[XeTeX] Extended \font declarations?

[Adam Lindsay]

Hans Hagen said this at Tue, 27 Jul 2004 12:45:15 +0200:

>>What about an `extended' \font system saying (imaginary syntax to be
>improved):
>>
>>\fontrange\whatever="Skia Regular" 32-3000
>>\fontrange\whatever="STHeiti Light" 10000-15000
>>\font\myfont=\whatever at 18 pt
>>  
>>
>something like this is indeed needed in order to overcome the problem of
> incomplete fonts

Interesting. I think this swings towards the idea I put forth earlier on
the list ("Auto-fonts", 10 May 2004). I concentrated a bit more on the
ATSUI (Apple) side of the implementation, and that it concerns font
"fallbacks".

At the time, I said, and Jonathan replied:
>> Jonathan, have you considered enabling
>> automatic font (fallback) selection, a la 
>> "ATSUSetTransientFontMatching"
>> and related calls? Is that leaving too much to typographic chance?
>
>Well..... yes, it has crossed my mind. But I'm not keen on "typographic 
>chance"; I like to know what I'm getting. If the font I've asked for 
>doesn't have the character I'm trying to print, a square box that 
>sticks out like a sore thumb makes it fairly obvious that I need to fix 
>things. Silent substitution of another font may escape my notice until 
>the printer has run off a few thousand (or more) copies that don't look 
>quite right.

I think people are arriving at the idea of these fallbacks are more than
typographic chance, more design. And that it's useful to set these things
up as templates or formats for automated/on demand use.
-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Adam T. Lindsay                      atl at comp.lancs.ac.uk
 Computing Dept, Lancaster University   +44(0)1524/594.537
 Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK             Fax:+44(0)1524/593.608
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