Math Scanner

Math can be difficult in more ways than one. While most of us used pen and paper for anything mathematics because it seemed like the obvious thing to do at the time, computers can work decently well, but there are some caveats. These caveats mostly include working with certain math functions which can be difficult to type on a keyboard, such as square roots or fractions.

A scanning tool can thus prove useful, particularly if you work with LaTeX. Math Scanner is a simple app that leverages OCR algorithms to extract mathematical expressions from screenshots, which it will then copy to your clipboard as LaTeX equations for easier use.

The program manages to make the whole process very worry-free. To begin, you can draw the mathematical functions or expressions you want to work with, then take a screenshot of them through the app’s interface.

Upon taking a screenshot, the app will use its OCR algorithms to recognize your mathematical expressions. The tool is mostly accurate, but it can fail at times, so it’s best to temper your expectations before going in.

After your expressions have been recognized, the program will copy them to your clipboard. This will allow you to easily take them to your LaTeX system and integrate them into your documents.

An interesting use of the program is having it recognize expressions from pictures. As in, you can take a picture of your math notebook, then screenshot it through the tool, and it should work well enough.

Not all math expressions are easy to write and work with on a computer, which is why Math Scanner can be especially helpful to have around.