Look up LaTeX symbols by drawing

November 17th, 2012 at 2:25 pm (Computers, Writing)

This is the coolest LaTeX doodad I’ve found in ages. Detexify is a brilliant combination of useful UI and machine learning. When you can’t remember what the latex command is to render a particular symbol, you simply DRAW it and Detexify gives you a ranked list of matches. You can then give it feedback about which one was what you wanted, which it uses to re-train its model and improve for the future.

I found this tool while trying to hunt down the LaTeX command for §, which I’d never used. Here’s what I drew:

Notice it has the correct command at the top of the list!

I love discovering new ways that machine learning can be used to make daily life easier. Well, in this case for those who use LaTeX on a daily basis. That’s everyone, right?

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1 Comment
1 of 1 people learned something from this entry.

  1. Evan said,

    December 29, 2012 at 2:07 am

    (Learned something new!)

    I must have missed this one when you first posted it. And to think, my primary task at work has been LaTeX related for over a month now!

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