[tex-live] Fontconfig for XeTeX versus regular fontconfig

Zdenek Wagner zdenek.wagner at gmail.com
Fri Oct 28 11:29:53 CEST 2011


2011/10/28 Vladimir Lomov <lomov.vl at gmail.com>:
> Hello,
> ** Zdenek Wagner [2011-10-28 01:22:49 +0200]:
>
> Just some my thoughts
>> 2011/10/28 Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org>:
>>> ...
>>> I totally agree about not worrying about more "unportable" xdv files.
>
>> 1. An author can never be sure that another user has exactly the same
>> system fonts installed, thus even the source file may be nonportable
>
> IMHO, the point is that XDV file _will_ contain the absolute path but
> PDF one _wouldn't_ (there must be some ways for PDF readers to get
> "correct" font but I didn't look into PDF specification). The only
> drawback here is that user have to generate PDF from given XDV on the
> same host. But in most cases this is done automatically by xetex engine.
>
Either the font is embedded in PDF and is referenced probably as an
object with an id, or it is not embedded and then is referenced by
font name and the reader is supposed to find the system font or supply
an alternative font. PDF can only be portable if all fonts are
embedded, at least as their subsets. The paths to font files are never
stored in PDF, only the producer has to know where to get the fonts
from.

> I'm not know very close how xe(la)tex or fontspec searches font files
> but user don't have to specify fonts using absolute path to files. IMO,
> this is the purpose of fontspec (and engine?).
>
If all engines did it the same way it would be no problem. For
instance, xdvipdfmx cannot find the Nafees fonts although xetex finds
them. This problem appears on CentOS distros but not in Fedora 13. I
tried to follow Khaled's advice but did not manage to make them work.

>> 2. If an xdv file is used for debugging, it is necessary to see the
>> contents in hexadecimal, it usually need not be rendered.
>
>> Thus it will hardly be useful to send an xdv file to someone else.
>> IMHO nonportability will not be a problem.
>
>>> k
>
> ---
> WBR, Vladimir Lomov
>
> --
> All I kin say is when you finds yo'self wanderin' in a peach orchard,
> ya don't go lookin' for rutabagas.
>                -- Kingfish
>



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



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