[XeTeX] problem getting small caps

[Mike Maxwell]

Peter Baker wrote:
> Mike Maxwell wrote:
>> Thanks--that tells me it's using the slightly older version of the 
>> Charis SIL font, but that version still claims to support small caps. 
>> (I also discovered that someone created both a ttF/ and a ttf/ subdir 
>> under /usr/share/fonts, but the contents appear to be identical.)
> So have you uninstalled the older version? Even if that older version 
> claims to have small caps, it seems worthwhile to eliminate the 
> possibility of a problem.

Yes, I think that's the next step.  Unfortunately, the older version is 
in a directory that I don't have write access to, so it will probably be 
Monday before our IT folks can remove the older font files.

I'll let y'all know if that works, but it looks like that's the issue. 
otfinfo claims the older font supports small caps, but it lists a 
version # of 4.100.  I did some further digging, and the SIL page on the 
version history
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/SCRIPTs/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=CharisSIL_versions#277fc10b
says that v4.102
    ...fixes a bug which was in version 4.100: In InDesign
    and XeTeX (and probably any other application which uses
    true small caps) the OpenType small cap feature will not
    work properly, nor will any application-specific fallback
    mechanism.  This release fixes it so that the fallback
    mechanism will work.
The newest download (for v4.106) claims small caps as a "new" feature. 
It's not 100% clear to me that this means the *true* small caps will 
actually work in this version, nor what the diff is between true small 
caps and the fallback mechanism (maybe the latter just substitutes 
capitals at a smaller point size??).  Maybe I'll find out on Monday. 
(Jonathan, you wouldn't happen to know?)

There's also a thread here
    http://typophile.com/node/40431
but it doesn't appear to be conclusive.
-- 
    Mike Maxwell
    What good is a universe without somebody around to look at it?
    --Robert Dicke, Princeton physicist