[XeTeX] (no subject)

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 05.03.2008 um 09:15 schrieb josef dev:

>
>> Can somebody tell if use of XeLaTeX is safe, i.e. all latex package
>> will work and any LaTeX file compiled using XeLaTeX will give the
>> identical results?
>
>
> Often it will, but there are big exceptions. Especially with input
> encodings, fonts, and, as you say, driver-provided support.

No micro-typography available. Instead you find support from the  
font, i.e. you can choose particular font features like glyph  
variants (sub- and superscripts, lining or "old time" digits, initial/ 
medial/isolated/final forms, ...).

>
>> I understood that XeLaTeX use xdvipdfmx in place of
>> dvips and this causes some restriction in use of packeages which do
>> not support xdvipdfmx driver.
>
>
> Indeed. Furthermore, it doesn't support most of the nice pdftex
> features that you might also be used to.

Which pdfTeX features are you thinking of or needing?

>
>> Can any package which support dvips driver be modified/upgraded to
>> support the driver which xelatex need to generate PDF?
>
>
> Well, anything's possible, but not really. Although I believe there's
> currently experimental support for pstricks, which I wouldn't have
> thought feasible.

There is also TikZ/PGF support in xdvipdfmx. Again, I think, only  
from the code released in SVN.

>
> Anyway, usually you'll be able to work around the problem somehow.
>
>> Is there anybody who maintains the xdvipdfmx driver and can support
>> the updations?


Yes. Jonathan Kew, the XeTeX developer, adds things to support the  
XeTeX output format XDV (http://scripts.sil.org/svn-view/xdvipdfmx/).  
Basically xdvipdfmx is an extended version of dvipdfmx (http:// 
project.ktug.or.kr/dvipdfmx/), which is an extended version of  
dvipdfm. In Japan and in Korea extensions were written to make  
dvipdfm support far-eastern scripts with their multi-byte encodings.  
Dvipdfmx handles Unicode input encoding and CID "font encoding."

--
Greetings

   Pete

If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the  
entire catalogue.
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