How to turn handwritten maths into LaTeX for Overleaf and Word

1. Work it out as usual. On paper, a pad or in a notebook. Fractions, integrals, sums, matrices or reaction equations, just as you write them in a lecture or at your desk.
2. Photograph the page. With the Axsuro app on your iPhone, flat and straight from above, in good light. In the browser, upload photos or PDFs at app.axsuro.com.
3. Copy LaTeX or send it to Word. Open the page. Under “Formulas” every formula is typeset, with its LaTeX below. Use “Copy LaTeX” for Overleaf and “Copy for Word” for an equation in Word.

Axsuro reads formulas as part of reading the page. That means maths and chemistry beyond simple arithmetic: fractions and roots, exponents and subscripts, sums and integrals, matrices, Greek letters, reaction equations.

The lines of the page stay exactly as you wrote them. The formulas come on top, in a card of their own. So you can still find a derivation with search, and the book shows the page as it was on paper.

Important: Axsuro reads formulas, it does not solve them. If your sheet has a sign error, so does the LaTeX. That is deliberate: these are your notes.

• Overleaf and other LaTeX editors: tap “Copy LaTeX” and paste it into your .tex file, for example between \[ and \] or into an equation environment.
• Word: tap “Copy for Word” and paste. Word turns it into a real equation you can keep editing in the equation editor.
• Notion and Obsidian: tap “Copy LaTeX” and paste it into a maths block.

On the web you see the formula typeset, the way it will look in the finished document. The iPhone and Android app shows the LaTeX and “Copy LaTeX”; the typeset view is not there yet.

An example: a handwritten line with the integral from 0 to 1 of x² dx becomes \int_0^1 x^2 \, dx.

• Leave room: superscripts, subscripts, fraction bars and integral limits are easier to read when they don't reach into the line above.
• One formula per line: multi-line working is fine, but each step on its own line helps.
• Dark pen, whole page: faint pencil and cut-off edges make it harder.
• Check before you hand it in: reading can make mistakes, especially with look-alikes such as 1 and l or ν and v. A quick look at the typeset formula shows it. If Axsuro cannot draw a formula, the LaTeX is still shown below.

Formulas as LaTeX are included in every plan, Free too. Free reads 60 pages a month, and every new account starts with 14 days of Pro, no card needed.

If you study from your notes, study mode (Plus and up) turns questions and answers on your pages into flashcards. More in the guide Flashcards from handwritten notes and on study notes. What LaTeX is, the glossary explains.

• How to get a handwritten table into Excel or a CSV
  Turn a table on paper into Excel: take a photo, Axsuro reads every cell, and “Copy table” pastes real cells into Excel or Google Sheets. Or download a CSV.
• Flashcards from handwritten notes
  Turn notes into flashcards: write q: and a: by hand, photograph the page, and Axsuro builds a deck per notebook with five boxes for spaced repetition.
• Research notes for your dissertation: from paper to searchable
  Research notes on paper for a dissertation or thesis: every line searchable, Ask answers with the source page, formulas as LaTeX, notes on printed PDFs.