[XeTeX] \font syntax

[Jonathan Kew]

On 31 Jul 2007, at 12:00 pm, Hans Hagen wrote:

> well, sslt____.ttf is as cryptic -) (Serpentine)

Yes indeed -- which is (one reason) why XeTeX allows (no, expects!)  
you to call it "Serpentine". :)

Users shouldn't ever have to see things like sslt____.ttf or rm- 
lmr7.otf; the fonts have names like "Serpentine" or "Latin Modern".  
(Actually, the naming structure of the LM fonts needs review, but I  
haven't had the chance to think it all through properly.)

> i guess that the danger of clash is minimal

Unfortunately, I've seen real-life clashes. Some people have tfms  
with names like Helvetica.tfm or Times.tfm. And some people have  
installed fonts with names like "CMR10".

> but why not use the 'tfm search' as a fallback then? if a "name"  
> cannot
> be resolved, search for a tfm one instead

As I mentioned, XeTeX used to do this, but I'm not entirely convinced  
it's a good idea. E.g., error messages may be less confusing if it's  
clear which kind of font (or search) is being requested. But I'm  
interested to hear what people think.... anyone else with opinions on  
this?


JK