Getting Started

Install

  1. Download Mathy.dmg from Releases
  2. Open the DMG and drag Mathy to Applications
  3. Important: Do NOT double-click to open on first launch — macOS will show a "Not Opened" warning and offer to move it to Trash. Instead, right-click (or Control-click) Mathy.app and choose Open, then click Open in the dialog. This is only required once.

If you accidentally clicked Move to Trash

Retrieve Mathy from the Trash (open Trash in Dock, drag it back to Applications), then right-click > Open as described above.

On first launch, Mathy automatically installs the Python OCR engine and downloads the model (~200MB). A setup window shows progress — no terminal needed. See Onboarding & Python Setup for details on what happens behind the scenes.

Requirements

  • macOS 13+ (Ventura or later)
  • Python 3.8+ (pre-installed on most Macs, or brew install python3)

Usage

Once running, Mathy appears as a calligraphic M icon in the menu bar.

Mathy demo — screen capture to LaTeX{ width="400" }

  • Cmd+Shift+M — capture a screen region and convert to LaTeX
  • Click the menu bar icon to see server status, recent history, and settings
  • Converted LaTeX is automatically copied to your clipboard
  • A preview popup shows the captured image alongside rendered LaTeX

Settings

Access settings from the menu bar dropdown (gear icon):

Setting Description
Capture hotkey Remap the global shortcut (default: Cmd+Shift+M)
Auto-copy Automatically copy LaTeX to clipboard after capture
Launch at login Start Mathy when you log in (via SMAppService)
Reinstall OCR engine Delete the managed venv and re-run onboarding setup

Permissions

Mathy needs Screen Recording permission to capture screen regions. macOS will prompt you the first time you capture. If capture stops working after an app update, remove Mathy from System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording and re-add it.