[luatex] \font primitive does not read otf file

[Ulrike Fischer]

Am Sun, 2 Dec 2012 12:11:40 +0100 schrieb Petr Olsak:

>>> I am starting with LuaTeX and I have problem to find the relevant
>>> documentation about \font primitive. There is only one document
>>>
>>>     http://www.luatex.org/talks/print-plain-tug-2009.pdf
>>>
>>> page 7. It seems that the \font primitive works like in XeTeX.

>> No, \font works more or less like in pdftex. But there is a
>> "callback" where you can insert lua-code (a "font-loader") to expand
>> its capabilities.

>> One existing font loader is luaotfload so try this:
>> 
>> \input luaotfload.sty
>> \font\aa="[lmroman10-regular]"
>> \aa  text
>> \bye

> 
> I am developing plainTeX macros. The solution which loads some sty file 
> and starts loading 18 another .sty files (!!) to solve one SIMPLE problem 
> is not compatible with plainTeX philosophy.

It is not a simple problem. Modern fonts can be quite complicated,
with all the scripts, font features and open type tables involved.
Also the sty don't handle only the fonts, it also create caches -
luatex is already rather slow compared to xetex, without sensible
caches large fonts would not be usable. Beside this I do find it
quite absurd to dismiss code on the ground that it had been split in
more or less pieces or uses external libraries. 

But if you prefer to create your own font loader, you can find here
simple font loader to start here:

http://luatex.bluwiki.com/go/Use_a_TrueType_font  


-- 
Ulrike Fischer 
http://www.troubleshooting-tex.de/