Excalidraw LaTeX

Draw diagrams in VS Code with Excalidraw — and drop LaTeX math formulas straight onto the canvas, rendered live and fully editable afterwards.

This is a fork of pomdtr/excalidraw-vscode. It adds LaTeX formula support on top; everything else — file formats, themes, libraries, sharing — works exactly like the base extension. See README.md for that documentation; this page only covers what this fork adds.

Try the LaTeX editor online — no VS Code or install required, a static build of the same webview runs entirely in your browser.

Features

• Insert LaTeX formulas — a "Σ" button next to the shapes toolbar (or in the lock/hand/pen-mode row on mobile) opens a modal where you type LaTeX, pick which MathJax extension packages to enable (physics, mhchem, braket, and 20 others — see the toggle list in the modal), and preview the rendered formula live before inserting it.
• Inline or display mode — toggle between inline math and centered display-style rendering, matching how the formula will actually read in context.
• Fully editable afterwards — a formula is inserted as a normal Excalidraw image element (an SVG rendered by MathJax), so it resizes, moves, and exports exactly like any other image. The original LaTeX source, display-mode flag, and enabled extensions are preserved in the element's customData, so double-clicking a formula reopens the same modal for editing — including after saving and reopening the file.
• .excalidraw schema stays compatible — formulas don't introduce a new element type; tools that don't know about this fork just see a regular image.
• Rebranded package — published as xiupos.excalidraw-vscode-latex rather than the upstream pomdtr.excalidraw-editor, so it can be installed side by side with the original extension.

Installation

Install Excalidraw LaTeX from the VS Code Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X, search "Excalidraw LaTeX"), or from the Marketplace listing / with:

code --install-extension xiupos.excalidraw-vscode-latex

Create an empty file with a .excalidraw, .excalidraw.svg, or .excalidraw.png extension and open it — that's it.

Prefer installing a specific version, or without going through the Marketplace? Every release also publishes a .vsix on the Releases page: download it, then use the Extensions view's Install from VSIX... (in the ... menu), or code --install-extension path/to/excalidraw-vscode-latex-4.0.0.vsix.

Using the LaTeX editor

1. Open the shapes toolbar's "Σ" button.
2. Type LaTeX in the source box; the preview updates as you type.
3. Turn on any extension packages your formula needs (e.g. physics for \pdv/\bra/\ket, mhchem for chemistry notation) — most formulas only need base TeX, so nothing is enabled by default.
4. Toggle display mode if you want centered display-style rendering instead of inline.
5. Insert. The formula lands on the canvas as a regular image; resize, move, and restyle it like any other Excalidraw element.
6. To edit it later, double-click it — the same modal reopens with your original source, display mode, and enabled extensions restored.

Links

• CHANGELOG_LATEX.md — this fork's version-by-version history
• README.md — base extension documentation (themes, libraries, file associations, etc.)
• GitHub repository — source, issues, discussions

Only report issues specific to this fork's LaTeX feature or VS Code integration here. Issues with Excalidraw itself belong upstream, at pomdtr/excalidraw-vscode or excalidraw/excalidraw.

Versioning

Versions are plain semver (X.Y.Z), bumped independently of upstream — each CHANGELOG_LATEX.md entry states which upstream release it's based on. See AGENTS.md for the full rationale and release process.

Building from source

npm install         # also installs webview/ dependencies
npm run package      # builds the extension host and the webview into a production bundle
npm run vsce:package

This produces an excalidraw-vscode-latex-4.0.0.vsix in the repository root, installable the same way as a downloaded release. vsce:package passes --readme-path README_LATEX.md so the packaged extension shows this document (rather than upstream's README.md) as its main page — the same flag vsce:publish uses when publishing to the Marketplace.