[XeTeX] Zapfino

Jonathan Kew jonathan_kew at sil.org
Thu Jul 12 00:31:18 CEST 2007


On 11 Jul 2007, at 11:19 pm, Adam Twardoch wrote:

> Bruno, thanks for the corrected links.
>
> Since I developed the OpenType Layout features for the font in  
> question
> (Zapfino Extra Pro), it's a matter that seems very interesting to me.
>
> The contextual logic in Zapfino Extra Pro performs backtrack and
> lookahead lookups that go as far as 6 glyphs across, including the  
> space
> character. Unfortunately, different OpenType Layout engines treat the
> space character differently -- some Layout engines execute OpenType
> lookups on an entire line of text while some only execute OpenType
> lookups word-by-word. I may be mistaken but I am under the impression
> that XeTeX currently executes OpenType lookups word-by-word, i.e.  
> as if
> each word were a separate line of text. This means that lookups  
> such as
> the ones I develop that reach across to surrounding words do not  
> work at
> all.

That's correct, at least for the current implementation.

Because of TeX's model of "glue" is something quite distinct from  
characters, and relates to the whole line-breaking and justification  
process, getting inter-word spaces treated as space characters at  
this level would present some interesting challenges...

> Please make a simple test: type the word "Mutter" three times after  
> each
> other, i.e.:
>
> Mutter Mutter Mutter
>
> In InDesign, you should get three different renderings of that word.
> What's the result in XeTeX?

I don't have this font, so can't test it myself, but am confident  
about predicting that they'll be the same.

JK



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