4 ms·

The author seems to be a busy person, but I would appreciate it if they would consider modifying their blog publishing software so that the math and definitions

The author seems to be a busy person, but I would appreciate it if they would consider modifying their blog publishing software so that the math and definitions could be rendered in text and KaTeX instead of raster images.

thaumasiotes 1y ago
What would that help with? I know KaTeX supposedly lets you copy-and-paste the text, but that won't get you text that is fit for any purpose.
- willvarfar 1y ago
  (hopefully modern screen reading software is clever enough to OCR and summarise images as it does text. And if not, then that seems to be something that is now within reach of modern AI and just needs application.)
  - thaumasiotes 1y ago
    It wouldn't really matter; the image includes a lot of structure that isn't present in the text that KaTeX provides. A text-only screen reader will never produce anything but gibberish if you feed it KaTeX output. KaTeX will also style the text so that it visually resembles the image, stopping this problem from occurring for non-blind readers. You could have a screen reader that parsed all of the layout, but it seems like you might just as well OCR the image at that point.
  - James_K 1y ago
    The image does have LaTeX source as it's alt text, so should be at least somewhat understandable for screen readers.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- red_trumpet 1y ago
  Better typography helps with reading. The same reason someone would complain if this was typed in Comic Sans. Also the images don't scale well, so if you look at this with a high resolution display, either the images are too small or not sharp.
  - thaumasiotes 1y ago
    Well, having gone and looked at the website, I'd have to agree that KaTeX would be an improvement, but not for reasons that relate to whether the math is rendered as an image. Rather: - The background of the math images is white, which doesn't match the background of the website; - The baseline of the text in the images is not aligned with the baseline of the surrounding text. I was imagining a more-competently-put-together website.

thaumasiotes 1y ago

What would that help with? I know KaTeX supposedly lets you copy-and-paste the text, but that won't get you text that is fit for any purpose.

willvarfar 1y ago
(hopefully modern screen reading software is clever enough to OCR and summarise images as it does text. And if not, then that seems to be something that is now within reach of modern AI and just needs application.)
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  It wouldn't really matter; the image includes a lot of structure that isn't present in the text that KaTeX provides. A text-only screen reader will never produce anything but gibberish if you feed it KaTeX output. KaTeX will also style the text so that it visually resembles the image, stopping this problem from occurring for non-blind readers. You could have a screen reader that parsed all of the layout, but it seems like you might just as well OCR the image at that point.
- James_K 1y ago
  The image does have LaTeX source as it's alt text, so should be at least somewhat understandable for screen readers.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
red_trumpet 1y ago
Better typography helps with reading. The same reason someone would complain if this was typed in Comic Sans. Also the images don't scale well, so if you look at this with a high resolution display, either the images are too small or not sharp.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  Well, having gone and looked at the website, I'd have to agree that KaTeX would be an improvement, but not for reasons that relate to whether the math is rendered as an image. Rather: - The background of the math images is white, which doesn't match the background of the website; - The baseline of the text in the images is not aligned with the baseline of the surrounding text. I was imagining a more-competently-put-together website.