[XeTeX] Hoefler italics and diacritics oddity

[Jonathan Kew]

On 21 Jun 2004, at 5:24 pm, Musa Furber wrote:
> When using Hoefler italics, if I add a diacritic using the snippet  
> that Somdeva offered---
>
>> %
>>  %Diatop lets you put one character (or accent) above another
>>   
>> \def\diatop[#1|#2]{{\leavevmode\setbox1=\hbox{{#1{}}}\setbox2=\hbox{{# 
>> 2{}}}%
>>  \dimen0=\ifdim\wd1>\wd2\wd1\else\wd2\fi%
>>  \dimen1=\ht2\advance\dimen1by-1ex%
>>  \setbox1=\hbox to1\dimen0{\hss#1\hss}%
>>  \rlap{\raise1\dimen1\box1}%
>>  \hbox to1\dimen0{\hss#2\hss}}}
>>  %
>>  %Redefinitions of \d{}
>>  \def\d#1{\smash{\diatop[\raise-.55em\hbox{\hskip.125em.}|#1]}}
>>  %
>
> ---the glyphs chosen are often more ornate alternative, appropriate  
> for the end of a word.
>
> <pastedGraphic1.tiff>
> The middle line (above) shows a few examples of this. Note the 'e' in  
> "Here". Compare it with the third line, which is devoid of diacritics.
>
> Is there a way to influence the glyph selection?
>

The \d macro ends up breaking up the text into separate runs, and so  
you get line-final swash forms (and potentially line-initial swashes  
afterwards). You can disable these by adding "Smart Swashes=!Line Final  
Swashes,!Line Initial Swashes" to the font definition.

Of course, you might *want* the smart swashes; in the appropriate  
places, they look good. But if you have lots of macros or other special  
items breaking up your lines of text, they'll appear in all sorts of  
unwanted places, and you're better off disabling them.

HTH,

Jonathan