TeX-it | Devpost

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Inspiration

LaTeX should not feel harder than the ideas you're trying to write.

As the modern standard for writing documents, the user experience is outdated. Popular editors like Overleaf, can feel slow, clunky, and disconnected from modern development. At the same time, beginner's struggle with LaTeX's steep learning curve, while experience are still fixing formatting.

Instead of the manual and laborious writing, we wanted a system where users can speak ideas, upload notes, or describe edits, and have our editor generate the correct LaTeX automatically.

Our goal was simple: make LaTeX feel as a modern development tool.

What It Does

Our project is a native AI-powered LaTeX IDE that makes technical writing faster and more intuitive.

LaTeX IDE:
A desktop editor built with Electron for fast, modern LaTeX writing and editing.

Gemini-Powered Editing:
The Gemini API lets users describe edits in natural language and automatically generates the correct LaTeX.

Gemini Image-to-LaTeX:
Users can upload images of notes, equations, or printed content, and Gemini converts them into valid LaTeX.

Voice Input:
Users can also dictate ideas or commands directly into the editor.

How We Built It

We built a native AI-powered LaTeX IDE by combining a desktop editor with Gemini-driven workflows:

The Application: Built with React, Electron, TypeScript, and Go.

The AI Layer: Powered by the Gemini API, which handles natural-language LaTeX editing and image-to-LaTeX transcription.

The Voice Pipeline: Powered by Deepgram for speech-to-text input.

Challenges we ran into

New Tech Stack: None of us had used Electron before, so building a native desktop IDE with React and TypeScript required quickly learning a new architecture and development workflow.

Reliable LaTeX Generation: AI-generated LaTeX can easily break compilation. We had to refine prompts to the Gemini API to consistently produce clean, valid LaTeX.

Multimodal Input Integration: Combining Deepgram speech-to-text, image uploads, and manual editing into a single workflow required careful coordination so edits updated the document smoothly.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

Building a Native LaTeX IDE: We created a fully functional LaTeX editor using React, Electron, TypeScript, and Go.

Multimodal LaTeX Input: Successfully integrated voice input (Deepgram) and image-to-LaTeX transcription (Gemini) into the editing workflow.

AI-Powered Editing: Enabled natural-language LaTeX editing using the Gemini API, allowing users to generate and modify documents with simple prompts.

What We Learned

AI Changes the Writing Workflow: We learned that AI can shift technical writing from manually typing syntax to describing ideas, letting the system handle structure and formatting.

Developer Tools Need Better UX: Even powerful tools like LaTeX can feel inaccessible. Thoughtful design and AI assistance can dramatically lower the barrier to entry.