LaTeX Block: Switch to MathML and add styling support #44928

alshakero · 2025-08-24T13:17:37Z

Proposed changes:

This switches the LaTeX block to render MathML instead of HTML and renames it to Math. This has many benefits:

1. Works natively in the Jetpack app!
2. No need to render on the client side thus load a 3rd party library. Faster. Safer.
3. No need for client side CSS since <math> comes styled natively.
4. Supported by all browsers.

It also extends the block to support font size, colors, and spacing.

Other information:

Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?
Have you checked the E2E test CI results, and verified that your changes do not break them?
Have you tested your changes on WordPress.com, if applicable (if so, you'll see a generated comment below with a script to run)?

Jetpack product discussion

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No.

Testing instructions:

Tex format

Apply this.
Sandbox a site and go to /wp-admin/post-new.php
Add a Math block.
Use \int_{x=a}^{y} \frac{df(x)}{dx} \, dx = f(y) - f(a) LaTeX.
Save the page.
It should render the follwing forumla.

MathML

Add a Math block.
Enter <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><semantics><mrow><mi>f</mi><mo>=</mo><msup><mi>x</mi><mn>2</mn></msup></mrow><annotation encoding="application/x-tex">f=x^2</annotation></semantics></math>
Save the page.
It should render the follwing forumla.

github-actions · 2025-08-24T13:18:37Z

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github-actions · 2025-08-24T13:22:30Z

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WoA dev site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta, select your plugin (Jetpack), and enable the fix/latex-block-v2 branch.
To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack fix/latex-block-v2

Interested in more tips and information?

In your local development environment, use the jetpack rsync command to sync your changes to a WoA dev blog.
Read more about our development workflow here: PCYsg-eg0-p2
Figure out when your changes will be shipped to customers here: PCYsg-eg5-p2

jp-launch-control · 2025-08-24T13:30:42Z

Code Coverage Summary

7 files are newly checked for coverage. Only the first 5 are listed here.

File	Coverage
projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js	0/19 (0.00%) 💔
projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/editor.js	0/1 (0.00%) 💔
projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/icon.js	0/2 (0.00%) 💔
projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/math.php	0/7 (0.00%) 💔
projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/save.js	0/5 (0.00%) 💔

Full summary · PHP report · JS report

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simison · 2025-08-28T12:15:17Z

Are the <math> tags rendered by default with math-style: compact? I would've expected normal instead (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/math-style). In future that could be a setting.

projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/latex/block.json

simison · 2025-08-28T12:25:00Z

There is some issue with background not applied to the grey box but something inside it:

Block selected

Block unselected:

What do you think adding border controls as well? They fit well the use case:

		"__experimentalBorder": {
			"color": true,
			"radius": true,
			"style": true,
			"width": true,
			"__experimentalDefaultControls": {
				"color": true,
				"radius": true,
				"style": true,
				"width": true
			}
		},

simison · 2025-08-28T12:27:38Z

Likely best to remove the grey box entirely since we don't render it on frontend either? I think it's better as plain transparent formula, and folks can add background if they need.

simison · 2025-08-28T12:30:43Z

Worked beautifully on emails as well!

alshakero · 2025-08-28T14:43:24Z

Are the tags rendered by default with math-style: compact? I would've expected normal instead (developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/math-style). In future that could be a setting.

It seems to come from the user agent. So I guess MDN is incorrect or something.

Addressed all the rest. Looks great now.

projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js

simison · 2025-08-29T07:24:03Z

projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js

+						<Text upperCase>{ __( 'Preview', 'jetpack' ) }</Text>
+						{ source.trim() && (
+							<div
+								className="jetpack-math-rendered"
+								style={ style }
+								ref={ r => r !== renderAreaRef && setRenderAreaRef( r ) }
+							/>
+						) }


Suggested change

<Text upperCase>{ __( 'Preview', 'jetpack' ) }</Text>

{ source.trim() && (

<div

className="jetpack-math-rendered"

style={ style }

ref={ r => r !== renderAreaRef && setRenderAreaRef( r ) }

/>

) }

{ source.trim() && (

<>

<Text upperCase>{ __( 'Preview', 'jetpack' ) }</Text>

<div

className="jetpack-math-rendered"

style={ style }

ref={ r => r !== renderAreaRef && setRenderAreaRef( r ) }

/>

</>

) }

I think it looks better hiding the "Preview" until there's some content:

simison · 2025-08-29T07:24:37Z

Otherwise works great, just border getting applied to Placeholder component:

simison · 2025-09-04T10:44:37Z

@dmsnell curious for your take in this PR considering your comment from core issue:

if we store the MathML as a data URI, encoded as base64, we should be able to bypass Core mangling it.

simison · 2025-09-04T10:45:43Z

projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/block.json

+	"supports": {
+		"html": true,
+		"color": {
+			"gradients": true
+		},
+		"spacing": {
+			"margin": true,
+			"padding": true
+		},
+		"typography": {
+			"fontSize": true
+		},
+		"align": [ "wide", "full" ],
+		"__experimentalBorder": {
+			"color": true,
+			"radius": true,
+			"style": true,
+			"width": true,
+			"__experimentalDefaultControls": {
+				"color": true,
+				"radius": true,
+				"style": true,
+				"width": true
+			}
+		}
+	},


@alshakero it might be easier to split this PR into two: MathML and styles separately, as both have separate concerns to work through, so it would be faster keep momentum going in smaller PRs.

I'm really slammed right now. Thank you so much for pushing. Why don't we just merge?

simison

Feel free to merge and we can iterate behind beta.

dmsnell

thanks for the ping.

first of all, it’s fine to experiment with this in beta and work to understand the domain of what kses is going to do and not do.

I’m curious about the purpose of stripTags() in here.

With a modernized code block, @sirreal went through a lot of similar challenges in representing the original source while providing a rendered output. We explored a number of issues there.

The MathML spec highlights a use of <annotation> to represent the equation in its LaTeX form. While hidden from the browser’s rendering, that could be a potentially nice feature here where if someone wanted to inspect the page and extract the source formula they could.

Potentially that could also provide a mechanism to recover from corruption if we needed to. The HTML API does properly parse MathML embedded within HTML so it shouldn’t be tricked, though kses might still apply its own creative choices.

Storing a base64 encoding of the generated MathML is an option for last-resort reliability. The server can dynamically replace the block contents on render from it, and not have to worry about pipelines of corruption that may or may not occur.

That being said, I’m not up to date on what Core does and doesn’t allow. It would be good to run a fuzzing test against this on a vanilla WP host with Jetpack, editing the post after disabling Jetpack, hosted on WordPress.com (in its different environments), and with things like & in the formula, things like x<sum_0 in the formula. We would want to know what kinds of corruption might sneak in so that we can fix Core to prevent it.

Well done y’all. This is a nice enhancement; I’m really happy to see that the block no longer hides its content in the static fallback render, but instead preserves the rendered formula through things like site exports and the removal of the Jetpack plugin.

dmsnell · 2025-09-09T17:21:59Z

projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/utils.js

+}
+
+export function renderMath( source ) {
+	if ( source.toLowerCase().includes( '<math' ) ) {


a small change covers all potential cases of MATH tags and avoids an allocation

if ( source.match( /<math/i ) ) {

alshakero added 2 commits August 23, 2025 21:31

Update Latex Block to use MathML

d600efd

changelog

815f712

alshakero added the [Block] Latex label Aug 24, 2025

github-actions bot added [Plugin] Jetpack Issues about the Jetpack plugin. https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/ [Status] In Progress labels Aug 24, 2025

github-actions bot added the [Status] Needs Author Reply We need more details from you. This label will be auto-added until the PR meets all requirements. label Aug 24, 2025

alshakero added 3 commits August 24, 2025 15:19

Remove unrelated changes

ecab99d

Remove unrelated changes

c1f1bff

Merge branch 'trunk' into fix/latex-block-v2

0b03f90

alshakero added the [Type] Enhancement Changes to an existing feature — removing, adding, or changing parts of it label Aug 25, 2025

alshakero marked this pull request as ready for review August 27, 2025 18:51

Add styling and typography support

b334296

alshakero marked this pull request as draft August 27, 2025 19:37

alshakero changed the title ~~LaTeX Block: Switch to MathML~~ LaTeX Block: Switch to MathML and add styling support Aug 28, 2025

alshakero marked this pull request as ready for review August 28, 2025 09:34

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into fix/latex-block-v2

c8a1602

alshakero requested review from simison and jeherve August 28, 2025 11:27

simison reviewed Aug 28, 2025

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projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/latex/block.json Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Address feedback

b23d547

Rename to Math and allow MathML

12383c2

github-actions bot added the [Block] Math label Aug 28, 2025

simison reviewed Aug 29, 2025

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projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

simison reviewed Aug 29, 2025

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projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

simison reviewed Aug 29, 2025

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Update projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/math/edit.js

07d4c2c

simison reviewed Sep 4, 2025

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simison and others added 2 commits September 4, 2025 13:46

Use sentence case

c28cd17

Merge branch 'trunk' into fix/latex-block-v2

14a4bf3

simison approved these changes Sep 4, 2025

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dmsnell reviewed Sep 9, 2025

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LaTeX Block: Switch to MathML and add styling support #44928

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Proposed changes:

Other information:

Jetpack product discussion

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

Testing instructions:

Tex format

MathML

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