6 Chrome

Chrome Desktop Platforms

Recent releases of Chrome – Chrome version 24 and later – provide native rendering of MathML content. Earlier releases of Chrome do not support MathML rendering.

Chrome Desktop Platform MathML Implementation Status

MathML support was introduced into the alpha (Canary) build of Chrome on 29 October 2012 and was introduced into the beta channel on 8 November 2012 with version 24.0.1312.5. As of the publication date of this document, MathML has not been enabled in Chrome’s stable release channel. Chrome (like Safari) is based on the WebKit open source project. Safari enabled Webkit’s MathML implementation was in July 2011. At that time, the chromium project refrained from releasing MathML support for a variety of ostensible reasons. Apparently, an intrepid Webkit volunteer (Dave Barton) shepherded the development of the chromium-approved MathML implementation in a manner reminiscent of Alex Milowski’s role in the original Webkit implementation of MathML. The chromium project is an open source organization that houses and oversees development of Google Chrome.

See Section 5.1 for more information about MathML support in Webkit.

Chrome Mobile Platforms

The story is somewhat different for iOS – where Apple controls which Webkit platform is available to applications. On iOS, the system libraries used by applications for browsing support have shipped with MathML enabled with since October 2011 (iOS 5). Hence, versions of Chrome (and the Google app) running on recent versions of iOS provide nativeMathML rendering.

Using the fonts included with iOS 5, math symbol coverage in iOS Chrome is rather spotty. However, the Apple Symbol font was included in iOS 6 (released in September 2012). This font fills in many of the gaps in native MathML rendering under iOS. Installation of third party fonts, such as the STIX fonts, is not feasible under iOS. Section 5.1 provides additional information concerning mobile webkit math rendering. Table 7 summarizes math symbol coverage in the Apple Symbol fonts.