Math support for HTML outputs in Sphinx

New in version 0.5.

Changed in version 1.8: Math support for non-HTML builders is integrated to sphinx-core. So mathbase extension is no longer needed.

Since mathematical notation isn’t natively supported by HTML in any way, Sphinx gives a math support to HTML document with several extensions. These use the reStructuredText math directive and role.

sphinx.ext.imgmath – Render math as images

New in version 1.4.

This extension renders math via LaTeX and dvipng or dvisvgm into PNG or SVG images. This of course means that the computer where the docs are built must have both programs available.

There are various configuration values you can set to influence how the images are built:

imgmath_image_format: The output image format. The default is 'png'. It should be either 'png' or 'svg'. The image is produced by first executing latex on the TeX mathematical mark-up then (depending on the requested format) either dvipng or dvisvgm.

imgmath_use_preview

dvipng and dvisvgm both have the ability to collect from LaTeX the “depth” of the rendered math: an inline image should use this “depth” in a vertical-align style to get correctly aligned with surrounding text.

This mechanism requires the LaTeX preview package (available as preview-latex-style on Ubuntu xenial). Therefore, the default for this option is False but it is strongly recommended to set it to True.

Changed in version 2.2: This option can be used with the 'svg' imgmath_image_format.

imgmath_add_tooltips: Default: True. If false, do not add the LaTeX code as an “alt” attribute for math images.

imgmath_font_size: The font size (in pt) of the displayed math. The default value is 12. It must be a positive integer.

imgmath_latex

The command name with which to invoke LaTeX. The default is 'latex'; you may need to set this to a full path if latex is not in the executable search path.

Since this setting is not portable from system to system, it is normally not useful to set it in conf.py; rather, giving it on the sphinx-build command line via the -D option should be preferable, like this:

sphinx-build -b html -D imgmath_latex=C:\tex\latex.exe . _build/html

This value should only contain the path to the latex executable, not further arguments; use imgmath_latex_args for that purpose.

Hint

Some fancy LaTeX mark-up (an example was reported which used TikZ to add various decorations to the equation) require multiple runs of the LaTeX executable. To handle this, set this configuration setting to 'latexmk' (or a full path to it) as this Perl script reliably chooses dynamically how many latex runs are needed.

imgmath_latex_args: Additional arguments to give to latex, as a list. The default is an empty list.

imgmath_latex_preamble: Additional LaTeX code to put into the preamble of the LaTeX files used to translate the math snippets. This is left empty by default. Use it e.g. to add packages which modify the fonts used for math, such as '\\usepackage{newtxsf}' for sans-serif fonts, or '\\usepackage{fouriernc}' for serif fonts. Indeed, the default LaTeX math fonts have rather thin glyphs which (in HTML output) often do not match well with the font for text.

imgmath_dvipng: The command name to invoke dvipng. The default is 'dvipng'; you may need to set this to a full path if dvipng is not in the executable search path. This option is only used when imgmath_image_format is set to 'png'.

imgmath_dvipng_args: Additional arguments to give to dvipng, as a list. The default value is ['-gamma', '1.5', '-D', '110', '-bg', 'Transparent'] which makes the image a bit darker and larger then it is by default (this compensates somewhat for the thinness of default LaTeX math fonts), and produces PNGs with a transparent background. This option is used only when imgmath_image_format is 'png'.

imgmath_dvisvgm: The command name to invoke dvisvgm. The default is 'dvisvgm'; you may need to set this to a full path if dvisvgm is not in the executable search path. This option is only used when imgmath_image_format is 'svg'.

imgmath_dvisvgm_args: Additional arguments to give to dvisvgm, as a list. The default value is ['--no-fonts'], which means that dvisvgm will render glyphs as path elements (cf the dvisvgm FAQ). This option is used only when imgmath_image_format is 'svg'.

sphinx.ext.mathjax – Render math via JavaScript

Warning

Version 4.0 changes the version of MathJax used to version 3. You may need to override mathjax_path to https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@2/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML or update your configuration options for version 3 (see mathjax3_config).

New in version 1.1.

This extension puts math as-is into the HTML files. The JavaScript package MathJax is then loaded and transforms the LaTeX markup to readable math live in the browser.

Because MathJax (and the necessary fonts) is very large, it is not included in Sphinx but is set to automatically include it from a third-party site.

Attention

You should use the math directive and role, not the native MathJax $$, \(, etc.

mathjax_path

The path to the JavaScript file to include in the HTML files in order to load MathJax.

The default is the https:// URL that loads the JS files from the jsdelivr Content Delivery Network. See the MathJax Getting Started page for details. If you want MathJax to be available offline or without including resources from a third-party site, you have to download it and set this value to a different path.

The path can be absolute or relative; if it is relative, it is relative to the _static directory of the built docs.

For example, if you put MathJax into the static path of the Sphinx docs, this value would be MathJax/MathJax.js. If you host more than one Sphinx documentation set on one server, it is advisable to install MathJax in a shared location.

You can also give a full https:// URL different from the CDN URL.

mathjax_options

The options to script tag for mathjax. For example, you can set integrity option with following setting:

mathjax_options = {
    'integrity': 'sha384-......',
}

The default is empty ({}).

New in version 1.8.

mathjax3_config

The configuration options for MathJax v3 (which is used by default). The given dictionary is assigned to the JavaScript variable window.MathJax. For more information, please read Configuring MathJax.

The default is empty (not configured).

New in version 4.0.

mathjax2_config

The configuration options for MathJax v2 (which can be loaded via mathjax_path). The value is used as a parameter of MathJax.Hub.Config(). For more information, please read Using in-line configuration options.

For example:

mathjax2_config = {
    'extensions': ['tex2jax.js'],
    'jax': ['input/TeX', 'output/HTML-CSS'],
}

The default is empty (not configured).

New in version 4.0: mathjax_config has been renamed to mathjax2_config.

mathjax_config

Former name of mathjax2_config.

For help converting your old MathJax configuration to to the new mathjax3_config, see Converting Your v2 Configuration to v3.

New in version 1.8.

Changed in version 4.0: This has been renamed to mathjax2_config. mathjax_config is still supported for backwards compatibility.

sphinx.ext.jsmath – Render math via JavaScript

This extension works just as the MathJax extension does, but uses the older package jsMath. It provides this config value:

jsmath_path

The path to the JavaScript file to include in the HTML files in order to load JSMath. There is no default.

The path can be absolute or relative; if it is relative, it is relative to the _static directory of the built docs.

For example, if you put JSMath into the static path of the Sphinx docs, this value would be jsMath/easy/load.js. If you host more than one Sphinx documentation set on one server, it is advisable to install jsMath in a shared location.