Accessible Math for Ebooks Using MathML Cloud: Webinar Q&A

Presenters: Sanders Kleinfeld (O’Reilly Media) and Sue-Ann Ma (Benetech) Webinar recording and PowerPoint slides available at http://diagramcenter.org/?p=50#mmlc

Q&A Summary – July 15, 2015

1. Early SVG outputs used MathJax and rather than using characters, it used paths to draw each glyph. Is that still the case?
2. Is there support for batched conversions (multiple equations for each API call)?
3. Do you support an HTML output? Related: is there a way to get ‘simple’ HTML output for things like x^2+2a*b+c which can be represented in HTML?
4. What is MathML Cloud’s support for Content MathML?
5. Do you handle wrapping equations that are long?”
1. Yes, MathML Cloud leverages MathJax for SVG rendering and this uses glyphs.
2. Yes, it is possible to submit a single equation or bulk HTML5 (including several equations), then request the MathML Cloud API to return multiple outputs (learn more at: https://github.com/benetech/mmlc-api/wiki/API-Definition). We’ve also heard of partners who parse a bulk file (non-HTML5 file), then send those through as individual equations over to the API.
3. Our friends over at MathJax helped answer this one: “I suspect the person asking is after MathJax’s other output option which generates HTML with CSS not SVG. Our next release will provide a new HTML output that can be generated in MathJax-node.” Once the feature is available on MathJax-node (the underlying code that makes MathML Cloud possible), a few tweaks would then need to be made before this feature is directly available through MathML Cloud.
4. Content MathML is supported, except for so-called strict mode. Since MathML Cloud uses MathJax as its underlying technology, this means MathML Cloud also has the same level of Content MathML support. To date, we have only received Presentational MathML samples from industry partners, but if you are seeing a surge of interest regarding Content MathML and can pass actual samples along to us, please contact admin@mathmlcloud.org.
5. MathJax supports more line-breaking options, but unfortunately, the current state of MathML Cloud does not leverage these capabilities. Currently, MathML Cloud displays the full expression without an option to set limitations on widths.

The DIAGRAM Center is a Benetech initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Cooperative Agreement #H327B100001). Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Department of Education.