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In Google Docs' document editor, there's rudimentary support for adding mathematical equations.

I didn't find anything like that in Google Slides' editor.

Anyone know a workaround?

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  • Use add-ons. My experience is Hypatia Create is so far the best.
    – JP Zhang
    Jun 24, 2022 at 8:02
  • "Anyone know a workaround?" are poorly worded questions that tend to attract opinionated answers. Questions like this might be interpreted as asking for a software recommendation which is off-topic on Web Applications SE but might be asked in Software Recommendations. On the other hand, Google Slides has changed a lot since 2010, and has had an important revamp recently with the introduction of smart chips among other features for end-users and the technologies used to make the app work.
    – Rubén ♦
    Sep 17 at 17:23

7 Answers 7

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I found this online LaTeX editor. It allows you to type LaTeX and download an image of the resulting equation. It even shows in real time what the equation looks like.

I'm going to use the online LaTeX equation editor to place an equation in Google Presentations, just like you wanted to.

Here's an example:

example

It's a kind of REST interface that generates a downloadable .png image like this, similar to Google Chart API.

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  • 2
    I've used this as well, just wanted to add you should increase the font size of the equation to get a nice high res image that doesn't blur if you need it to be big.
    – Joseph Farah
    May 30, 2018 at 15:15
  • Thanks, this has a large resolution range unlike others I saw before.
    – ijuneja
    Feb 11, 2021 at 7:05
  • But it still doesn't solve the problem of writing inline Latex -- something that we use to write theorems, definitions, etc.
    – Pagol
    Mar 11, 2022 at 5:35
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There is now a Chrome add-on for mathematical equations, but it's not inline.

It's named Math Equations

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  • You can add extension Math Equations. Its latex based, for Google Slides, you can go to Add-on dropdown menu and select Math Equations**(which will appear in the list after you add the extension). Its pretty intuitive to use, just type the latex equation in the text space(an interface will appear at the side of the slide). Then, click on **add to slide button just below the text box, to add the equation to the slide.
    – Pulkit Rustagi
    Sep 30, 2020 at 4:58
3

Checkout the Chrome extension EquatIO.

With it it is possible to add equations with LaTeX to google slides.

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Google Slides compatible add-ons

There are add-ons for Google Slides that can render LaTeX equations, and insert them as images into the presentation. Because the result is an image, other users do not need to install the add-on in order to view the equations, unless they want to insert new equations. Some add-ons also support editing existing equations inserted by the given add-on.

Below is a table summarizing the features offered by each add-on.

App Rendered output Editable Speed Live preview UX Resolution Default res. Background LaTeX modes Colors OCR Notes
Auto-LaTeX Equations Auto-LaTeX Equations Partial Very slow No Poor Fixed Good Transparent Display / inline Single No
Better Math Equations Better Math Equations No Medium-fast Yes Medium Adjustable Good Transparent Inline only Single No
Equation Editor ++ Equation Editor ++ Yes Medium Partial Medium Adjustable Poor Transparent Display / inline No No
Hypatia Create Hypatia Create Yes Fast Yes Good Adjustable High Transparent Display / inline Paid-only No Mostly free
MathType (paid) MathType (paid) Yes Medium-slow Yes Medium Fixed High Transparent N/A — not LaTeX based No Yes Paid, 30 day free trial

Above table, transposed:

App Auto-LaTeX Equations Better Math Equations Equation Editor ++ Hypatia Create MathType (paid)
Rendered output Image Image Image Image Image
Editable Partial No Yes Yes Yes
Speed Very slow Medium-fast Medium Fast Medium-slow
Live preview No Yes Partial Yes Yes
UX Poor Medium Medium Good Medium
Resolution Fixed Adjustable Adjustable Adjustable Fixed
Default resolution Good Good Poor High High
Background Transparent Transparent Transparent Transparent Transparent
LaTeX modes Display / inline Inline only Display / inline Display / inline N/A — not LaTeX based
Colors Single Single No Paid-only No
OCR No No No No Yes
Notes Mostly free Paid, 30 day free trial

Rating system:

  • Editable: Can equations be edited afterwards? (The apps embed metadata within the generated images.)
  • Speed: Rendering speed; very slow means 10--30 seconds per equation.
  • Live preview: Live preview of the equation as it is being typed.
  • UX: User experience; ease of workflow. Subjectively assessed (by me).
  • Resolution: Resolution of the generated image; can it be adjusted?
  • Default resolution: Default resolution of the generated image.
  • Background: Transparent or white background?
  • LaTeX modes: If LaTeX rendering engine, available modes have "display mode" or "inline mode" or both?
  • Colors: Foreground colors or only black text?
  • OCR: Handwriting recognition?
  • Notes: Additional notes.

Other interesting apps that I haven't yet tried:

Test equations:

\frac{1}{{\sqrt{\pi}}}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}e^{-x^{2}}\,dx\,=\,1

\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{n^{2}}=\frac{\pi^{2}}{6}
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  • Interesting contribution. Before investing too much effort, please remember that this is not the kind of answer (lists of apps) we are looking for. Please briefly explain how this answers the question, and considering that public add-ons are published on the Google Workspace Marketplace (GWM), and it has its rating system, please briefly explain the value that his answer adds compared to looking directly at GWM. You might explain how you decided the criteria for this benchmark or point to the source of it.
    – Rubén ♦
    Sep 17 at 17:03
  • 1
    The marketplace descriptions are not necessarily complete, and don't contain some of this data; one needs to try out each of the apps. Furthermore, tabulation helps for easier comparison.
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Sep 17 at 22:23
  • Thanks for replying and for adding the description of the rating system. Still, it's unclear how this post answers. Such an explanation should be included in the answer.
    – Rubén ♦
    Sep 17 at 22:35
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I am working with Linux, so I do not know if there is similar software. In Linux, however, the simplest solution I know of is writing your LaTeX code into KLaTeXFormula, clicking on copy and pasting it with CTRL+V right into the document.

KLaTeXFormula is great software: It allows you to set your own preamble and also saves previous entries, which you can easily look up in a library.

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Go to insert, click on special characters and everything that you need should be right there. This is only for google slides, I don't know how to do it for google docs. Another option is typing the equation in google docs and then pasting it in google slides.

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There is no direct and clean way to add equations to Google Slides but you can make an equation in Microsoft Excel, copy it and paste it in Slides.

Note that you can't do this from Google Docs, that is, if you copy-paste an equation created in Docs, it will appear as plain text in Slides losing all equation formatting.

A tip: before you copy the equation from Excel, you may consider enlarging its size by selecting it > Home > Change Font Size.

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