Snip for MacOS — User guide

This in an in-depth guide to all of the features that you can use in Snip. For more information about downloading the app and creating your Mathpix account, click here.

Taking a Snip

To create a Snip on your Mac, you are going to take a screenshot, so make sure whatever you want to capture is already on your screen.

You have two options to trigger the screenshot:

Click the Screenshot button in the top left corner of the app.

Enter the keyboard shortcut (CTRL+⌘+M) anytime the app is running on your computer.

After either clicking the Screenshot button or entering the keyboard shortcut, your screen will turn gray and you will need to click and drag your cursor to capture the desired area of your screen. Release to capture the content inside of the box. Your result will automatically appear in the app.

If you triggered the screenshot mechanism accidentally, you can exit the screenshot mode by clicking once or hitting esc on your keyboard.

Using a Snip result

Snip can be used in many different ways, but the main function is digitizing the math and text within an image into different formats that can be used in documents or on the web. If this is your use case, then you want to use the OCR, Data, or Original tabs.

Snip returns many different text formats of results:

LaTeX (best for editors that support LaTeX)
- Raw LaTeX (best for Notion)
- Inline LaTeX (for inline math)
- Block mode LaTeX numbered and non-numbered (for block mode math)
Text & mixed text/LaTeX (best for LaTeX & Markdown editors)
MS Word optimized MathML (best for MS Word)
MathML (many applications)
Asciimath (best for computation)
SVG code (best for websites)
HTML tables (best for web & Markdown)
TSV tables (best for spreadsheet software)
PNG (best for WYSIWYG editors)
TIFF (best for design software)
Image URLs (best for HTML pages like blogs)
- Raw URL (best for sharing images in messaging & documentation tools)
- Markdown link (best for Markdown editors)
- HTML <img> tag (best for websites)

All formats can be easily copied to your clipboard by toggling between the tabs and rows with your up and down arrow keys. Whichever format row is selected will be copied to your clipboard automatically, so all you need to do is paste into your desired app.

You can customize which format rows appear in the app or your desired LaTeX delimiters by going to Preferences > Formatting.

The formats are spread across 3 tabs:

OCR: text and LaTeX, PNG/TIFF of the rendered result
Data: alternative text formats
Original: Image URLs or PNG/TIFF of the original image

Editing a Snip

If your Snip result did not get recognized 100% accurately, you can edit the source to make it perfect!

First, click the Edit button (it looks like a pen) on your desired format row. (NOTE: if you edit the text mode (second) row, you will lose the math mode rows)

Make your changes in text box, you will see the changes render instantly in the preview above. Once you have your desired result, click Save:

Your Snip will update instantly and the updated result will be copied to your clipboard!

Syncing a Snip

All Snips taken from your account will sync automatically with any Snip app that you are logged into with the same account. Waiting for a Snip to sync? You can force an update by clicking the Sync button on the top right:

Writing a Snip

Only available in Snip for Mac, we have an additional way of creating a Snip–by writing the Markdown or LaTeX directly. This is a convenient feature for users who need an image outputs (PNG or image URL) from raw LaTeX.

Click on the pen icon to open the Snip Editor page. Here you can toggle between Markdown or LaTeX, and start writing your Snip. Once you click save, a new Snip will be created. Note that this Snip will have no “original image”, since it has been created from text.

Deleting a Snip

You can delete an individual Snip from that Snip’s result page:

You can delete all of your Snips from your Snip List page:

When you click the delete all Snips button, you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete all of your Snips (since this is an irreversible action). Click the Delete All Snips button to confirm, or the X to cancel.

Changing your settings

To access the app Preferences, click on the Settings wheel at the top right corner of the app, then choose Preferences from the menu:

Go to Preferences > General to customize:

all keyboard shortcuts
if you want Snip to start at Login

Go to Preferences > Formatting to customize:

which format rows display in your app
your desired math mode LaTeX delimiters
whether or not to include extra spaces in your LaTeX

Quitting Snip

You can quit Snip at any time by clicking on the Settings wheel to open the menu, and then choosing Quit. You can also enter ⌘+Q on your keyboard whenever the app is active to quit.