[XeTeX] Differences between XeTeX on Mac and Windows

John Was john.was at ntlworld.com
Sat May 16 15:04:53 CEST 2009


Can I assume that the explicit OTF calls such as script=arab will function 
correctly if I use them in a Mac environment?  I have some work on a PC 
which I may need to transfer to a Mac in a little while, and would like the 
transition to go smoothly (I have little experience of a Mac), so advice on 
possible problems, particularly with font calls, would be appreciated.

It's good to see Yannis Haralambous continuing to spread the word on TeX's 
virtues.  As he's had my OUP font book for nine years now, which is quite a 
long time even for a very slow reader, I'm hoping to be reunited with it at 
some point before I go to meet my Maker...

Best


John Was




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fr. Michael Gilmary" <FrMichaelGilmary at MaroniteMonks.org>
To: "Unicode-based TeX for Mac OS X and other platforms" <xetex at tug.org>
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 12:04 AM
Subject: Re: [XeTeX] Differences between XeTeX on Mac and Windows


> Yannis Haralambous wrote:
>
>
>> Then one of the students downloaded XeTeX contained in latest MikTeX, 
>> tried exactly the same code, and it didn't worked. He hat to add
>> "script=arab" to the font name (he used a Windows font called 
>> "Traditional Arabic"), and \beginR...\endR commands to obtain the same 
>> result as I did.
>>
>> Is that normal?
>
> Hi Yannis!
>
> Jonathan Kew wrote to me about a similar question a while back on this 
> list:
>
>> The fontspec [Script=....] option presupposes that OpenType "shaping"  is 
>> to be applied. Al Bayan (and the other Arabic, Indic, etc., fonts  that 
>> Apple ships) relies on AAT, not OpenType, for shaping behavior.  Left to 
>> itself, xetex will pick the appropriate rendering technology  based on 
>> what it finds in the font, but by specifying [Script] in  through 
>> fontspec you are overriding that, and insisting it use the  OpenType 
>> route. But Al Bayan doesn't include OpenType tables, so you  lose.
>>
>> When using AAT fonts, xetex also tries to apply whatever justification 
>> behavior the font provides, which may include kashidas in Arabic  fonts. 
>> There's no such support in the OpenType engine at the moment.
>>
>> So... two different font technologies. (Note that AAT support is only 
>> available on Mac OS X, so users on other platforms should disregard  this 
>> completely.)
>>
>
>
> So, I hope that helps.
>
> -- 
> United in adoration of Jesus,
>
>
> fr. michael gilmary, mma
>
> Most Holy Trinity Monastery
> 67 Dugway Road
> Petersham, MA 01366-9725
>
>
> 



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