diff --git a/services/web/public/coffee/base.coffee b/services/web/public/coffee/base.coffee
index cb9e70b6bf..0a6f47f9fa 100644
--- a/services/web/public/coffee/base.coffee
+++ b/services/web/public/coffee/base.coffee
@@ -26,7 +26,29 @@ define [
 			baseUrl: window.sharelatex.sixpackDomain
 			client_id: window.user_id
 		})
-	
+
+		MathJax?.Hub?.Config(
+			extensions: ["Safe.js"]
+			messageStyle: "none"
+			imageFont:null
+			"HTML-CSS":
+				availableFonts: ["TeX"]
+				# MathJax's automatic font scaling does not work well when we render math
+				# that isn't yet on the page, so we disable it and set a global font
+				# scale factor
+				scale: 110
+				matchFontHeight: false
+			TeX:
+				equationNumbers: { autoNumber: "AMS" }
+				useLabelIDs: false
+			skipStartupTypeset: true
+			tex2jax:
+				processEscapes: true
+				# Dollar delimiters are added by the mathjax directive
+				inlineMath: [ ["\\(","\\)"] ]
+				displayMath: [ ['$$','$$'], ["\\[","\\]"] ]
+		)
+
 	App.run ($templateCache) ->
 		# UI Select templates are hard-coded and use Glyphicon icons (which we don't import). 
 		# The line below simply overrides the hard-coded template with our own, which is 
diff --git a/services/web/public/coffee/directives/mathjax.coffee b/services/web/public/coffee/directives/mathjax.coffee
index 269526287e..7124318214 100644
--- a/services/web/public/coffee/directives/mathjax.coffee
+++ b/services/web/public/coffee/directives/mathjax.coffee
@@ -4,23 +4,16 @@ define [
 	App.directive "mathjax", () ->
 		return {
 			link: (scope, element, attrs) ->
-				mathjaxConfig =
-					extensions: ["Safe.js"]
-					messageStyle: "none"
-					imageFont:null
-					"HTML-CSS": { availableFonts: ["TeX"] },
-					TeX:
-						equationNumbers: { autoNumber: "AMS" },
-						useLabelIDs: false
-					skipStartupTypeset: true
-					tex2jax:
-						processEscapes: true,
-						inlineMath: [ ["\\(","\\)"] ],
-						displayMath: [ ['$$','$$'], ["\\[","\\]"] ]
 				if attrs.delimiter != 'no-single-dollar'
-					mathjaxConfig.tex2jax.inlineMath.push(['$','$']);
+					inlineMathConfig = MathJax?.Hub?.config?.tex2jax.inlineMath
+					alreadyConfigured = _.find inlineMathConfig, (c) ->
+						c[0] == '$' and c[1] == '$'
 
-				MathJax?.Hub?.Config(mathjaxConfig);
+					if !alreadyConfigured?
+						MathJax?.Hub?.Config(
+							tex2jax:
+								inlineMath: inlineMathConfig.concat([['$', '$']])
+						)
 
 				setTimeout () ->
 					MathJax?.Hub?.Queue(["Typeset", MathJax?.Hub, element.get(0)])