[XeTeX] .otf files

[Jonathan Kew]

On 17 Aug 2004, at 1:32 pm, Yves Codet wrote:

>
> Hello.
>
> If I understand well, nothing can be displayed in a PDF output if the 
> corresponding .otf file is absent. My problem is the following: I 
> would like to use some of the fonts included in the Archaic package, 
> but I don't have .otf files. Is there a ways to create them from .mf 
> sources?
>

I'm not familiar with that package, but if the fonts are defined by .mf 
sources, the easiest way to use them will be to run a "standard" TeX 
system that works with .pk bitmaps, and can run Metafont to generate 
these as needed. XeTeX does not handle bitmap fonts, and creating 
outline fonts (e.g, .otf, .ttf, or .pfb that could then be converted to 
.otf by FontForge or FontLab) is not a simple task.

Of course, if you really want to use both Archaic fonts and 
Unicode-compliant AAT or OpenType fonts within a single document, this 
may not help much. Unfortunately, trying to merge those two worlds--the 
"old" world of text in custom 8-bit encodings and fonts in mf/pk 
formats and the "new" world of Unicode data and Unicode-encoded AAT/OT 
fonts--is not simple or transparent. XeTeX has its roots firmly on the 
Unicode side of the fence.

Jonathan