Tex Snippets

A Command Palette extension. Write LaTeX math without leaving the launcher.
Type a snippet, see it rendered, copy it as Unicode, source, or a typeset image.

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What it does

• Live preview

  Open Tex Snippets and type. Each keystroke is parsed and rendered to a Unicode approximation. Malformed input shows the syntax error instead of a preview.

• Fallback commands

  Type LaTeX straight into the Command Palette search box and two rows appear without opening the extension first: LaTeX preview and LaTeX as PNG.

• Three ways to copy

  The Unicode preview (α + β ≤ γ), the raw LaTeX source, or a properly typeset PNG placed on the clipboard.

• Typeset preview

  Turn Live typeset preview on in the settings and the details pane shows the real thing, typeset by LaTeX while you type, next to the Unicode line. Off by default, because it costs a LaTeX run per pause.

Example

\frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}      →   (-b ± √(b² - 4ac))/(2a)
\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^2}       →   ∑ₙ₌₁^∞ 1/(n²)
\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2}\,dx              →   ∫₀^∞e^(-x²) dx
x \in \mathbb{R} \setminus \mathbb{Q}   →   x ∈ ℝ ∖ ℚ

How it works

Two rendering paths, picked to match what you're doing:

Unicode preview (instant) - a deliberately small parser validates the structure of a snippet (braces, math delimiters, \left/\right pairs, environments) and maps known control sequences to their Unicode equivalents.

PNG (the real thing) - hands the snippet to your LaTeX installation, then to dvipng. Runs when you invoke Copy as PNG, and in the background for the live preview if you turn that on. The image goes on the clipboard in two formats at once: PNG with transparency for browsers, Slack, Word and Notion, and a white-flattened CF_DIB for older image editors.

Settings

Reachable from the context menu on Tex Snippets (Ctrl+K), or under Extensions in Command Palette's own settings.

Setting	Default	What it does
Live typeset preview	off	Renders the snippet with LaTeX as you type and shows it in the details pane.
Image resolution	600 dpi	Resolution of the PNG placed on the clipboard.
Transparent background	on	Off gives a solid white background instead.
Text colour	#000000	Hex colour of the typeset maths. Dark inks are lightened in the preview when the theme is dark.
Extra preamble	empty	Lines added before \begin{document} - \usepackage lines, \newcommand macros.
LaTeX bin folder	empty	Where to find latex.exe and dvipng.exe, when they are somewhere unusual.

Requirements

• Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041) or later, x64 or ARM64
• Command Palette (ships with PowerToys)
• For Copy as PNG and the live preview only: a LaTeX installation providing latex.exe and dvipng.exe - TeX Live or MiKTeX. Both are looked up on PATH and in the usual install locations. Without one, the PNG row simply doesn't appear and everything else works as normal.

Building

Requires the .NET 10 SDK and the Windows SDK build tools.

dotnet build TexSnippets.sln -c Release -p:Platform=x64

To run it inside Command Palette, deploy the MSIX package (the TexSnippets (Package) profile in Visual Studio, or dotnet publish with Properties/PublishProfiles/win-x64.pubxml), then restart Command Palette (or use the reload command) so it picks up the new extension.

I recommend installing Visual Studio >2026 with ".NET desktop apps" and "WinUI packages" options and using Build > Deploy TexSnippets option.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

• Found a bug? Open an issue with the snippet that triggered it. The exact LaTeX source is usually enough to reproduce.
• Adding symbols? TexSnippets/Latex/LatexSymbols.cs holds the control-sequence -> Unicode tables. New entries are the easiest possible contribution and always welcome.
• Changing the parser? TexSnippets/Latex/LatexRenderer.cs is a single-pass recursive descent that stops at the first error. Please try keep it cheap, it runs on every keystroke.

Before opening a PR, please make sure dotnet build TexSnippets.sln -c Release -p:Platform=x64 succeeds with no new warnings. Match the surrounding style; the project builds with .NET analyzers on Recommended and treats trim/AOT warnings as errors in release.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.

Scaffolded from the Microsoft Command Palette extension template, also MIT.

AI usage

I used Claude Opus 5 for basic research, to generate the unicode symbols, parts of README and for code refactoring.