[XeTeX] openType and xetex

[Jonathan Kew]

On 28/6/12 20:52, Adam Twardoch (List) wrote:
> Youcef is right:
> AFIR, XeTeX supports three layout engines:
> * ICU Layout, cross platform, working with OT Layout tables in SFNT fonts
> * Graphite, cross-platform, working with Graphite tables in SFNT fonts
> * ATT, Mac OS X only, working with OT Layout tables and AAT tables in SFNT fonts.
>
> I don't remember whether XeTeX in addition also supports Uniscribe on Windows.
>
> Given the fact that XeTeX is already set up to handle multiple layout engines, it would be relatively easy to add support for more -- especially to add support for Harfbuzz. I would applaud if anyone volunteered to do that (Harfbuzz has sample code that shows you how). It'd be particularly neat since Harfbuzz itself also supports several backends, in particular it supports Uniscribe on Windows. So if XeTeX does not currently support Uniscribe, adding Harfbuzz support would also cheaply add Uniscribe support. Harfbuzz also has Graphite2 support so the old direct Graphite support in XeTeX could be replaced or complemented with Harfbuzz+Graphite2.
>
> XeTeX would be seriously improved if Harfbuzz support were added.
>

Yes, that'd be a great step forward, now that the harfbuzz API is (I 
think) reasonably stable. I'd love to see it to completely replace the 
use of ICU layout eventually, but it's not quite ready for that yet.

JK