Offline LaTeX editor: write and typeset without internet

Scissor LaTeX works as an offline LaTeX editor: after your first visit, your browser keeps the editor, the tools, the typesetter and the main fonts, so writing, typesetting, PDF export and your projects work without internet. After each update of the site, open it online once. Google Drive needs a connection, and some fonts (Noto for other scripts, Libertinus for the ACM layout, Latin Modern Sans and TeX Gyre Heros) download the first time a document uses them.

How it works

The first time you open Scissor LaTeX, your browser keeps a copy of everything the editor needs:

• the editor itself, the tools and the main pages of the site in English, and each page in another language once you have opened it (offline, a page you have not opened yet shows in English),
• both engines, the one that reads LaTeX and the one that lays out the pages,
• the fonts for text and math (Latin Modern and New Computer Modern Math),
• the Times-like font used by most conference layouts (TeX Gyre Termes), and the bold TeX Gyre Heros used for their line numbers and headers.

Not kept in advance: the Noto fonts for other scripts, Libertinus for the ACM layout, and the sans-serif fonts (Latin Modern Sans, and TeX Gyre Heros for body text). Each downloads the first time a document uses it, and is then kept too.

From then on the editor starts and typesets without a connection. Your projects live in the browser's storage on this device anyway, so they are always there.

On most browsers you can also install the editor as an app, from the browser's menu or address bar, so it opens in its own window.

\begin{align*}
  (a+b)^2 &= a^2 + 2ab + b^2 \\
  \int_0^1 x^n \, dx &= \frac{1}{n+1}
\end{align*}

\begin{tabular}{lr}
\toprule
Day & Steps \\
\midrule
Monday  & 4\,400 \\
Tuesday & 7\,044 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

What needs a connection

Fonts for other scripts are large, so they are downloaded only when a document first uses them. The editor tells you which font it is downloading. After that they are kept in the browser too, and the next document in that script typesets offline.

Updates

When a new version of the site is published, your browser fetches it in the background the next time you open the site online, and switches to it as soon as it has downloaded. Until then the version you have keeps working offline. So after each update, open the site online once and leave it open until the new version has downloaded. Pages you have opened and fonts already downloaded for other scripts and layouts are kept across updates. Your projects are not touched by updates.

Other ways to write LaTeX offline

Scissor LaTeX is one way to work without a connection. These are the usual others; each runs on your own computer.

Last checked November 2026. A full TeX distribution runs every package, because it is TeX itself; Scissor LaTeX covers the common LaTeX of papers, reports and theses, not every package (see differences from a TeX installation). For collaboration and other options, see Overleaf alternatives.

If something is missing offline

• The editor does not open. It has probably never been loaded on this device and browser, or the browser's site data was cleared. Open it once with a connection.
• "Could not reach Google Drive." Drive needs a connection. Your changes are still saved on this device; save to Drive later.
• Text in another script looks wrong or a note says fonts could not be downloaded. Its font has not been downloaded yet. Connect once and the document typesets fully.

See also Google Drive, Export and What is Scissor LaTeX?.

Every example on this page is typeset by Scissor LaTeX when the site is built. Last updated 2026-11-06.