There's a specific kind of frustration that only LaTeX users know.
You've been staring at a block of nested fractions and summations for ten minutes. You think it's right. You hit compile. You wait 40 seconds. The PDF opens. The equation is on line 3 of the PDF and it's... almost right. One subscript is off. You fix it, compile again, wait again.
By the time you get the equation right, you've forgotten what point you were trying to make with it.
I did this for two years. Then I found a different way.
What I Actually Needed
The compile loop isn't just slow — it's cognitively expensive. Every time you have to wait, you break focus. And the worst part is that you don't actually need to compile the whole document just to check whether an equation looks right. You just need to see the rendered output while you're building it.
What I wanted was simple: click a symbol, see it rendered, immediately.
TeX64's Visual Math Palette
I came across TeX64, a local-first LaTeX editor for macOS (tex64.com), while looking for alternatives to my TeXShop setup.
The feature that immediately caught my attention: a visual equation palette that shows you a live-rendered preview as you click symbols and build your equation — with zero compilation.
Here's what the workflow looks like:
- Open the palette
- Click the integral symbol →
\int_{a}^{b}appears - Fill in the bounds and integrand
- The rendered equation updates in real-time in the preview pane
- Happy with it? Copy the LaTeX code and paste into your
.texfile
The output is completely standard LaTeX — not some proprietary format — so you can hand-edit it afterward or drop it into any project.
For equations I know cold (like basic derivatives), I still type them by hand. But for anything involving unusual notation — multi-index tensor expressions, operator norms, custom arrow decorations — the palette is way faster than guessing the command and compiling to check.
The Other Parts of TeX64 I Use Daily
Beyond the palette, a few other things earned their place in my workflow:
Axiom (the AI assistant)
TeX64 has a built-in AI called Axiom that understands your whole project — all .tex files, compile logs, BibTeX. When a compile error pops up, Axiom reads the log and shows you a diff of exactly what to fix. Not a vague hint. An actual before/after.
I had a mysterious Missing \begin{document} error that turned out to be a broken \usepackage argument three files away. Axiom found it. I would have spent 20 minutes on that.
Axiom also takes natural language: "write the Gaussian integral with substitution" → produces valid LaTeX. Useful for equations you only write once a year and never bother memorizing.
Equation OCR
Paste a screenshot — handwritten notes, a textbook page, a PDF — and TeX64 converts the math to LaTeX. It handles both handwriting and printed equations. If you've used Mathpix before, this is that, but integrated into the editor.
I photographed a whiteboard derivation from a lecture and had it in my thesis source file in about 15 seconds.
SyncTeX
Click anywhere in the PDF → jump to the corresponding source line. Click a source line → jump to the PDF. This is standard in most decent LaTeX setups, but TeX64's implementation is snappy and works out of the box.
Offline, local-first
Everything compiles on your Mac. No internet required. No files going to a cloud server. If your university VPN goes down in the middle of a deadline crunch, nothing changes.
Honest Limitations
A few things worth knowing before you download:
- macOS only — Apple Silicon and Intel both supported, but no Windows or Linux
- You still need MacTeX or TeX Live installed separately for compilation (the equation palette preview works without it, but actual document builds need a TeX distribution)
- No real-time collaboration — if you're co-authoring with someone who needs simultaneous editing, Overleaf still wins that specific use case
- The AI and OCR features have usage limits on the free tier; heavier use requires a Basic or Pro plan
Getting Started
Download from tex64.com. There's a free tier and you don't need to create an account to start using it — just download and open.
If you don't have MacTeX, TeX64 will detect this on first launch and walk you through the installation. That part takes maybe 15 minutes.
The Takeaway
The compile-wait-check loop is one of those frictions that feels normal because you've just accepted it. But once you've used a real-time equation preview for a week, going back feels awful.
TeX64's visual palette didn't change my entire workflow — I still write LaTeX, I still compile, I still get errors. But the part that used to be the most interruptive (verifying equation syntax mid-thought) is now basically instant.
If you're on a Mac and writing math-heavy documents, it's worth trying.
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