[XeTeX] "Options for all fonts" : colo[u]r, and the transparency byte

[Philip TAYLOR (Webmaster, Ret'd)]

mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca wrote:
>
> Transparency depends very much on the output driver and its settings. I
> have used it successfully with xdvipdfm, by way of the "opacity" optin in
> TikZ; but the resulting output files are version 1.5 PDFs which not every
> printer supports.  If you're using some other driver (for instance,
> anything that goes to Postscript instead of PDF), or if your printer
> doesn't like transparency, there may be problems.  It is possible to use
> Ghostscript to resolve the transparency (convert to a non-transparent PDF
> or Postscript file that still looks at it should) but it appears to
> accomplish that by rasterizing the file, which may not be suitable for
> your purposes.
>    

Thank you for your prompt response, Mathew.  In fact, I am using the default
driver (I am not aware how I might alter this), and was simply relying on it
to "do the right thing".  If you could tell me how to identify the 
driver, and
what possible additional options I might pass to it to improve matters, 
I would
be most grateful.  As you correctly anticipate, rasterising the output would
be self-defeating : the whole object of this exercise is to generate a 
PDF that
contains embedded scaleable fonts and glyphs.

Philip Taylor