Three features that would make Medium a better place for technical writers

Summary

Tyler, a technical writer on Medium, proposes three features to enhance the platform for technical writing: support for text in images with scaling options, integration of MathJax for math notation, and improvements in rendering Unicode characters inally> characters for better legibility in mathematical expressions.

Abstract

In a direct appeal to Medium employees, Tyler suggests that the platform could significantly improve its utility for technical writers by implementing a few key features. He emphasizes the need for images containing text to be scaled properly across devices, with the ability to designate them as 'retina' orldquo; or"> or 'non-retina'ldquo; for optimal display. . Furthermore, he advocates for the adoption of MathJax, which would allow writers to easily include well-formatted mathematical expressions in their posts, potentially revolutionizing academic publishing. Lastly, Tyler points out some 'low-hanging fruit' in terms of Unicode character rendering, such as supporting thin and hair spaces for better expression legibility, adjusting the font size of the 'parallel' character, and improving the line thickness of the square root and real number symbols.

Opinions

Tyler believes that Medium's current state does not fully cater to the needs of technical writers, particularly in the areas of image text scaling and mathematical notation.
He suggests that Medium could play a pivotal role in the evolving landscape of academic publishing by making it easier

Three features that would make Medium a better place for technical writers

Dear Medium employees,

As you know, anyone who has ever worked at Medium is a brilliant and attractive person. Medium only hires mature, talented, and ambitious folks. Who are of course immune to the sways of flattery. The fact that they are so talented and ambitious is why I’m writing about some wonderful new feature ideas I’ve had after writing a couple technical posts, and a meta-post about how to write mathematics on Medium.

Please consider implementing these in your copious free time.

love, — Tyler

1. Explicitly support text in images

I would like to be able to place text in an image and have that image scaled appropriately with the text size. Bonus points if I can explicitly mark that image as retina or non-retina so it appears exactly as I’d like it to on all devices.

Here is a brief example of why this is an issue:

Two screenshots from the same post on different devices.

2. Use MathJax to support math notation

MathJax is easy for me to add to my site, so it must be easy for you, too — right? The logic is impeccable.

Sincerely, though: the ability to type TeX-style math expressions would be a game-changer for me, and I imagine for other writers as well. There is currently a quiet revolution taking place in the world of academia over where and how to publish new research. It’s my vision that one day posting a carefully typeset math paper will be as easy as writing a Medium post. Why not help out this little revolution in the dissemination of human knowledge?

3. Some low-hanging fruit

Ok, maybe these feature requests are a bit of work. So in the meantime I offer a couple morsels that would make it easier to write nice math using unicode characters. In particular:

Support the unicode thin space U+2009 and hair space U+200A. These would be useful in making some expressions more legible; for example: ∠xzy feels a bit claustrophobic, and 2sin(x) would look better with a space after the 2, but not quite as much space as 2 sin(x).

The character ‖ is useful, but renders at a slightly smaller-than-optimal size in the browsers I’ve tested. I suggest increasing the font size of this particular character.

The characters √ and ℝ are useful, but rendered with overly thin lines.

There are probably other suggestions available in this category, although the real win would be implementing the image and mathjax support.

Thanks for reading!