Math Wizards Get 7 Ways To Make Mac Math Magic

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5 - We Are Font Family

Publishing is the name of the game and MathMagic delivers what’s important with precision accuracy and typesetting tools to die for.

TrueType, PostScript, and OpenType are all supported formats, so your document will have appropriate symbols for the right equations, no matter what your scientific or mathematical preference.

All the fonts you need are included and work well in your Mac document maker of choice.

Fields of Dream

These days I’m into disputing the theory of No Learning Curve Required, but MathMagic comes close, because it resembles a word processor. As we all know, Mac users are not intimidated by word processors, so think of this as the math cousin of Pages.

The real learning curve for an equation editor comes two ways—before and after MathMagic. Before MathMagic you need to know something about the fine arts of math, science, physics, electronics, or the black arts of statistics and accounting (Bernie Maddoff, I’m looking at you).

After MathMagic you need to know what to do with all that science and math that rumbles through your gray matter. That said, the learning curve for using MathMagic doesn’t really exist since you can start right away.

Create a new document, and treat the elements as if they’re desktop publishing tools—because they are. The tools and palettes will be familiar if you’ve ever indulged in InDesign or QuarkXPress.

6 - Expansion League

Actually, MathMagic comes with multiple versions, including MathMagic Pro for InDesign, MathMagic Pro for QuarkXPress, in addition to the Mac and Windows versions, and a Personal Edition.

I have a couple of issues. The first is with the latest personal edition of MathMagic. Tabs. Yes, there are tabs on the palettes, though they’re reminiscent of yesteryear, and unlike the tabbed interface in many Mac utilities and applications today. Some tabs are just that, tabs. Others are merely buttons disguised as tabs. Nit picky, yes.

You get full control over symbol creation and manipulation, down to points or percent of slopes, ratios, thickness, subscript and even sub-subscript depth. Experimentation is allowed. One click gets you back to default settings.

The other issue, and it’s one that plagues the creative community no end, is palettes. Maybe it’s something to do with the desire to use only the tool you need at the time you need it, hence only use the palette you need at the time. I just get lost with more than four palettes open and floating around my Mac’s screen.

There’s a lot to like with MathMagic. It’s cross platform (sorry Linux users, but we know most of you prefer Macs over Windows) and works with any popular word processor or publishing application (if yours isn’t on the list, it isn’t popular).

The learning curve to decent productivity is modest, though, again, you need to know your sciences going in, otherwise it might was well be a palette loaded with Greek fonts.

7 - Money Matters

Finally, MathMagic, relative to other equation editors is friendly on the budget. There’s a hefty discount for the academic version, which includes free updates. There’s even a one-month license to get your feet wet, or if you’re on a deadline to publish before retirement.