embedded calculations right inside your document,
- multi-file support that discovers included files automatically, and
- every change is recorded while you type.
Working with made easy
| Tired of sending changes back and forth with your colleagues? |
|---|
| Collaborate online without any limits! |
| Scared of breaking a document? |
| Revert recent changes using TimeTravel. |
| Worried about maintaining your environment? |
| CoCalc takes care of everything. |
| Want to work from anywhere? |
| You only need a web browser and Internet access, or you can run your own server. |
Ready out of the box: Sign up, create a project, create or upload your
*.tex file, and you're ready to go!Start free today. Upgrade later.
Collaborative editing without limits
Privately share your project with an unlimited number of collaborators. Simultaneous modifications of your document are synchronized in real time. You see the cursors of others while they edit the document and also see the presence of watching collaborators.
Additionally, any compilation status and output is synchronized between everyone, because everything runs online and is fully managed by CoCalc.
This ensures that everyone involved experiences editing the document in exactly the same way.
AI-powered formula assistant
CoCalc's extensive integation with various AI language models helps you typesetting formulas.
You enter a description of your desired formula and a language model of your choice transforms it into a proper LaTeX formula. The descriptions can come in various ways:
| Natural language description |
|---|
drake equation |
| simple algebraic notation |
(a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2 a b + b^2 |
| Or a combination of both |
integral from 0 to infinity of (1+sin(x))/x^2 dx |
Once you got a result you like, click on "Insert" the formula is in your document.
Full computational environment
One thing that sets CoCalc apart from other online editors is full access to computational software. This means you can seamlessly transition from computing your results to publishing them.
CoCalc supports running Python, SageMath, R Statistical Software, Julia, and more in the same project as your document.
Consult the Available Software page or look at our Jupyter Notebook page for more information.
Run SageMath, Python, or R in
You can run calculations inside your documents! It's possible to embed Sage, R, or Python code in your document to automatically generate text, plots, formulas or tables. The code is evaluated as part of the compilation process and the output will be included in the generated document.
SageTex
Write Sage commands like
\sage{2 + 3} in and the document will contain "5", \sage{f.taylor(x, 0, 10)} for the Taylor expansion of a function f, and drawing graphs becomes as simple as \sageplot{sin(x^2)}.CoCalc deals with all the underlying details for you:
- It runs the initial compilation pass,
- uses SageMath to compute the text output, graphs and images,
- and then runs a second compilation pass to produce the final PDF output.
PythonTex
PythonTeX allows you to run Python from within a document and typeset the results.
For example,
\py{2 + 4**2} produces "18". You can use all available python libraries for Python 3, drawing plots via pylab, and use PythonTeX's SymPy support.Again, CoCalc automatically detects that you want to run PythonTeX and handles all the details for you.
R/Knitr
CoCalc's editor also supports Knitr documents (with filename extension
.Rnw). This gives you the ability to embed arbitrary R Software commands and plots in your file.Behind the scenes, CoCalc deals with all underlying details for you:
- installation and management of all R packages,
- orchestrates the full compilation pipeline for and running R, and
- reconciles the line numbers of the .Rnw file with the corresponding .tex document for correct forward and inverse search.
Editing Features
The following are some specific features of editing in CoCalc.
There is also more comprehensive documentation.
There is also more comprehensive documentation.
Forward and Inverse search
Let CoCalc help you find your way around in large documents!
Forward Search lets you jump from the source to the corresponding part in the rendered preview. This saves you time looking for the output.
Inverse search does the opposite: double click on the output and your cursor jumps to the line in the source file for that output.
Under the hood, CoCalc uses SyncTeX seamlessly.
Managed environments
CoCalc makes sure that your desired engine is available and ready to use. You can choose between PDF Latex, XeLaTeX or LuaTeX.
Many packages and utilities like PGF and TikZ are pre-installed.
Behind the scenes, LatexMK is configured to manage the compilation process.
It is also possible to fully customize the compilation command, so you can bring your own shell script or even use a Makefile!
TimeTravel
The TimeTravel feature is specific to the CoCalc platform. It records all changes in the document in fine detail. You can go back and forth in time using a slider across thousands of changes to recover your previous edits.
This is especially helpful for pinpointing which of the recent changes caused a compilation error. You can see the recent changes and exactly where the modifications happened, and who made them.
Side Chat
A side-by-side chat for each file lets you discuss your content with collaborators or give feedback to your students while they are working on their assignments.
Collaborators who are offline will be notified about new messages the next time they sign in. If you @mention them, they receive an email notification.
Chat messages also support Markdown formatting with formulas.
Backups
Every couple of minutes, all files in your project are saved in consistent readonly snapshots using ZFS.
This means you can recover older versions of your files in case they are corrupted or accidentally deleted.
These backups are complementary to TimeTravel and provide browsable backups of images and data files in addition to the documents you are actively editing.
Publishing
CoCalc helps you share your work with the world. It offers its own hosting of shared documents, alongside with any associated data files.
You can configure if your published files should be listed publicly, or rather only be available via a confidential URL.
in CoCalc versus the competition
| Feature | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Realtime collaboration and sync | Limited number of collaborators | |||
| PDFLaTeX rendering engine | ||||
| XeLaTeX rendering engine | ||||
| LuaTeX rendering engine | ||||
| Run Python, R and other scripts as part of compilation | CoCalc is particularly good at this. | But limited. | ||
| R/Knitr | Limited - very few packages, limited syntax, no caching, slow | |||
| SageTex | ||||
| PythonTex | ||||
| Upload files | ||||
| Forward and inverse search | N/A | |||
| Multifile support | N/A | |||
| WYSIWYG | This is WYSIWYG collaborative markdown editor, with LaTeX math support. | This is only a partial WYSIWYG-like mode. | ||
| Equation editor | ||||
| Bibliography | Only BibTex via LaTeX (nothing sophisticated) | Limited | ||
| Preloaded journal templates | However, you can easily upload a template from a journal. | |||
| Self hosting |
These comparisons were made in good faith; however, they may contain errors, since we know CoCalc better and the products are constantly improving. Contact [email protected] if anything looks wrong or incomplete!
Start free today. Upgrade later.