The Setup Problem
Last fall I got an M2 MacBook Air and needed a LaTeX setup for my thesis. Should be simple, right? Install MacTeX, pick an editor, start writing.
MacTeX took 20 minutes to download. Picking an editor took three days.
TeXShop: Free, stable, native. But the UI looks like it was designed when Tiger was the latest macOS. For a 5-page homework assignment, sure. For a 150-page thesis with 40+ figures? I need file management.
VS Code + LaTeX Workshop: Powerful if you get it configured. I spent about 2 hours editing settings.json to get latexmk recipes, SyncTeX paths, and formatters working. It compiles, it works — but it always feels like I'm using a general-purpose tool that happens to support LaTeX, not something built for it.
Overleaf: Loved it initially. Real-time preview, great templates, zero setup. Then my thesis hit 100 pages and I started getting compile timeouts on the free tier. At 11pm the night before a draft deadline. That was the end of Overleaf for me.
Texifier: Beautiful native Mac app. But it uses its own compilation engine, which means my latexmk configuration didn't carry over cleanly.
Then I found TeX64.
What TeX64 Actually Does Differently
TeX64 is a LaTeX editor built specifically for macOS. It's local-first — all compilation happens on your Mac through your existing MacTeX/TeX Live installation. No cloud, no internet dependency.
Setup was almost absurdly quick. Download from tex64.com, open my project folder, hit compile. Everything just worked. The 2 hours I spent configuring VS Code? Not necessary here.
Axiom: AI That Reads Your Compile Logs
This is the feature I use most. When a compile fails, TeX64's AI assistant (called Axiom) reads the actual log output and tells you what went wrong.
Not "there's an error somewhere." More like: "Line 847 is missing end align. Here's the fix." And it shows you a diff. One click to apply.
When you're working on a 150-page document and an Undefined control sequence could be anywhere, having something that actually parses the log and points to the exact problem saves real time. I estimate it saves me 20-30 minutes a day during heavy writing sessions.
Equation OCR
This one caught me off guard. I took a photo of some equations my advisor wrote on the whiteboard during a meeting. Dragged the photo into TeX64. Three seconds later, the equations were sitting in my editor as editable LaTeX code.
It works with handwriting and printed math (like screenshots from PDFs). If you've used Mathpix before, it's basically that — but built into the editor, so you don't have to switch apps.
SyncTeX (No Setup Required)
Click anywhere in the PDF preview and jump to the corresponding source line. Click a line in your source and jump to that spot in the PDF. Works out of the box.
In VS Code, getting SyncTeX working required editing paths in settings.json. In TeX64, it just works.
Visual Math Palette
For those times when you can't remember the LaTeX command for a specific symbol, there's a clickable palette where you can build equations visually. The output is standard LaTeX code that you can hand-edit afterwards.
The Honest Downsides
- macOS only. If you need Windows or Linux, TeX64 isn't an option.
- No real-time collaboration. If you're co-writing with someone, Overleaf is still better for that specific use case.
- Requires MacTeX. You need a TeX distribution installed. TeX64 helps you set it up if you don't have one, but it's an extra step compared to Overleaf's zero-install approach.
My Recommendation
After six months of daily use:
- Writing with a team? Use Overleaf
- Want maximum customization? Use VS Code + LaTeX Workshop
- Writing solo on macOS and want things to just work? Use TeX64
TeX64 has a free tier and doesn't require an account to start. You can grab it at tex64.com.
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