After a long initial beta we are now ready for the Public Beta of Texpad 1.8, the latest update to our macOS TeX/LaTeX editor software that introduces a refreshed UI, a new realtime preview, and an entirely refurbished Texpad Connect collaboration service. Note that this will be a free update to current users.

You can download the Texpad macOS beta v1.8.0 (360), but be sure to update it frequently as we push updates regularly during the beta period.

Redesigned UI The first thing you will notice is the fresh UI. The new look sidebar now houses the outline, file browser, search, typeset output, todo list and Texpad Connect information in a single tabbed view. This replaces the popovers used in Texpad 1.7, which unlike this iteration, did not provide a permanent display of that information. The PDF and Editor bars have been moved in line with the outline’s tab bar, and streamlined. This has made space for new features such as open in finder, and path view on those bars. The per-project typeset configuration has also been redesigned, once again replacing an ephemeral popover with a fuller configuration sheet. Many other aspects such as the welcome screen, preferences, about screen have been overhauled.

Live Typeset By default new documents open in Live Typeset mode, in which your document will typeset in realtime as you type. This has been possible due to our re-engineering & re-writing of our own fork of Knuth’s TeX engine that was required to allow Texpad iOS to operate within the iOS sandbox. TexpadTeX does not support all documents quite yet, for instance, we are still working on native fonts. In these cases, Texpad will automatically switch out of Live mode to use an installed MacTeX installation, which is of course still available as before simply by flicking the switch. We regularly update TexpadTeX’s support page here. Aside from speed, a second convenience of this approach is that Texpad’s 40MB download now includes not just the editor but a full Plain TeX/LaTeX distribution, and further CTAN packages will be downloaded in the background if they are required for a typeset. You do not need to install a separate TeX distribution, download Texpad, start typing and your typeset document is instantly shown in the right hand pane.

Texpad Connect Texpad Connect is one of the features we’ve always been most proud of but has lacked user-friendliness up to now. We’ve done a lot of work to put that right in version 1.8. Please try this out, the free plan allows up to three private projects currently. It’s especially fun to combine it with live typeset to see text being typed on one computer and appear on the PDF on another!

A final, less visible, aspect of 1.8 is that it has been greatly cleaned up and improved internally. This will allow us to develop Texpad in smaller increments throughout the 1.8 series, with greater reliability from the enhanced testing.

If you do download the beta, please take extra care to backup your documents (or commit to source control) more frequently as it is still a beta release. If you have trouble with the beta version and wish to revert to the stable version, you will need to restore the old purchase certificate (which has been swapped for a licence in key in 1.8).

go to the macOS page and download a fresh copy of Texpad

login to texpad.com and visit the licences page

download your .texpadpurchase certificate

If you do upgrade the purchase certificate -> licence key transition will be seamless, you only need do this when reverting back to 1.7. If at any time you want your 1.8 licence key, then please log into texpad.com and you can get it from the top of your account page.