Press Release: W3C MathML 3.0 Approved as ISO/IEC International Standard

23 June 2015 - Today the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), together with the Joint Technical Committee JTC 1, Information Technology of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), announced approval of the MathML Version 3.0 2nd Edition as an ISO/IEC International Standard (ISO/IEC 40314:2015).

MathML is the mark-up language used in software and development tools for statistical, engineering, scientific, computational and academic expressions of math on the Web. The Mathematical Markup Language provides ways to describe in XML both the visual presentation of formulas (with mathematical symbols, built-up formulas and font styles) and their semantics (with reference to different domains of mathematics). Its first version, MathML 1, was released in 1999.

"This important scientific standard, which is already widely deployed internationally, can now benefit from additional formal recognition from ISO, IEC and their national member bodies," noted Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "The ISO/IEC recognition is expected to increase internationally harmonized adoption of MathML not only by standards bodies, governments and the scientific and academic communities, but also by browser makers, educational publishers and the broader Web community."

"ISO/IEC JTC 1 is very pleased to have the opportunity to take the important work of the W3C and have it transposed into formally approved ISO/IEC Standards," said Karen Higginbottom, ISO/IEC JTC 1 Chair. "We are pleased to continue the strong and constructive relationship between our organizations."

"As Secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is very proud of the successful collaboration between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and W3C," said Lisa Rajchel, ISO/IEC JTC 1 Secretary. "Approval of the W3C specifications once again demonstrates strong cooperation between the formal standards process and consortia."

MathML: A rich and powerful language
Because HTML was invented in a scientific laboratory, formulas in HTML were one of the earliest extensions proposed. Early experiments, such as HTML+ in 1993, led to the first version of MathML in 1998. MathML has been gaining support ever since, although it took until 2014 and the fifth version of HTML before math became a standard part of HTML, rather than an optional extra. MathML can now be used both on its own, as before, or embedded in HTML.