Pretty printing math in C# desktop application

Question

What is the best method of printing math equations in a C# (winforms) desktop application? The format for the source is not important; I can generate almost anything with a little effort. What is important is that it should be relatively high performance and low overhead (I know, I'm only supposed to pick 2 of { performance, size, features } but I want all 3.)

Things I have considered:

• LaTeX via System.Process() -> dvipng. Problem: even a minimal LaTeX instal is about 200 MB. Considering that my app is currently ~400k I think this is a bit excessive.
• Some sort of JS-based math rendering library designed for the web, e.g. JSMath. Problem: creates HTML output, which still needs to be displayed in a WebBrowser. Low (probably very low) performance.
• Rolling my own. Problems: Takes a lot of time and effort to duplicate the works of those who have gone before. Difficult to draw text in C#.

Any suggestions? Have any of you done this sort of thing in the past?

Answer 1

Some googling lead me to this CodeProject article: it uses MimeTex, a library that generates gif from latex formulas. You'll have to use PInvoke to have it in C#, but everything seems to be in the article.