Built-in LaTeX editor generates \differentialD, which is not supported by the renderer

[Aiza-Lee]

Description

The built-in LaTeX editor generates \differentialD, when typing dx, but the rendering environment does not support it.

For example, the following expression is generated or accepted by the editor:

\int f(x) \differentialD x

However, it does not render correctly in notes.

Expected behavior:

either \differentialD should be supported by the renderer,
or the editor should not generate unsupported commands.

At the moment, users must manually replace it with something like \mathrm{d}.

TriliumNext Version

0.102.2

What operating system are you using?

Ubuntu

What is your setup?

Local + server sync

Operating System Version

Ubuntu 24.04

Error logs

No response

[dosubot]

Hi @Aiza-Lee! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the Trilium team.

The \differentialD command is coming from MathLive (v0.109.1), which is the visual math editor used in Trilium's math input dialog. MathLive has its own set of default inline shortcuts, and when you type dx in certain contexts, MathLive's defaults can produce \differentialD in the LaTeX output.

Trilium actually already has an override for dx, dy, and dt to produce literal text instead [1]:

mf.inlineShortcuts = { ...mf.inlineShortcuts, dx: 'dx', dy: 'dy', dt: 'dt' };

However, it seems this override may not be taking effect in all cases (e.g., if dx is typed after \int or in other contexts where MathLive applies different parsing rules), allowing MathLive's default behavior to emit \differentialD.

The rendering side uses KaTeX (v0.16.45), which does not support \differentialD — it's not a standard KaTeX command [2]. This mismatch between what MathLive generates and what KaTeX can render is the root cause of the issue.

As a workaround, you can either:

• Use the LaTeX textarea mode (instead of the visual editor) and type \mathrm{d}x directly
• Manually replace \differentialD with \mathrm{d} after the visual editor generates it

A proper fix would likely involve either adding a KaTeX macro to map \differentialD to \mathrm{d} (the infrastructure for custom macros exists but none are pre-configured), or ensuring MathLive's inline shortcuts are fully overridden so it never emits \differentialD.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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