[luatex] font expansion

[Hans Hagen]

On 7/7/2017 6:20 PM, Robert wrote:

>>> Existing expanded font instances are ignored, and only the base font
>>> is embedded in the pdf. Expansion seems to be calculated mechanically
>>> and linearly instead of taking into account the width axis of a
>>> Multiple Master font.
>> There is no support for multiple masters which is obsolete technology
>> and (recently) has been cq. is being replaced by variable fonts.
> 
> Obsolete or not, MM fonts (and MetaFont) with their parametrised width 
> axis still allow typographically superior quality over expansion by 
> linear distortion. Variable fonts may well be the future, and I would be 
> excited to see them supported by luatex one day (I reckon this is not 
> yet the case?), but at present production-ready fonts don't even seem to 
> be available.
There are not that many mm fonts so it makes no sense to add code to 
support them (the same is true for omega fonts). AFAIK one can make an 
instance of such fonts and use that.

Concerning variable fonts: these are already supported for a while (and 
supported by context) but indeed production quality fonts are not yet 
available and the standard is not yet final.

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
               Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
        tel: 038 477 53 69 | www.pragma-ade.nl | www.pragma-pod.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------