[XeTeX] Typesetting Hebrew/Arabic diacritics with XeTeX?

[Jonathan Kew]

On 6 Oct 2005, at 10:27 pm, Robert Voogdgeert wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
> Lately I've been working with InDesing ME wich is (to my opinion)
> actually the only app that can compete with XeTeX when it comes to
> typesetting Hebrew and Arabic.
>
> No, with ID I have the choice of different settings for diacritical
> marks (vowels, cantilation marks and so on) of Hebrew and Arabic:
> OpenType, Loose, Tight, etc. Can this be done with XeTeX and Fontspec?

No, sorry.

XeTeX will place the diacritics in accordance with the OpenType  
tables in the font; that's the only option. (Besides "no special  
positioning at all", which you'll get if you use a font that doesn't  
have the appropriate OpenType features.)

I'm not familiar with the ID options, but I wonder if it provides a  
few varieties of "automatic" placement intended primarily to give a  
reasonable result when used with fonts that do not include OpenType  
positioning tables. That would be similar to the default diacritic  
stacking that TextEdit (and other Cocoa apps) do on OS X when the  
font does not specifically support the combining marks being used;  
it's OK for many purposes, but not as precise as using fonts that  
properly support the marks.

JK