[XeTeX] fontconfig and the same name fonts

[Nikola Lecic]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:10:54 +0930
Will Robertson <wspr81 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 29/04/2007, at 11:50 , Nikola Lecic wrote:
> 
> > Is there any recommended method in situation when we have OTF and  
> > TTF font with the same name and need to have both installed? (GFS  
> > fonts are a good example: download any pair from http:// 
> > www.greekfontsociety.org.) In such cases, fc-list lists only one  
> > name, despite inspecting and registering both files. How can we be  
> > sure what font file XeTeX actually uses and what fonts.conf or  
> > XeTeX directives can make such a situation clear?
> 
> It sounds like a funny idea to need to do this in the first place;
> if you need both at once, presumably it's to test them against each  
> other. In which case, you could just load them without installing  
> them system-wide with
>    \font\x="[GFS Bodoni.ttf]" at 12pt% (without fontspec)
> or
>    \newfontfamily\x[ExternalLocation]{GFS Dodoni.ttf}% (with fontspec)

Yes, I realised I wasn't clear enough :) Comparing fonts against each other isn't primary goal. I need OTF version for XeTeX and TTF version for OpenOffice, for example. I considered using ExternalLocation, but you stated in fontspec manual that if doing so, user looses fonts intercommunication and have to do that job manually, which I wanted to avoid. Is there any other disadvantage in using ExternalLocation, i.e. in avoiding fontconfig?

So, besides a possibility to call all OTF fonts (if used in XeTeX only) by means of ExternalLocation, can fontspec/XeTeX return a real file name of font found in the system through fontconfig? (For example, OpenOffice can handle fonts on its own, too; the point is to avoid splitting font groups in favour of easy maintaining and keeping them under control of one application.)

Nikola Lečić