[XeTeX] XeTeX, fontspec, OTF, and fontdimens

[mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca]

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
> I would say WordSpace shouldn't be used in  \defaultfontfeatures.

Moving the WordSpace setting to the font-loading command and eliminating
\defaultfontfeatures doesn't change the behaviour.  The space still
doesn't scale when the size changes as it would for a non-OTF font.

Having to reload the font to reset the features after every size change is
a workaround but not a good solution, because it breaks semantic markup:
with that workaround I can't use the standard size-changing commands
like \Large anymore but must define my own in such a way that they are
sensitive to the font I'm using.  This is especially a problem because
those standard commands are embedded in LaTeX class-file code for things
like \section, so to use the workaround I'd have to dig around in the
internals of the LaTeX classes in a way that it would be better not to do.

If XeTeX could correctly recognize when an OTF font is monospace, then it
wouldn't be necessary to use WordSpace at all.  The reason for using it is
that the default stretchable word space is inappropriate for a monospace
font, and that's where the monospace aspect of my situation becomes
relevant.  But that's a separate issue.
-- 
Matthew Skala
mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                 People before principles.
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/