Mathtype: 6.8

Before MathType became a subscription service owned by WIRIS (and later, min Reform), it was developed by a company called Design Science , based in Long Beach, California. They created MathType as the professional version of Microsoft Equation Editor. For over a decade, version 6.x was their flagship product.

However, a major European university purchased a site license. A student inadvertently leaked a Volume License Key (VLK) for 6.8 to a popular cracking forum. Because 6.8 didn't "phone home" for every launch (it just checked the key format), that single VLK worked for millions of users worldwide for nearly 5 years. mathtype 6.8

Design Science tried to patch it with 6.8b, but the damage was done. To this day, if you find an old "MathType 6.8 full crack," it is almost certainly that university's legitimate key floating around. Before MathType became a subscription service owned by

Here is the story behind , a version that holds a nostalgic place in the timeline of scientific publishing. However, a major European university purchased a site