[XeTeX] Access of vertical CJK fonts preceeding with @

[Zdenek Wagner]

2012/12/7 Adam Twardoch (List) <list.adam at twardoch.com>:
> I think proper vertical writing mode would be best, without resorting to
> multiple rotations :)
>
> Yes, the "vert" is used for punctuation but also for Latin glyphs, which are
> often proportional in "height" (ie. avtually "rotated width"). "vert" is
> typically used in combination with "vkrn", which then does vertical kerning.
> So if toy have the text "Typeface" set in a CJK font vertically, the "vert"
> feature would map the glyphs T, y, p, o, g etc. to their counterparts which
> are rotated by 90 deg to the right, and then the "vkrn" feature would move
> the rotated "y" up if following a rotated "T" -- by the same amount as the
> normal "Ty" kerning pair.
>
> Of course not all CJK fonts include rotated Latin glyphs, let alone
> proportional, and let alone with vertical kerning. But some do (especially
> Adobe's Japanese fonts).
>
> There is another set of features (fwid, pwid, hwid -- AFAIR) which switch
> Latin glyphs and punctuation between full-width (monospaced), proportional
> (normal from the European perspective) and half-width (narrow monospaced)
> variants. Using them is up to the user's preference and discretion. Some but
> not all fonts provide rotated forms for all these variants as well.
>
> But all this stuff is made to work with the "true" vertical typesetting
> direction in mind, and has to do with things that happen within the line.
>
> Stuff that happens on the higher level, i.e. by which means you actually get
> entire lines to be laid out in the vertical direction, is a wholly another
> level.
>
> As I mentioned, the "@" hack is just a Windows API trick -- these special
> fonts don't really exist, they're being synthetically generated by the
> Windows API and are exposed to apps that use the Windows API to do text
> layout and rendering.
>
> But XeTeX accesses font files more directly, and directly parses OpenType
> Layout tables, so the "@" trick shouldn't work since these are not "real"
> fonts.
>
> And, as I said at the beginning, I think proper vertical writing mode in
> XeTeX would be the *real* solution, without resorting to OS API tricks.
>
Vertical typesetting is quite a challenge. Consider Old Mongolian. It
also writes vertically from top to bottom but unlike Chinese and
Japanese, from left to right.

> However, I'm not at all a TeX expert so I don't know which options are
> available.
>
> Best,
> Adam
>
> Sent from my mobile phone.
>
> On 07.12.2012, at 00:03, Gerrit <z0idberg at gmx.de> wrote:
>
> Hello Adam,
>
> thanks for you answer. I didn't know that the @ thing is a Windows feature.
> Well then I guess it does not work.
>
> I just wondered if it might be an easy and actually good way to create
> vertical Japanese texts (not just a paragraph or a text box, but the entire
> document): Everything like columns, page break, sections etc. would work
> flawlessly . Incorporating Western text in the text would also work without
> any problems.
>
> Basically I just thought about using the @ font, rotating the entire page
> 90° clockwise (so that the text is vertically and the alignment is correct),
> flipping the width and height size of the paper, so that a portrait paper
> stays a portrait paper, and then the text would work.
> Horizontally written picture boxes/captions or tables etc. could be done
> with the normal rotating package (i.e., rotating them back). The only
> problem would maybe be the head and foot, because the rotated page would
> then have the head and foot on the right and left side, resp. But I thought
> about tackling that issue afterwords. Either way, I just wanted to try it
> out.
>
> Rotating every glyph independently (like it is done in the xetex manual)
> does not seem to be that suitable for longer texts, and you would have to
> cope with many many many packages and other problems.
>
> As far as I understood the vert feature, it works for rotating stuff like
> the colon (ten), the full stop (maru), brackets etc. A normal character
> would not have to be rotated. This is then necessary if you actually do it
> for rotating every single glyph, but not if the entire text becomes rotated
> and you basically just rotate the page backwards.
>
> I actually really think that something like the @ thing would be the easiest
> way to implement vertical typeset into Xetex.
>
> Gerrit
>
> Am 06.12.2012 23:48, schrieb Adam Twardoch (List):
>
> Gerrit,
>
> this is a custom functionality of the Windows API, a "poor man's" method to
> get vertical typesetting in "normal" applications which cannot deal with
> real vertical typesetting. The "vert" feature is different: it provides
> additional 90 degree rotation for those glyphs which are read better in a
> horizontal arrangement rotated by 90 degrees. I.e. you use the "vert"
> feature in a *real* vertcal typesetting context where CJK glyphs occur one
> under the other, but e.g. for Latin glyphs it makes sense to set them so
> that the reader has to turn his head to the right.
>
> So "vert" is completely independent of what you're asking. If XeTeX cannot
> do "proper" vertical typesetting then perhaps indeed there should be a font
> selection function that just rotates everything set in that font. I'd rather
> have such a mechanism exposed than to rely on a non-cross-platform "@"
> prefix "OS hack" (a hack actually provided by the OS). I don't know whether
> such mechanism already exists in XeTeX though. Perhaps it does?
>
> Either way, you'd still want to apply the "vert" feature to do additional 90
> degree rotation for certain glyphs, or -- if used in the scenario you're
> proposing -- to actually *un-rotate* them, so they bacome horizontal again.
>
> A.
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.:
>  http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.:
>   http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
>



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz