[XeTeX] FreeSerif not working for me in Devanagari

Zdenek Wagner zdenek.wagner at gmail.com
Fri Sep 7 16:13:03 CEST 2012


2012/9/7  <mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca>:
> On Fri, 7 Sep 2012, Zdenek Wagner wrote:
>> requires newer version of fontspec. I am not able to compile the
>> latest fontspec and replace it in my Linux version. Thus the only
>> solution was to use the system Deja Vu fonts that produce different
>> line breaks and different page breaks. Of course, for some fonts it
>> would work.
>
> The same kind of problem can occur any time a document requires a new
> version of a package and you try to compile it on a system with an older
> version.  I don't think that has much to do with font pathname

Obtaining a new version of a package is much easier than recompiling
libraries in OS.

> specification, which I thought was the question.  My claim was only that
> relative pathnames are useful and allow documents to be portable when they
> include their necessary fonts.  Including the font with the document is
> the only real way to be sure that it can compile identically on a foreign
> system.  If the document also depends on something else the recipient
> doesn't have, or if the recipient's system cannot process the font that
> the document requires, then I think it should be clear that using a
> relative pathname isn't going to magically solve the unrelated issues.
>
> This kind of thing - the idea that all documents should be compilable
> everywhere - is exactly why the TeX/LaTeX world have their Byzantine
> path-searching system, licenses that forbid modification unless you also
> change the filenames, and default "we dare not EVER fix any bugs because
> we don't want to break documents that depend on them" attitude.  XeTeX
> seems not to be following that tradition, and the fact of using
> system-installed fonts which might not be consistent from one system to
> the next is just part of it.  We can debate how important the "absolute
> portability" requirement is, but I doubt that XeTeX's approach is going to
> change soon.
>
This nonportability was my argument when one journal asked me to
develop a package that must work in XeLaTeX. They told me:

1. We do not guarantee the same line breaks as they were in the
author's computer

2. We will create a PDF file that will remain unchanged for ever, the
sources will not be used again after the PDF is declared final. Thus
it does not matter if the fonts change in the future

If you use XeTeX this way, it is sufficient if it compiles and one
person responsible for producing the final version will fine-tune the
line and page breaks and lock it.

Support for some languages was not that stable as for English. For
instance, within years hyphenation patterns for Czech were changed. If
I try to process my old document with exactly the same fonts, I get
different line breaks due to changed hyphenation patterns. I did not
archive the log files so that I cannot find which version of
hyphenation patterns was used.

> --
> Matthew Skala
> mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca                 People before principles.
> http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/
>
>
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-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz



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