diff --git a/lisp/org-latex-preview.el b/lisp/org-latex-preview.el
index 1c4271f61..109934a38 100644
--- a/lisp/org-latex-preview.el
+++ b/lisp/org-latex-preview.el
@@ -499,8 +499,13 @@ overlay face is set to `org-latex-preview-processing-face'."
     (unless (overlay-get ov 'view-text) ;Live previewing this element, update in background
       ;; This is a temporary measure until a more sophisticated
       ;; interface for errors is available in Org.
-      (when (and errors tooltip-mode)
-        (overlay-put ov 'help-echo errors))
+      (when errors
+        (overlay-put
+         ov 'help-echo
+         (if (bound-and-true-p tooltip-mode)
+             errors
+           (concat (propertize "! " 'face '(bold error))
+                   (substring (replace-regexp-in-string "[\n\r\t ]+" " " errors) 2)))))
       (when image-display (overlay-put ov 'display image-display))
       (overlay-put ov 'face (overlay-get ov 'hidden-face)))
     (run-hook-with-args 'org-latex-preview-update-overlay-functions ov)))