[XeTeX] If font under fontspec

[Michiel Kamermans]

On 9/21/2010 7:28 AM, Gareth Hughes wrote:
> The Syriac font Estrangelo Edessa leaves noticeable white space before 
> the letter ܓ when it is preceded by a non-joining letter. It seems 
> this is a carry over from old metal type. Some people see it as a 
> feature rather than a bug, but I wanted to provide a fairly smart user 
> command for closing up that white space, and have written something 
> with \XeTeXinterchartoks to do so. However, it is important that this 
> kerning isn't applied when other Syriac fonts, which have no gap, are 
> being set.
>
> I hope that makes the situation a little more clear.

It does, although it also leads to a dangerous situation where you need 
more than just the font name: you also need to know the font version, 
too. If the type designers at some point (which could even be tomorrow) 
decide that this kerning quirk is actually unwanted, and produce a new 
version of the font with the same name, your "fix" will actually be 
detrimental. To my knowledge there is no way to ask fontspec for a font 
version number, but perhaps Will or Khaled know more about this.

- Mike "Pomax" Kamermans
nihongoresources.com