LaTeX but fast

Open the editor at app.texter.website

Abstract

Texter is a LaTeX editor for papers, theses and books that shows you the finished PDF a fraction of a second after every edit, and stays that fast even when the document grows to hundreds of pages. It opens in your browser for free, with no account and nothing to install, and your files never leave your computer.

Compile time that does not grow with your document

Writing is a loop of small edits, each followed by a look at the PDF. Texter's compiler is incremental: after an edit it redoes only the work that changed, so the wait stays nearly constant as the document grows. A dissertation or a book recompiles about as quickly as a short paper.

With an edit near the end of the document, the PDF is back in under a second on six of the seven real papers below, 3.2 to 6.8 times faster than a native TeX Live installation; the median across all seven is 3.9×. The exception is TikZ Feynhand, where TeX Live was slightly quicker (4.2 s against 4.4 s).These are timings of Texter's WebAssembly engine, the same one that runs in your browser tab, against TeX Live 2025 installed natively on the same machine.

Recompile time after an edit, Texter versus TeX Live 2025, seven papers, log scale. Texter is faster on six of them, by 3.2 to 6.8 times, and slightly slower on one, TikZ Feynhand (0.9 times). 0.1 s 1 s 10 s speed-up ResNet: Texter 0.137 s, TeX Live 0.935 s, 6.8× faster ResNet 0.137 s 0.935 s 6.8× Diffusion: Texter 0.535 s, TeX Live 3.044 s, 5.7× faster Diffusion 0.535 s 3.044 s 5.7× Attention: Texter 0.269 s, TeX Live 1.302 s, 4.8× faster Attention 0.269 s 1.302 s 4.8× Étale sums: Texter 0.195 s, TeX Live 0.754 s, 3.9× faster Étale sums 0.195 s 0.754 s 3.9× Latent diffusion: Texter 0.777 s, TeX Live 2.811 s, 3.6× faster Latent diffusion 0.777 s 2.811 s 3.6× LLM survey: Texter 0.894 s, TeX Live 2.837 s, 3.2× faster LLM survey 0.894 s 2.837 s 3.2× TikZ Feynhand: Texter 4.425 s, TeX Live 4.187 s, 0.9× slower TikZ Feynhand 4.187 s 4.425 s 0.9×
PaperTexterTeX Live 2025Speed-up
ResNet0.137 s0.935 s6.8×
Diffusion0.535 s3.044 s5.7×
Attention0.269 s1.302 s4.8×
Étale sums0.195 s0.754 s3.9×
Latent diffusion0.777 s2.811 s3.6×
LLM survey0.894 s2.837 s3.2×
TikZ Feynhand4.425 s4.187 s0.9×
Recompile time after an edit near the end of the document, pdfLaTeX, seven real papers, log scale. Wall-clock seconds. The speed-up is the TeX Live time divided by the Texter time.
Show the measurements as a table
PaperTexterTeX Live 2025Speed-up
ResNet0.137 s0.935 s6.8×
Diffusion0.535 s3.044 s5.7×
Attention0.269 s1.302 s4.8×
Étale sums0.195 s0.754 s3.9×
Latent diffusion0.777 s2.811 s3.6×
LLM survey0.894 s2.837 s3.2×
TikZ Feynhand4.425 s4.187 s0.9×

Write together through a link

Share a project by sending its link. Everyone who opens it edits the same files and sees the others' cursors and text as they type. Browsers connect peer-to-peer, so edits go straight to your co-authors.There is no hard limit on participants. Sessions of up to about 20 people work well.

Maya (solid cursor) and Jonas (dashed cursor) typing in the same section at the same time.
Maya Jonas Lea
Every browser in a session is connected directly to every other one. Each edit (dot) travels straight to your co-authors, with no server in the middle holding the document.

Private, and it works offline

Your projects stay on your device: in the browser's storage, or in Chrome in an ordinary folder on disk through Open a Local Folder…, where git, a local TeX installation or any other editor can use the same files.This uses the browser's File System Access API, which Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers provide. No server holds a copy, so there is nothing to leak, and unpublished work is never handed to a third party.

Because the compiler runs locally too, Texter keeps working without a connection. Install it as an app and you can write and compile on a train or a plane. Existing projects come in as a .zip, .tar.gz or .tar archive or as a folder.

The editor, one feature at a time

The Texter editor: file explorer, LaTeX source and the compiled PDF side by side, with a status bar along the bottom.

The editor with a paper open. Pick a feature to see where it lives.

How it compares

The free tiers of the main online LaTeX editors, as of November 2026.Overleaf: 10 s free compile timeout; one collaborator besides the owner on the free plan. Prism: cloud-based, needs a personal ChatGPT account. TeXlyre: peer-to-peer collaboration, browser storage. TeXbrain: in-browser pdfTeX, no backend, no collaboration. Local-first means your files live on your device; otherwise they sit on someone else's servers, outside your control.

TexterOverleafOpenAI PrismTeXlyreTeXbrain
No account needed✓✗✗✗✓
Local-first✓✗✗✓✓
Real-time collaboration✓✓owner + 1✓✓✗
No compile time limit✓✗10 s–not published✓✓

Current limitations