[XeTeX] Lucida Sans tracked tighter

[Will Robertson]

On 05/04/2006, at 6:36 , Robert Spence wrote:

> Can anyone tell me if there's a way of [tracking] with XeTeX and  
> the preinstalled version of Lucida Sans that comes with Mac OS X  
> Tiger?

Not in the general case. The soul package (for LaTeX) can letter  
space small strings of text, which might fulfil your needs. If it's  
for running text, then it almost certainly won't.

Some thoughts for controlling kerning in XeTeX have crossed my mind  
in the past, for when precise details matter. A global tracking  
parameter could be useful if used in moderation.

Primitives used for example as "A\addkern0.2pt V" (add kerning to  
what's provided by the font) and "\kernpair{AV}{0.5pt}" (override the  
font's kerning for the rest of the document for this pair) might also  
be useful if implemented with some thought applied.

> Grateful even for negative responses,
> and hoping this isn't going to spark off another heated debate  
> about font licenses
> :-(

Is this related to something on the Mac OS X TeX list? I don't follow  
there (not enough time/better things to do), but I'd guess it's to do  
with the GTA fonts thing, right?

Best wishes,

Will