| Internet-Draft | Mathematical notation in RFCs | January 2026 |
| Rossi, et al. | Expires 31 July 2026 | [Page] |
This document defines policy and allows new technology for the representation of mathematical notation in RFCXML and relevant publication formats. After implementation of this policy, mathematical notation in RFCXML and the HTML publication format will no longer be accepted in Unicode or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs).¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://github.com/alexisannerossi/id-mathinrfcs/edit/main/draft-rossi-mathinrfcs-00.md. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-rossi-mathinrfcs/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the RSWG Editorial Stream Working Group mailing list (mailto:rswg@rfc-editor.org), which is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/rswg/.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/alexisannerossi/id-mathinrfcs.¶
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This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document.¶
This document allows new technology for the representation of mathematical notation in RFCXML and relevant publication formats defined in [RFC9720]. This document also defines policy requirements for the inclusion of mathematical content.¶
Mathematical notation in RFCs will no longer be accepted in Unicode or Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs) for RFCXML or the HTML publication format. Other publication formats may use the best solution available for displaying math. This document specifically removes support for displaying math in unicode or SVGs in the HTML publication format as these are not adequately accessible to all readers.¶
The RFC Publication Center (RPC) is responsible for tooling and implementation decisions regarding this policy. We expect the adoption of this policy to require changes and adaptation during implementation in early documents using this technology.¶
Mathematical notation should appear correctly in RFCXML, HTML and PDF publication formats, as well as any future publication formats that can support it. The RPC will determine how to best represent math in the Text publication format.¶
Mathematical notation should support both “inline” and “block” form. "Inline" refers to notation that is used as part of text (like this x) and "block" form refers to equations that might be referenced in the same way that a figure is.¶
It must be possible to reference “block” form equations from the text in a way that clearly distinguishes them from references to figures (or other elements that can be referenced, such as citations). In academic writing, figures are usually referenced as “Fig. n” while equations are referenced as “Eq. n”.¶
Major desktop and mobile browsers must be capable of natively rendering the mathematical notation correctly in the HTML publication format.¶
The chosen implementation should allow representation of both the meaning and the formatting of the mathematical content.¶
Accessibility should be supported for readers of the HTML publication format who rely on various devices, software, and visual presentations (e.g. braille readers, screen readers, enlarging, and text formatting). The RPC will refer to the W3C Accessibility Guidelines [WAI] when making decisions regarding accessibility.¶
The RPC is authorized to make decisions about the representation of mathematical notation for both technical and editorial reasons in order to ensure that published RFCs meet the above policy and to provide consistency across the RFC series. The RPC must document their decisions in a public place, and all changes to tooling or implementation decisions must be widely communicated to the RFC author community using mailing lists or other means.¶
The RPC is expected to solicit community input before making decisions and to publicly explain their reasoning.¶
Documentation produced by the RPC should describe what technical and editorial constraints apply to the HTML publication format and CSS files.¶
Where possible, implementation decisions should focus on specifying what is disallowed, rather than attempting to specify exactly what is allowed. These decisions should also consider the authoring process as a significant factor in implementation.¶
The RPC should periodically review and revise their practices.¶
This document has no security considerations.¶
This document has no IANA actions.¶
This document has greatly benefited from the input of Carsten Bormann who provided significant input on the early draft versions of this document.¶