MathEQ 4.0 in beta testing

Theorist Interactive, the company behind such products as LiveMath, has posted a beta-preview release of MathEQ 4.0, an update to MathEQ (formerly Expressionist). The preview release of the mathematic typesetting program is only for Mac OSX 10.1/10.2. A license key isn’t required as the program will expire in a short period of time.

There are a few Prefs menus that are still shut off in the new beta-preview, but everything that is active is functional. Here are some highlights of MathEQ 4.0:

New formats: In addition to EPS and PICT, there’s now bitmap, MathML, MathSpeak, PNG, and the MathEQ format. The files remain re-editable by MathEQ in all these formats.

Save File Format: You may now save to PNG, PICT, EPS, MathML, MathSpeak, or the MathEQ format. “Command-S” remembers the file format.

Copy and Save Preferences: You may now set your target Copy and Save via preferences to set up your desired target application or output format so that “Command-C” copies to the desired output format.

PostScript Font Embedding: You may now embed all of your PostScript and TrueType Fonts inside of your output formats, so that your target application doesn’t have to “find the fonts.”

MathSpeak: By using the MathSpeak mechanism, you can add HTML tags to your PNG, MathML, and LiveMath tags that allow blind and visually-impared screen readers voice-synthesize your math and scientific expressions. MathSpeak is customizable, and lets you change the object translation, as well as add more combinations.

MathML: This is a feature for creating all MathML-based scientific Web pages.

LiveMath is an application that lets you create “notebooks” or workspaces that are live, dynamic, and interactive. There are also other LiveMath products with a variety of features and pricing options. LiveMath Maker, LiveMath Plug-in, LiveMath Viewer and MathEQ are Mac OS X savvy; they’re also available for Mac OS 7-9.