[XeTeX] accessing fonts from TeX tree and glyphs without Unicode slot

Jonathan Kew jonathan_kew at sil.org
Fri May 5 00:19:34 CEST 2006


On 4 May 2006, at 8:41 pm, Peter Dyballa wrote:

> Am 04.05.2006 um 14:47 schrieb Jonathan Kew:
>
>> XeTeX can only "see" Unicode/OpenType fonts if they are available
>> through Fontconfig.
>
> That's only one part of using fonts in XeTeX, because its XDVI output
> is a bit useless. A converter is needed. On non-Mac OS X systems this
> one is a modified version of dvipdfmx -- and this TeX software will
> need MAP files! Are these MAP files compatible with those for dvipdfm?

xdvipdfmx locates the fonts using Fontconfig, just like xetex does,  
so no MAP files are needed....

> And if one's using Unicode encoded TrueType fonts in XeTeX then CMAP
> files are needed, too, for dvipdfmx.

....and it builds the CMAP resources for them on the fly. (Have you  
actually examined/tried this stuff, or are you just speculating?)

That's what XeTeX is about (partly, anyhow) -- being free to use  
fonts *without* any of this complex and confusing TeX-related font  
configuration process.

> In this case it's good to have
> Ghostscript installed with its support of CMAP files! (Others can be
> fetched from Adobe for free: http://partners.adobe.com/public/
> developer/font/index.html, http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/
> acrobat/index_advanced.html -- or from Adobe or Acrobat Reader.) And
> then these MAP files in $TEXMF/fonts/map/dvipdfmx will probably be
> incompatible to those for dvipdfm ...

Users might well want Ghostscript installed, for various reasons such  
as previewing the PDF output that is created, converting graphics  
between EPS and PDF, etc., but as far as running XeTeX is concerned  
it is not a requirement.

JK



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