[XeTeX] Fake italics for some characters only

[Zdenek Wagner]

Hello,

you need braces around #1, otherwise \textit takes just the first
token (character) and the rest will remain unchanged.

Zdeněk Wagner
http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz

st 5. 12. 2018 v 15:12 odesílatel John Was <john.was at ntlworld.com> napsal:
>
> Hello
>
> I didn't realize that textit took an argument, but my solution will work
> (I've used the \ifitalic trick for years for different purposes!), at least
> in plain XeTeX language, if one just adds the argument to the definition:
>
> \def\Textit#1{{\italictrue \textit #1}}
>
> Anyway, I hope that helps in the search for an elegant solution which
> doesn't clutter up the input file.
>
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Zdenek Wagner
> Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2018 12:10 PM
> To: Unicode-based TeX for Mac OS X and other platforms
> Subject: Re: [XeTeX] Fake italics for some characters only
>
> Hi,
>
> this will not work. \textit is a macro which requires a parameter,
> thus \textit} will report an unbalaced brace. Returning to my solution
> I forgot to write that the active characters must first be defined.
> You either activate them, define them and then deactivate them which
> is tedious. It is better to define them inside a group but the
> definition must be global, it cannot be done with \newcommand. If you
> define just one character (i.e. A), \gdef is not needed, it can be
> done by:
>
> \begingroup \catcode`\A=13
> \expandafter\endgroup\expandafter\def\noexpand A{{\fakeslantfont A}}
>
> If you need several characters, i.e. A and B, you can either repet the
> block or do it like that:
>
> \begingroup
> \uccode`\x=A
> \uccode`\y=B
> \catcode`\A=13
> \catcode`\B=13
> \uppercase{
>   \gdef A{{\fakeslantfont x}}
>   \gdef B{{\fakeslantfont y}}
> }
> \endgroup
>
> Notice that the characters remain inactive, with chategory 11
> (letter). They will be activated inside a group defined by \mytextit
> from my previous mail. \mytextit must not have a parameter because
> once set tha categories cannot be changed (unless you use lua or
> possibly eTeX). \dotextit will then take the parameter with active A
> anb B and closes the group so that the categories return to 11. There
> is no need to use \if.
>
> Zdeněk Wagner
> http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
> http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz
> st 5. 12. 2018 v 12:39 odesílatel John Was <john.was at ntlworld.com> napsal:
> >
> > Hello
> >
> > I work in plain XeTeX, but I hope the following will work (and make sense)
> > in XeLaTeX too.
> >
> > You could redefine \textit, but to keep things simple, set up a new
> > command,
> > say \Textit, and change all occurrences of \textit to \Textit in your
> > document (or a copy thereof!).
> >
> > Thus:
> >
> > \def\Textit{{\italictrue \textit}} (double braces to keep things local).
> >
> > You will also need a new \if:
> >
> > \newif\ifitalic
> >
> > Now, supposing the character you want to influence as you describe is ć
> > (Unicode 0107).
> >
> > Make that active:
> >
> > \catcode"0107=\active
> > \defć{{\ifitalic  {\fakeslantfont \char"0107} \else \char"0107 \fi}}
> >
> >
> > Obviously, change \fakeslantfont to whatever you have used to define the
> > faked italic font.  Again I have used double {{ }} for safety.
> >
> > ć will then appear with artificial slanting whenever it occurs within
> > \Textit.
> >
> > And so on for all the characters to be treated this way.
> >
> > (More elegantly, redefine \textit itself but I'm not experienced with the
> > LaTeX \renewcommand etc. features.)
> >
> > Hope this helps (and I hope XeTeX picks up on the fact that I'm actually
> > now
> > at johnoxuk at gmail.com!)
> >
> > Best
> >
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Benct Philip Jonsson
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2018 7:57 PM
> > To: xetex at tug.org
> > Subject: [XeTeX] Fake italics for some characters only
> >
> > I have a somewhat unusual problem. In a document produced using
> > XeLaTeX I need to use four Unicode letters with scarce font
> > support in italicized words and passages but the font which I have
> > to use supports these characters only in roman. The obvious
> > solution is to use the FakeSlant feature of fontspec but I don’t
> > want to enclose these characters in a command argument, in the
> > hope that a future version of the document can use an italic font
> > which supports these characters, but neither do I (perhaps
> > needless to say) want to use fake italics except for these four
> > characters. In other words I would like to perform some kind of
> > “keyhole surgery” in the preamble and use these characters
> > normally in the body of the document, which I guess means having
> > to make them active and somehow detect when they are inside the
> > argument of `\textit`. (Note: it is appropriate to use `\textit`
> > rather than `\emph` here because the purpose of the italicization
> > is to mark text as being in an object language in a linguistic
> > text.) Is that at all possible? I guess I could wrap `\textit` in
> > a macro which locally redefines the active characters, but I’m not
> > sure how to do that, nor how to access the glyphs corresponding to
> > the characters once the characters are active. I am a user who
> > isn’t afraid of using and making the most of various packages or
> > of writing an occasional custom command to wrap up some repeatedly
> > needed operation, but I am no expert. I am aware of all the
> > arguments against fake italics — that is why I want to limit the
> > damage as much as possible! — but I have no choice here. Waiting
> > for the/an appropriate font to include italic versions of these
> > characters is not an option at the moment.
> >
> > /Benct
> >
> >
> >
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