[XeTeX] Frenchspacing in XeTeX

[Jonathan Kew]

On 1 Nov 2004, at 10:51 am, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm wondering whether AAT fonts, like Hoefler Text, are affected by 
> \frenchspacing the same way that Computer Modern does (namely by 
> making all spaces identical, whether or not they follow a period).

Well.... sort of, but things don't end up working exactly the same.

> Here is the kind of stuff I get in a list of references, using LaTeX's 
> thebibliography environment which includes \sfcode`\.=1000 which is 
> one of the components of \frenchspacing:
>
> <Image 1.pdf>
>
> Obviously not all spaces are identical.

Indeed. It's interesting to look at the three variations you get from 
this sample:

	% a plain XeTeX test...
	\font\rm="Hoefler Text" at 12pt
	\font\it="Hoefler Text Italic" at 12pt
	\font\bf="Hoefler Text Black" at 12pt
	
	\rm
	[Transl. from {\it Inzh.-Fiz. Zh.} {\bf 39}, 619–623.]
	
	[Transl.\ from {\it Inzh.-Fiz. Zh.} {\bf 39}, 619–623.]
	
	\sfcode`\.=1000
	[Transl. from {\it Inzh.-Fiz. Zh.} {\bf 39}, 619–623.]
	
	\end

I think the middle of the three works best.

>  Or is it a manifestation of the fact that AAT fonts have no notion of 
> an italic correction?

No, it's a manifestation of .... umm .... something else!

The whole interaction between spacing that comes from TeX and spacing 
that happens within the AAT fonts is a tricky business, and I may well 
experiment with some different approaches. I'm not promising complete 
document stability with XeTeX yet. :)

JK