[XeTeX] New user of XeTeX: book in Esperanto (UTF-8)

Zdenek Wagner zdenek.wagner at gmail.com
Thu Dec 20 15:16:58 CET 2012


2012/12/20 Sian Mountbatten <poenikatu at fastmail.co.uk>:
> Hello list.
>
> I am translating a book written in English into Esperanto. I am using UTF-8
> for the book's content.
> Is it possible to use xetex to read UTF-8 text? Should I create a standard
> LaTeX document and use
> XeTeX as a LaTeX package, or can XeTeX be used on it's own? Some help to get
> me started would
> be very useful.
>
XeTeX is an engine, it extends Knuth's TeX. LaTeX is a format that
relies on some engine. If you pou it together, XeLaTeX is the LaTeX
format using the XeTeX engine. The advantages are:

1. UTF-8 input
2. Support of the OpenType fonts installed in your system via the
fontspec package. GNU FreeFont contains characters needed by esperanto
but other fonts may be usable too
3. Supports many languages, eg esperanto is supported by the polyglossia package

Your document will look like an ordinary LaTeX file with all you know
but you will write \usepackage{fontspec} instead of using inputenc and
fontenc and it is better to use polyglossia instead of babel (although
babel works too). When compiling the document, instead of calling
latex or pdflatex you will call xelatex. That's all.

> Thanks in advance
>
> --
> Sian Mountbatten
> Specialisto pri Algol 68
>
>
>
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-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz



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