[XeTeX] fontconfig and the same name fonts

[Nikola Lecic]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:54:26 +0200
Jonathan Kew <jonathan_kew at sil.org> wrote:

> On 29 Apr 2007, at 5:37 pm, Nikola Lecic wrote:
> 
> >> What might be possible is to provide a way to express a preference
> >> for one font format or another; e.g, \XeTeXpreferredfontformat
> >> "OTF".
> >
> > That would be exactly what I'd like to see (instead of 'real file  
> > names') in case of the  same names. In that case, XeTeX would log
> > a warning if it couldn't find preferred format, whatever could be
> > the reason (fontconfig or something else) and the user doesn't have
> > to worry of particular tweaks of underlying font software.
> 
> OK, I'll keep it in mind; haven't really thought about what would be  
> involved but this might be a possibility.
> 
> > Really confusing for both applications and user (in favour of
> > older version). In such a situation, I'd like to know what file
> > XeTeX/ fontspec really used.
> 
> You might get some hint from xetex's idea of the "canonical" font  
> name, which you find if you query \fontname once you've loaded it.
> E.g.,
> 
>    \fontspec{GFS Didot} The font being used is \fontname\font.
> 
> (This may print a slightly different name than you originally  
> specified.)

That's fine, I missed it; very useful in DejaVu case.

> > And to repeat a question from previous mail: Is there any other  
> > disadvantage in using ExternalLocation, i.e. in avoiding
> > fontconfig (except that we loose regular-bold-italic font files
> > connections)?
> 
> You'd also lose support for optical sizes (with OT fonts that have  
> the 'opsz' feature), as that also depends on choosing a specific  
> physical font from among the whole family, while ExternalLocation  
> says that you're specifying the exact font file to be used.

Thank you very much for all the answers and clarifications, things are now much clearer to me.

Nikola Lečić