# Where are the LaTex equations in plots coming from?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148>\
**Category:** Tooling\
**Created:** [December 20, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148 "2020-12-20T23:12:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2020, 11:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148/1 "2020-12-20T23:12:28Z")

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Hi,

How do packages like `GR` and likely others used by `Plots` manage to display _LaTex_ equations without installing the _Tex/LaTex_ package? Is there a really minimal _LaTex_ installation that is used under the hood?

Tanks.

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**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148/2 "2020-12-21T01:16:06Z")

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Matplotlib has its own LaTeX-like math renderer: [Writing mathematical expressions — Matplotlib 3.3.3 documentation](https://matplotlib.org/3.3.3/tutorials/text/mathtext.html)

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**Author:** ![ericphanson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ericphanson/32/215186_2.png) [@ericphanson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ericphanson)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148/3 "2020-12-21T01:26:04Z")

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GR has its own version of that code as well: [https://github.com/sciapp/gr/blob/master/lib/gr/mathtex2.c](https://github.com/sciapp/gr/blob/master/lib/gr/mathtex2.c)

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/where-are-the-latex-equations-in-plots-coming-from/52148/4 "2020-12-21T01:42:06Z")

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Thanks.