Today I switched to blahtexml and MathML for the LaTeX equations on here. Before this equations were implemented via SVG files rendered by Markdown-LaTeX. The generated SVG was then inlined by base64 encoding. To get the rendering right, fonts had to be embedded into each base64'd SVG file. This meant a lot more data than necessary had to be transmitted in the HTML, as much as 184 KiB after compression. Generating the website from scratch also took a long time, on the order of minutes.
blahtexml on the other hand can transform LaTeX into MathML, and is available in Debian. Because MathML is used, the HTML shrinks massively and generation is much much faster. Another bonus is that the website is more accessible to people with impaired vision.
For fun I have tabled the HTML size differences of relevant articles below, after compression:
| Article | Before (KiB) | After (KiB) |
|---|---|---|
| Planning complexity for model economies | 183.93 | 9.44 |
| Some example economic linear programs | 105.07 | 6.96 |
| Verifiable sortition | 38.45 | 5.18 |
| Reducing emissions and saving lives | 14.21 | 5.15 |
| Prices and information part 2 | 10.20 | 4.12 |