LaTeX Base

An online LaTeX editor that just works. No installation, live preview, and sharing. Get stuff done with or without an Internet connection.

Overview

Premium membership

A premium membership costs $4.99 per month (student discounts are available!) and enables

  • unlimited length document editing,
  • one-click publishing,
  • integrations with Dropbox and Google Drive,
  • offline mode,
  • and support over email.

Custom LaTeX packages

A number of useful, common LaTeX packages can be included with the \usepackage macro.

We plan on eventually supporting all custom packages hosted at CTAN, but please let us know if that’s a critical need for you.

Images

Images can be included in LaTeX Base documents by using the \includegraphics macro from the graphicx package. However, instead of providing a file path, you must use a direct image url. imgur, Google Drive, and Dropbox are all good candidates for uploading an image to be included in a LaTeX Base doc. Once uploaded to a third-party file hosting service, make sure the image is publicly viewable and that you’ve copied a direct link (ie using “Copy Image Location” in Chrome) to paste as an argument to \includegraphics within LaTeX Base.

What is offline mode?

Unlike other online LaTeX editors, we perform typesetting right in the browser! That means that if you’re not connected to the Internet, you can still make changes to, preview, and download your files when using Chrome 46+ or Opera 33+. Just navigate to https://latexbase.com when offline to load the app. The “https” bit is important. Also make sure not to hard refresh! Offline mode is powered by service workers which are discussed in this article.

Offline mode caveats

  • Offline mode is currently only available for Chrome 46+, Opera 33+, and Firefox 59+.
  • The compiler will fail if you try to use a new package while offline. That means you can only use packages offline that you’ve previously used while online.

Browser compatibility

We’re working to make document previews instantaneous, but today you should expect a few second delay before your changes are reflected in the live preview. The preview updates most quickly in Firefox, likely because of asm.js optimizations.

Other questions and comments?

Feel free to get in touch!

Privacy

Privacy Policy, updated March 8, 2018

Your privacy is critically important to us. At SciDock LLC, we have a few fundamental principles:

  • We don’t ask you for personal information unless we truly need it.
  • We don’t share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
  • We don’t store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.
  • We aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what’s visible to the public, seen by search engines, kept private, and permanently deleted.

It is our policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our website.

This privacy statement describes how (LaTeX Base by SciDock LLC) collects and uses the personal information you provide on our websites latexbase.com and scidock.com. It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update this information.

Website visitors

Like most websites, LaTeX Base collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. LaTeX Base’s purpose in collecting non-personally-identifying information is to better understand how LaTeX Base’s visitors use its website. From time to time, LaTeX Base may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

LaTeX Base also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. LaTeX Base does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

Gathering of personally-identifying information

Certain visitors to LaTeX Base choose to interact with LaTeX Base in ways that require LaTeX Base to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that LaTeX Base gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask users who sign up for a premium account at LaTeX Base to provide an email address and password. In each case, LaTeX Base collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with LaTeX Base. LaTeX Base does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

Aggregated statistics

LaTeX Base may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its website and mobile applications. For instance, LaTeX Base may monitor how long it takes to compile documents on the LaTeX Base site. LaTeX Base may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, LaTeX Base does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.

How we handle PII

SciDock LLC discloses potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors and affiliated organizations that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on SciDock’s behalf or to provide services available at LaTeX Base’s website, and (ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others.

Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it, and our website is protected by HTTPS encryption. No method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our website, you can contact us at support@latexbase.com.

Data retention

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services, contact us at support@latexbase.com. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Contact us

If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please send an email to support@latexbase.com.

Privacy policy changes

SciDock LLC reserves the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we change how we use your personally identifiable information, we will notify, by email, and/or by means of a notice on our website prior to the change becoming effective.

Terms

Terms of Service, updated March 8, 2018

The LaTeX Base website and all of its mobile versions (Service) is a hosted service operated by (“SciDock LLC”). Any use of the Service is subject to the following Terms and Conditions of Use (“Terms and Conditions”), as well as our Privacy Policy which is incorporated by reference into these Terms and Conditions.

1. Eligibility

Use of the service is void where prohibited. The Service is for users of all ages. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that (a) all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate; (b) you will maintain the accuracy of such information; and (c) your use of the Service does not violate any applicable law or regulation.

2. Account and data

If you create an account on the Service, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and data, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account. You must immediately notify SciDock of any unauthorized uses of your data, your account or any other breaches of security. SciDock LLC will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions. SciDock LLC may from time to time set storage limits for your data, or take any other measures SciDock LLC considers appropriate to manage the Service. SciDock LLC Base may also from time to time change its policies on offering commercial content or displaying advertising, and it may do this without notice.

3. Responsibility of service visitors

SciDock LLC has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material posted to the Service, and cannot therefore be responsible for that material’s content, use or effects. By operating the Service, SciDock LLC does not represent or imply that it endorses the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. The Service may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors. The Service may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. SciDock LLC disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by visitors of the Service, or from any downloading by those visitors of content there posted.

4. Content posted to other websites

We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer software, made available through the websites and webpages to which LaTeX Base links, and that link to LaTeX Base. SciDock LLC does not have any control over those non-LaTeX Base websites and webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use. By linking to a non-LaTeX Base website or webpage, SciDock LLC does not represent or imply that it endorses such website or webpage. You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or destructive content. SciDock LLC disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of non-LaTeX Base websites and webpages.

6. Trademarks

LaTeX Base, latexbase.com, the latexbase.com logo, and all other trademarks, service marks, graphics, and logos used in connection with LaTeX Base, or the Service are trademarks or registered trademarks of SciDock LLC or SciDock LLC’s licensors. Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Service may be the trademarks of other third parties. Your use of the Service grants you no right or license to reproduce or otherwise use any LaTeX Base or third-party trademarks. Audio files and software may not be sold or redistributed, nor offered as a service to others.

7. Changes

Changes. The Service, including without The Service, including without limitation all content there available and these Terms and Conditions, may be changed at the sole discretion of SciDock LLC and without notice. You are bound by any such updates or changes, including but not limited to those affecting these Terms and Conditions, and so should periodically review these Terms and Conditions.

8. Limitation of warranties of SciDock LLC, its suppliers and its licensors

Except as otherwise expressly stated, all content posted to or available from the Service is provided “as is”, and SciDock LLC, its suppliers and its licensors make no representations or warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title or non-infringement of proprietary rights. You understand and agree that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services through, the Service at your own discretion and risk, and that SciDock LLC, its suppliers and its licensors will have no liability or responsibility for any damage to your computer system or data that results from the download or use of such content or services. Some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above may not apply to you.

9. Limitation of liability of SciDock LLC, its suppliers and its licensors

Except as otherwise expressly stated, in no event will SciDock LLC, its suppliers or its licensors be liable to you or any other party for any direct, indirect, special, consequential or exemplary damages, regardless of the basis or nature of the claim, resulting from any use of the Service, or the contents thereof or of any hyperlinked website including without limitation any lost profits, business interruption, loss of data or otherwise, even if SciDock LLC, its suppliers or its licensors were expressly advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event will the aggregate liability for any and all of your claims against SciDock LLC, its suppliers and its licensors arising out of or related to use of the Service, or the contents thereof or of any hyperlinked website exceed the amounts actually paid by you to SciDock LLC during the 12-month period prior to the date a claim is made. Some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for certain incidental or consequential damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you. The parties agree that this Section 9 represents a reasonable allocation of risk.

10. General representation and warranty

You represent and warrant that your use of the Service will be in accordance with LaTeX Base’s Privacy Policy, with these Terms and Conditions, with any applicable laws and regulations, including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country, state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country in which you reside, and with any other applicable policy or terms and conditions.

11. Indemnification

  1. Indemnification. You agree to defend, You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless SciDock LLC, its suppliers, and its licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising out of your use of the Service, including but not limited to out of your violation of any representation or warranty contained in these Terms and Conditions.

12. Miscellaneous

These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire agreement between SciDock LLC and you concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a written amendment signed by an authorized executive of SciDock LLC, or by the posting by SciDock LLC of a revised version. Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, these Terms and Conditions, any access to or use of the Service will be governed by the laws of the state of Oregon, U.S.A., excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal courts located in Multnomah County, Oregon. If any part of these Terms and Conditions is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. A waiver by either party of any term or condition of these Terms and Conditions or any breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or any subsequent breach thereof. You may assign your rights under these Terms and Conditions to any party that consents to, and agrees to be bound by, its terms; SciDock LLC may assign its rights under these Terms and Conditions without condition. These Terms and Conditions will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors and permitted assigns.

How it works

This article focuses on the technical side of the interactions between LaTeX Base and LaTeX. However, we’re eager to hear from users about their experiences using the service; please feel free to reach out to us at admin@scidock.com with suggestions or if you’d like to beta test new features.

One unique aspect of LaTeX Base amongst web applications is that it can be used with or without an Internet connection! This is possible thanks to service workers: a recent development in the web platform that allows applications to intercept and cache network requests. That means that you can write your papers on a plane, in the park, or anywhere in between. While LaTeX Base isn’t the first web-based LaTeX editor, it is the only one with this capability.

If you’re a programmer as well as a LaTeX enthusiast, you may suspect that there’s a bit more to the story. Service workers allow us to cache the editor, but LaTeX doesn’t run in the browser (it’s a C program). How can LaTeX Base compile documents without an Internet connection if it’s limited to executing JavaScript?

The answer lies in a fascinating tool that came out of Mozilla’s research group a few years ago called Emscripten. Emscripten compiles LLVM bytecode to JavaScript. Many codebases such as Unreal Engine, Bullet Physics, and the Lua programming language (which appears to be of some interest to the greater LaTeX community) have been ported from C/C++ to JavaScript using Emscripten. In building LaTeX Base, pdflatex was compiled to LLVM bytecode using clang and from LLVM to JavaScript using Emscripten. Whereas similar services send users’ documents to servers with installed LaTeX compilers and packages, LaTeX Base sends the compiler and packages to the browser. In addition to making offline mode possible, compiling in the browser also allows LaTeX Base to compile documents quickly and often – so much so that we can offer a real-time preview instead of forcing the user to compile manually.

Our design goal when considering the issue of packages was to make a large number of packages (eventually anything hosted on the CTAN registry) available to users while only ever downloading the packages needed to compile their documents. What we came up with is lazy package loading. Every time you include a new package in a document with LaTeX Base, you’ll download it from our servers. When you use that package in the future it’ll be cached in your browser. For this reason, using packages that a user hasn’t previously used while offline will not work. You can also expect compiling to take slightly longer the very first time you use a package. For the time being, we only support a small number (around 25) of the most commonly used packages, but our roadmap includes extending support to arbitrary hosted packages.

The only way that our implementation of LaTeX differs from a standard compiler is in how we handle external files (like images). We don’t currently give users direct access to the virtual Emscripten filesystem that LaTeX sees when it’s running on https://latexbase.com. Instead, we support calling \includegraphics with an image url that we’ll fetch and preload in Emscripten’s virtual filesystem. When you download your documents, we automatically convert these url identifiers to simple file names and bundle the downloaded images so that no changes are necessary to compile documents elsewhere. Our roadmap also includes allowing users to upload images and other local resources rather than supplying urls.

Web applications are great. They allow users to use software without permanently installing it. The abilities and permissions they’re granted by default are very limited compared to native applications, so they are preferable from a practical security perspective. They’re built on open standards, so they run anywhere and don’t need to be sanctioned by any organization or app store. Using cutting edge tools, LaTeX Base is able to offer many advanced capabilities right in the browser. In this author’s (absolutely biased) opinion, it’s on its way to becoming the best way to write LaTeX documents. In closing, I want to recognize Mozilla, not only for their tremendous standards work that’s made the web the wonderful thing it is today, but also for their work on components that made LaTeX Base possible including Ace, Emscripten, PDF.js, and localforage.

Plans and pricing

LaTeX Base is the world’s easiest to use LaTeX editor. Upgrading to a premium subscription costs $4.99/mo and enables features like:

  • offline mode
  • document sharing
  • publishing hosted pdfs
  • automatic cloud backups
  • access from anywhere

In addition, we have email support available to premium customers. Please get in touch about using LaTeX Base with a group, team, or department account.