[XeTeX] XeTeX for Linux

[Jonathan Kew]

On 4 May 2006, at 5:08 pm, Martin Schröder wrote:

> I can report success installing XeTeX on SuSE 9.1 :-)

Great... and thanks for the details of changes that were needed to  
make it build.

> Now how can I use OpenType fonts? :-)

If you install an OpenType font such as Charis SIL where fontconfig  
can find it (you can check with fc-list), then XeTeX should be able  
to use it:

	\font\X = "Charis SIL" at 10pt
	\X This is Charis SIL.

For a more "exotic" example, download Scheherazade from http:// 
scripts.sil.org/ArabicFonts, and try

	\TeXXeTstate = 1
	\font\X = "Scheherazade:script=arab" at 12pt
	\noindent\beginR\X العربي

Or you can use the fontspec and xunicode packages in LaTeX to change  
the fonts throughout sample2e, by adding to the preamble:

	\usepackage{fontspec,xunicode}
	\setromanfont[Mapping=tex-text]{Charis SIL}

With Charis, because of the large ascender/descender values built  
into the font, you may wish to add the option

	\XeTeXuseglyphmetrics = 1

to get more reasonable line spacing.

Or choose another OpenType font, such as one of the Adobe Pro fonts  
if you have them.

JK