[XeTeX] XeTeX 1.0 - request for comments

[Will Robertson]

17/10/2005, 10pm - William F. Adams wrote:


> Sorry, the previous message was supposed to go straight to JK.
>
> One feature I'd like to see would be the ability to write out a  
> font's characteristics into a .pl like file which could then be  
> edited, and an extension to the font interface to allow one to read  
> in such a file and use the up-dated information in lieu / addition  
> to the extent information in the font.
>
> Doing this would provide a mechanism for adding math support to fonts.
>

..and also be able to fix current deficiencies in fonts, like when  
Apple forgets to add old-style figures to Hoefler Text Roman...

This would need a carefully considered interface; I remember some  
people proposing maths font metrics table for OpenType, but I can't  
recall if it was a formal proposition or not. The problem would be  
that you need one sort of file for AAT fonts, another for OpenType,  
and yet another for additional maths capabilities et al.

This would also allow the type of thing that Walter Schmidt does for  
the PSNFSS project in fixing the spacing around punctuation, fixing  
up glyphs, and so forth, for fonts that weren't so carefully put  
together. The fontspec package or a direct interface in XeTeX could  
detect if such font patches were available and load them  
automatically, so all the user sees is much nicer looking output that  
when using, say, TextEdit.

Extend ad infinitum for diacritics placement, etc.

Sounds like virtual fonts gone crazy, but it would be a very powerful  
combination with font mappings.

Forgive me for saying so, but it sounds like a 2.0 feature to me :)  
If I recall correctly, font mappings were relatively easy because JK  
already have TECKit to work from...

Will