[XeTeX] Multiple Master: Kepler

[Jonathan Kew]

On 14 Sep 2006, at 10:56 pm, Michael Zedler wrote:

> Jonathan Kew schrieb:
>> On 14 Sep 2006, at 8:38 pm, Michael Zedler wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'd like to use KeplerMM+KeplerExpMM with XeTeX, what is the  
>>> preferred
>>> way to do this? The reason why I'm stuck with the MM fonts is that I
>>> don't like the instances Adobe is shipping as otf, my favourite
>>> 'regular' shape is 370.555.10.
>>
>> IF you're using XeTeX on Mac OS X, with the xdv2pdf output driver;
>
> Indeed, I do. If I follow the procedure that you outlined, would this
> give support for the expert font, too?

No. Sorry to disappoint you! I'm afraid there's nothing xetex can do  
to "magically" associate the regular and expert fonts; they are two  
entirely separate typefaces, and xetex knows of no relationship  
between them.

(Maybe some applications did stuff based on hard-coded knowledge of  
the Adobe standard and expert encodings, but these features in xetex  
are based entirely on the layout tables present in the font. And  
these pre-OpenType Type 1 fonts have no such tables.)

If you're using xelatex, I think fontspec has an option to use a  
separate font for small caps, so you may be able to point this at the  
expert face, but you won't get things like special ligatures  
happening automatically. There simply aren't any rules encoded into  
the fonts to make this happen. The standard and expert fonts will  
need two separate \font definitions in xetex, and any "linkage"  
between them will have to be implemented at the macro level, not  
built in to xetex.

The use of separate "standard" and "expert" fonts is a technology  
that is being replaced (in this case by OpenType fonts that contain  
the full glyph repertoire in a single font, and also encode the  
various layout rules). It's just a pity that Adobe isn't shipping  
OpenType-enriched Multiple Master fonts.

JK