Greetings from #rdcHQ! This week in the MathML Track we successfully converted the majority of the equations Jasper has authored from MathML to SVG using SVGMath! 239 equations were transformed using our modified version of the program. You can view these conversions in Jasper’s Sandbox

The original MathML equations are on the left; the SVG conversions are on the right. We are definitely pleased with this latest development, as the converted SVGs provide a localized solution for our document set (i.e. one that does not rely on JavaScript or an external CDN for delivery). MathJax does provide an excellent solution for cross-browser rendering for equations written in MathML, and its capability to work with screen readers in order to audibly render the equations makes it the perfect solution for many applications. More on this and Content MathML next week.

Typographic Nits

There are subtle typographic variations between the MathML and SVG renditions which can be resolved by fine-tuning the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The MathML character set in combination with CSS provides a high degree of control over the elements. The Default CSS style sheet published by the W3C is an excellent starting point for providing an understanding of the level of granularity.

While researching rendering subtleties, we discovered some useful information. MathJax will use STIX fonts for rendering if they are installed, which is what our examples in SVGMath are using. STIX fonts are recommended by MathJax as it speeds processing (preferences are set using the HTML-CSS output processor) and these fonts are beginning to be native in operating systems, such as Apple’s OSX Lion. As time permits, we hope to resolve some of these typographic nuances, however we are not sure this will make our “Alpha Release”.

SVGMath did encounter encoding errors with three glyphs in the mathematical font set (Glyph U+2211, Glyph U+2207, Glyph U+2032) which affected 20 of the equations. We are looking into this in greater depth to prepare for the next batch conversion. For now, we just like looking at the typographical symbols:

(Glyph U+2211) N-ARY SUMMATION

(Glyph U+2207) PRIME

(Glyph U+2032) NABLA

One final note: It was most efficient to process the equations as .xml files using SVGMath. We used the W3C ENTITIES HTML MathML Set to convert the HTML5 numeric form over the named form in order to successfully convert the XML files.

One more final note: we would be remiss not to mention the excellent contributions we are receiving from our special guest mystery coder, @TXT. We’ll be adding these to our conversion queue soon!

More from the MathML Track next week!