[XeTeX] XeTeX 0.4 available
Hans Hagen
pragma at wxs.nl
Thu Apr 22 09:02:32 CEST 2004
Hi Ross,
>Yes; but in XeTeX there is no such ability yet.
>XeTeX does not allow you to directly construct PDF coding,
>and there is no PostScript --> PDF conversion step, to get it that way.
by reading the docs i feared that already -)
(btw, i still support pdfmarks, but haven't distilled a file in years)
i think the best way to go is to let the xtex dvi/pdf driver support the
dvipdfmx specials; that would safe us a lot of trouble and also provide a
quite compatible feature set
>Back to cropping, scaling, etc.
>These occur in the options to \includegraphics, so are naturally thought-of
>as being applicable just to the imported graphic, at least in that context.
sure, but pdfliterals can do the same in a more general way; so, instead of
making graphic placement more powerful by extending its options, i'd go
adding pdf litral inclusion; otherwise we're going back in time some 15
years -)
>But while there is not such a general method, and there may be an easy way
>to do these things for single images, then that's the current question.
>What we really need to see is documentation on the interfaces that
>Jonathan is using, so as to find what is easy to implement, and what is not.
sure, but since i expect an engine to have the more generic options, i'm
not going to spoil my macro set / driver concept by using the rather
specific for each driver different graphic extensions; i just wait for the
generic option then
>But this is going beyond Jonathan's stated aim of being
> "simple to use the advanced typography features of OS X"
> --- though ultimately we would like to get there.
sure, but we no longer liv ein a text only world, each doc we make today
(at pragma) has color, graphics, etc
>Hans, what do you think will be easiest in the short term,
>and best in the long-term ?
just start with:
\special{pdf: literal [direct] ...}
or
\xtxpdfliteral [direct] {....}
because that would already permit much (transformations, color, and
graphics); object constructors are next (i can post one feature request per
day to keep things going -)
>I think that 'pdfmark' should be do-able, at least for short-term,
not really, interpreting them is no fun and specials are simpler
>and that complete integration with pdfTeX could be a long-term goal.
dvipdfmx special compatibility is enough at the moment
Hans
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