TeXmacs
Hacker ApprovedRanked 5 of 12 typesetting systems by recommenders
Free WYSIWYG editor for fast, well-typeset math and structured documents. Critics say it supports only a subset of LaTeX, so LaTeX packages won't work.
Free WYSIWYG editor for fast, well-typeset math and structured documents. Critics say it supports only a subset of LaTeX, so LaTeX packages won't work.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast math typing
“Typing math in TeXmacs felt much quicker than LaTeX, enough so that I was able to keep up with the lecturer's writing on the blackboard.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” “It allows me to type quickly and accurately math and explanation with exquisite typography.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” “it was excellent for quickly writing math, and building tables”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” - Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs”
Live WYSIWYG editing without compile cycle
“it frees you from the write-compile cycle while being equivalent (maybe in some ways better) from the point of view of the control you have on the document”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “The code and open-source tools I used to produce a science fiction anthology” “Tree-structured documents in a live (WYSIWYG) typesetter with a programmable editor are possible”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Typst 0.15.0” “fully WYSIWYG, no limitation on what it can do”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” Beautiful typeset output
“get proper typesetting, and can copy/paste expressions for simplification by hand”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust” “the program is an incredibly powerful tool for creating beautiful documents”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now” “LaTeX: accomplished typography”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” Structured data and CAS integration
“It supports handing over beautifully typeset and semantically-structured math to various CAS”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Woxi - Open-source Mathematica / Wolfram Language reimplementation” “For me, also highly intestering is the internal data model and serialization”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” “you can insert it programmatically into a TeXmacs document in a seamless way”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Misleading name suggests Emacs editor
“they gave it a terrible name that strongly implies it's some kind of Emacs TeX editor”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Tectonic: A modernized, complete, self-contained TeX/LaTeX engine” “trading on association rather than on substance”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” “Probably the most misleading app name ever.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” - Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs”
Not LaTeX compatible, limited TeX support
“this thing is not LaTeX and you won't be able to use any of the LaTeX packages that you need”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “TeX Live 2026 is available for download now” “TeXmacs supports only quite limited subset of what LaTeX and TeX can do”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Tectonic: A modernized, complete, self-contained TeX/LaTeX engine” “TexMacs is great. However, I use LaTeX regularly.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” Dislike of WYSIWYG over source markup
“It seemed like a cool piece of software, but when I later learned LaTeX I discovered I prefer non-WYSIWYG for everything but lecture notes.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “GNU Texmacs” “I don't like this mode of interaction. No, thanks.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Typst 0.15.0”
Other typesetting systems people recommend
The four most recommended other typesetting systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 12 typesetting systems, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It supports handing over beautifully typeset and semantically-structured math to various CAS”
“I don't like this mode of interaction. No, thanks.”
“Tree-structured documents in a live (WYSIWYG) typesetter with a programmable editor are possible”
“they gave it a terrible name that strongly implies it's some kind of Emacs TeX editor”
“as one would not expect that it works so well”
“TeXmacs supports only quite limited subset of what LaTeX and TeX can do”
“is the kind of program that we need for writing”
“Both, the concept and the tool, are amazingly capable and a breath of fresh air”
“their manuals are very well written”
“this thing is not LaTeX and you won't be able to use any of the LaTeX packages that you need”
“the program is an incredibly powerful tool for creating beautiful documents”
“Maybe http://texmacs.org would fit here!”
“get proper typesetting, and can copy/paste expressions for simplification by hand”
“both quite stable and speedier than any alternative”
“you can insert it programmatically into a TeXmacs document in a seamless way”
“TeXmacs provide all things 90% of people need.”
“For me, also highly intestering is the internal data model and serialization”
“succinctly telling you what the project is about and what it can do”
“TexMacs is great. However, I use LaTeX regularly.”
“writing maths just feels easy”
“Discovered then that it has a steep learning curve and not too much helpful info if you want to do something not preconfigured.”
“The animation in presentation mode is really impressive”
“As if the author had added the best aspects of the two and then some.”
“It is a software designed to render writing a lot of mathematics easier and more importantly to not loose focus in irrelevant details.”
“I had no idea this existed and I’m in love.”
“LaTeX: accomplished typography”
“fully WYSIWYG, no limitation on what it can do”
“It allows me to type quickly and accurately math and explanation with exquisite typography.”
“praising how efficient (and pleasurable, I might add!) TeXmacs is”
“it was excellent for quickly writing math, and building tables”
“Typing math in TeXmacs felt much quicker than LaTeX, enough so that I was able to keep up with the lecturer's writing on the blackboard.”
“It seemed like a cool piece of software, but when I later learned LaTeX I discovered I prefer non-WYSIWYG for everything but lecture notes.”
“it does support quite some TeX commands”
“The name alone is hilarious bad.”
“trading on association rather than on substance”
“I love TeXmacs so much I just use it as a regular word processor”
“Probably the most misleading app name ever.”
“What you want is a document format that is not Turing complete, such as the TeXmacs document format.”
“Texmacs which is far superior for academics.”
“it frees you from the write-compile cycle while being equivalent (maybe in some ways better) from the point of view of the control you have on the document”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.