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I made a website to write online math as fast as paper

I made a website to write online math as fast as paper

by maxtobiasen·Feb 28, 2026·3 points·2 comments

AI Analysis

●●SolidShip ItCozy

Keyboard shortcuts faster than LaTeX and matrices less clunky than competitors.

Strengths
  • Shortcut-driven notation (intuitive mapping: `alpha` → α, `sqrt` → √) genuinely faster than LaTeX syntax.
  • Matrices and vector accents are notably less painful than MathQuill/Desmos alternatives.
  • Lightweight one-file design lowers barrier—no build, no account, just open and write.
Weaknesses
  • Desmos, Wolfram Alpha, and GeoGebra already serve math work with richer features (graphing, solving).
  • Learning curve acknowledged by author; unclear if speedup justifies retraining muscle memory.
Category
Target Audience

Students, researchers, mathematicians preferring keyboard shortcuts over pen-and-paper or LaTeX.

Similar To

Desmos · GeoGebra · MathType

Post Description

I want to preface this by saying I'm extremely new to webdev, and this is my first finished product. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Every digital math tool, at least for me, has been significantly worse than just pen and paper. LaTeX is far too slow, and most WYSIWYG editors are lacking features.

Scratchpad is my solution to this. You type shortcuts, and they render in real time inline using MathQuill. Stuff that I've added:

- Greek letters, lower and uppercase - Matrices (super clunky in every other editor I've tried!) - Accents like vector arrows and derivative dots - Tons of other useful symbols (set notation, gradients, plusminus, partial derivatives)

In my experience using it while in development, it's been substantially faster than pen and paper. There's a bit of a learning curve with the shortcuts, but I tried to make it as intuitive as possible.

The whole thing is on one index.html file, just open it and start writing. I would really appreciate any notes, especially from anyone who has experience with digital math notes. Thanks!

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