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When using quite some TeX (or using a slow computer), every time the preview of the post you're writing is updated (and MathJax reloads), the preview flickers. This is getting very annoying.

It's a bit hard to give screenshots for this, so I hope you know what I'm talking about.

I would like to ask for one of two solutions I thought up (or something else I didn't think of):

  1. Make the preview smart so that it understands it doesn't have to reload MathJax. I don't know how much developer effort this would take, so another option would be...

  2. Add a checkbox to the preview system to enable/disable MathJax preview. When MathJax is disabled, it can just be displayed as code.

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2 Answers 2

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This happens to me for some reason every once in a while. I don't know if it is because some cache on my computer is getting full or has gotten disabled, or if it is some problem on the MathJax server, but it happens. When it happens, you can disable the MathJax rendering using the rendering off bookmarklet so that you can edit without the flickering, then enable the MathJax rendering using the rendering on bookmarklet. See this answer for details.

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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that works, but wouldn't it be nice to have an official feature / fix for this? :) $\endgroup$
    – user63495
    May 28, 2013 at 18:03
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I notice the same as robjohn ( that this seems to happen every once in a while). I´ve been testing around with this a little bit, but I don´t think it is cache or the mathjax server. Maybe it is just as simple that this happens if there is too much math symbols in the preview.

For example, if I type: $\delta = \frac{\epsilon}{n}$ everything seems all right, but if I copy and paste this math equation 8 times, then the screen begins to flicker, even if I only press spacebar.

I think that a solution may be not that difficult. I've been tesing with this official mathjax test page: http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/test/sample-dynamic-2.html and I think it is impossible to let the preview flicker with the code they are using.

I'm not sure if this is on every computer the same, therefore I recorded my screen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odLtcV8IOHE

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