33
Yes. Yes.
A thousand times yes.
Markdown provides enough methods to draw attention to different parts of text, though bold and italic and even bold italic, not to forget
block quotes
when one wishes to quote a large section of text, to make using colors via MathJax completely unnecessary. Not only that, but a post written in a rainbow of colours is ...
33
Please note the sarcasm.
I don't see any $\color{purple}{\text{problem}}$ with this, adding $\color{red}{\text{c}}\color{orange}{\text{o}}\color{green}{\text{l}}\color{blue}{\text{o}}\color{purple}{\text{r}}$ to text shouldn't reduce $\color{#12dd13}{\text{readibility}}$, nor should any other $\LaTeX$, such as $\boxed{\text{boxes}}$ $\require{cancel}\cancel{...
30
This is supposed to be an all-purpose math site, and obviously not everyone in the world who has a math question knows how to use latex. Although learning latex is not so very hard, it is not trivial either, and assuming that people must have this skill in order to get continued service seems like a clear violation of the intended scope of the site.
Also,...
26
Testing alternate way of implementing spoiler
$$
\require{action}
\require{enclose}
\toggle{
x\cdot 0 = 0\quad\enclose{roundedbox}{\text{ Click this for derivation }}
}{
\begin{array}{rll}
x\cdot 0
&= \mathtip{x\cdot 0 + 0}{0 \text{ is additive identity}} \\
&= \mathtip{x\cdot 0 + (x\cdot 0 + -(x\cdot 0))}{ -(x\cdot 0) \text{ is additive inverse ...
24
Disclaimer: I'm part of the MathJax team. Also, this got a bit long.
tl;dr Try out NVDA with MathPlayer 4 on Firefox here on math.SE
JAWS 13 is a bit old (2011) and the situation of screenreaders with respect to math and the web has changed drastically since then. As already mentioned, JAWS 16 was the first version to introduce direct MathML support but as ...
23
I am delighted that you are considering this issue.
I am slightly red/green color blind. It is nearly impossible for me to see the block quotes on math.stackexchange.
A light grey background would solve the problem completely for me. A solid or dotted black line along, say, the left the border could serve to distinguish a block quote from piece of computer ...
21
(I'm a new user so I don't have anything to contribute as far as norms here go, but I'm really interested in how to effectively convey information in an accessible way!)
Like others have said, the most obvious downside is colorblind people and people using screen readers. Colorblind people will miss information and so you should make sure the color doesn't ...
19
There are three approaches for line breaks. As pointed out in the comments, Approaches 2 and 3 produce the same HTML output when rendered on the page.
Approach 1: Press "Enter" twice
Output:
Hi
Bye
Code:
Hi
Bye
Approach 2: Two spaces at end of line
Output:
Hi
Bye
Code:
Hi
Bye
There are two spaces after "Hi." That is, the text looks like:
Hi&...
19
Colored text can be useful. I can only think of one example at the moment, which is for highlighting correspondences between different parts of a piece of text, like so: $\frac{d}{dx} (\color{red}{x^3} + \color{blue}{x^2}) = \color{red}{3x^2} + \color{blue}{2x}$
Colored text is not useful for merely emphasizing or highlighting a bit of text; italics or bold ...
17
Seeing as this is the featured FAQ post about entering mathematical notation on this site, I feel it's useful to consolidate here the links to some more useful $\LaTeX$ resources that have been pointed out in another question.
This is a list of the $\LaTeX$ commands currently supported by MathJax.
You can use the CodeCogs $\LaTeX$ equation editor to ...
17
Although there are some great comments above, one thing no one has mentioned is people who use assistive technology like screen readers. Having the mathematics clearly marked as mathematics (as oppose to "fake" mathematics using other HTML tricks) makes it much easier to properly voice the mathematics for screen readers. Although few screen readers ...
15
Some decide instead of typing the actual text of the question, typesetting formulae with LATEX and using plotting software, it would be better for them to avoid the effort
Okay, hold on. You seem to be under the impression that computer typesetting and plotting is easy. Something anyone who uses this site should have in their skillset.
Do you really expect ...
13
Simple solution: don't abuse MathJax to colour your text.
12
Since my comment under the other answer got about three times more votes than the answer, maybe it's worth converting it into a full answer:
The correct way would be, as far as I can tell, to convert the brackets into opening and closing delimiters through the use of \mathopen and \mathclose:
\forall x \in \mathopen{]} -1, 1 \mathclose{[}, f(x) > 0
$$\...
11
(I've never used Meta before -- I noted there's no answer yet, but a lot of comments, so I hope I'm not doing something wrong)
To first give an example of what I would consider good coloring; I like the explanation of Fourier Transform, on betterexplained and technically copied from altdevblogaday):
To be fair, he could have made it a little easier for ...
11
You can do it, but you need to use large squares and hide their height and depth using \smash. It helps to use a definition or two. Here is one approach:
\def\smallstrut{\Space{0em}{.6em}{.2em}}
\def\cbox#1{\textstyle\smash{\color{#1}{\Rule{1em}{.8em}{.2em}}}\smallstrut}
\begin{smallmatrix}
\cbox{red}\cbox{teal}\cbox{green}\cbox{blue}\\
\cbox{red}\cbox{...
11
Use mathjax for mathematics, not for text formatting. The mathjax italics happen because mathjax thinks "abcde" is just a string of variables.
10
I don't there's been any recent change; this is how things have always worked.
To get a single line break, put two spaces at the end of the line - for example,
**Theorem** adsfdf
*proof*: asdfdsaf
produces
Theorem adsfdf
proof: asdfdsaf
10
You can use \limits to get that as in $\sum\limits_{i=n}^\mathbb{N}\frac1{i^2}$. However, this severely messes with the interline spacing.
code: \sum\limits_{i=n}^\mathbb{N}\frac1{i^2}
You can also use \displaystyle as in $\displaystyle\sum_{i=n}^\mathbb{N}\frac1{i^2}$. However, this really messes with interline spacing.
code: \displaystyle\sum_{i=n}^\...
10
As suggested in other posts about this issue, you can use <sup> or <sub>. It is probably not optimal, but at least doable within the limitations of the software. See: How do I use a small font size in questions and answers? You can also support a related feature requests Allow the <small> tag and Markdown extension for really small tiny ...
10
You are not supposed to write a greeting at the start of the question. There is a script in place that removes certain common forms of greetings (or at least what appears to be like one, there are rare false positives).
Of course there are ways to fool the script, but you should not.
9
Also very helpful is Carol Fisher's Alphabetical List of TEX Commands available in MathJax,
which gives examples of all MathJax commands, and has a little MathJax sandbox for experiments.
9
For F.Zer
\begin{align}
f(x:xs) &= \sum_{i:\ 0 \leq i < \#(x:xs)} (x:xs).i * (i + 1)\\
&=\sum_{i:\ i =0} (x:xs).i * (i + 1)+\sum_{i:\ 1\le i<\#xs+1}(x:xs).i * (i + 1)\\
&=x + \sum_{i:\ 1 \leq i \le \#xs} xs.(i-1) * (i + 1)\\
&=x + \sum_{j:\ 0 \leq j < \#xs} xs.j * (j + 2)\quad\quad(\text{Here }j=i-1\text{ and }i\text{ is replaced ...
9
Line breaks and many other stuff are not supported in comments. The basic design rationale is (as described by SE) that comments should be short and sweet: if you need to start a new paragraph, either you are really writing an answer (and so should be posting as such) or you are being too verbose in the comments.
9
Plain $\mathrm{\TeX}$ defines
\mathcode`\[="405B
\mathcode`\]="505D
\delcode`\[="05B302
\delcode`\]="05D303
and $\mathrm{\LaTeX}$ does essentially the same. One could get extensible French brackets by something like
\def\lfb{\delimiter"405D303 }
\def\rfb{\delimiter"505B302 }
Compiling the following file
\def\lfb{\delimiter"405D303 }
\def\rfb{\delimiter"...
9
To reiterate what was said in a comment, that's not really possible, except in a way on mobile.
It is possible though to hide text as a spoiler. Like this (hover over it to show, click to fix it, on mobile one has to click but this is even indicated).
The syntax is >! Text
That is sometimes used, but it is not really convenient as it takes up the full ...
8
Another possibility is to use \smash to stop MathJAX from adjusting the line spacing to accomodate mathematical expressions:
$$\begin{align}
\smash{\sum_{i=1}^n}F_{2i-1}&=F_1+F_3+F_5+\cdots+F_{2n-1}\\
&=1+2+5+\cdots+F_{2n-1}\\
&=F_{2n}\\
\end{align}
$$
$$\begin{align}
\smash{\sum_{i=1}^n}F_{2i-1}&=F_1+F_3+F_5+\cdots+F_{2n-1}\\
&=1+2+5+...
8
If you want to write text in math-mode then use \text{...} or variants thereof for example:
$\text{This is some text with default font.}$
$\textrm{This is some text with specified font, which happens to coincide with the default.}$
$\textsf{This is some text in another font.}$
$\textbf{This is some text in bold.}$
$\text{This is some text with default ...
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