Review: MathMagic
- Article 10 of 19
- MacUser, July 2010
Anyone who’s ever tried to include mathematical equations in an InDesign document will know that’s a lot easier said than done. If you try to use native tools and the Symbol typeface, you can just about do it with a great deal of lateral thinking, resizing and alignment grids. But making them look good and ensuring consistency is harder still. It’s no surprise that many mathematicians journals use their own typesetting system and language, TeX.
There are alternatives, with both OS X’s Grapher and Microsoft Office’s Equation Editor being favourite ways for many to create equations. But they both have limitations and their output is poor. So MathMagic Pro is an attractive option for those with a serious need to handle equations in their layouts.
MathMagic Pro Edition for Adobe InDesign 7 is a plug-in that lets you either embed equations within text boxes or create a new kind of box, the equation box. Using the separate MathMagic Pro, you can then create the equation using a wide variety of mathematical symbols for areas ranging from maths to electronics to accountancy. Most of these are accessed from a single toolbar, each button with numerous related pulldowns, but these can be dragged away from the bar to create floating palettes. The inclusion of a number of high quality mathematical fonts means even the “blackboard bold” versions of N for the natural numbers, R for the reals and so on can be added to an equation with ease.
There are tools for common types of alignment, including the ability to line up equations at particular symbols, and different kinds of spacing, with MathMagic having an intelligent formatting system that does most of the work. It lets you colour your equations using document-wide or application-wide swatches, one of the few improvements in version 7 being the ability to add different background colours to boxes or to an entire equation. There are macros and user-definable keyboard shortcuts to speed up common operations. You can also define styles and create “style sets” to replicate formatting easily and consistently.
If you already have the equation in MathML or TeX, MathMagic can import and convert it, which is undoubtedly a boon for anyone accepting manuscripts from external authors. Once you’ve finished the equation, you can then export it to InDesign or in a variety of file formats, including EPS, TIFF, PDF, various forms of TeX, Google Docs and MediaWiki. And if there’s a mistake in the equation, you can still go back to edit it then reinsert it since MathMagic lets you save the equations as documents.
But MathMagic has quite a few flaws, particularly around the interface, which while reasonably easy to use in most respects, hides some functionality. There are no tool-tips on any of the palettes or toolbars, so it’s not clear, for example, whether some buttons represent underlines or subtraction/equals operators until you use them.
Many of the toolbar buttons bury symbols in the strangest of categories: the Hebrew letter Aleph is nowhere near the “infinity” menu whereas the dagger symbol for Hermitian conjugates is. MathMagic’s authors would also do well to have optional palettes for particular subject areas to group frequently used symbols, or the option for users to create their own palettes of symbols, since screen real estate gets eaten up very quickly by floating palettes.
Installation is also a pain, with MathMagic repeatedly reporting that certain fonts weren’t installed, even when they had been. The separate MathMagic application invariably had to be launched manually because the plug-in couldn’t launch it itself. Import of TeX isn’t flawless and in particular, the program chokes on TeX slideshows – if you’re evaluating MathMagic, also be warned that each slide counts as one of your “uses” and you’ll end up with separate documents for each.
MathMagic Pro for Adobe InDesign is massively over-priced at $499 for a one-year licence, $75 for one month, when the comparably feature-packed MathType is available for $96 and many of its features are available in MS Office and Grapher. However, its output is undeniably better than any of the others and it is more flexible with export formats. While it clearly needs improving, if you need quality maths equations in your InDesign document, often receive those equations from authors using TeX and still want to maintain flexibility, this is the program to do it.