[XeTeX] [OS X TeX] Fwd: Using a ttf font with separate ligatures in xelatex

[Ralf Stubner]

Bruno Voisin <bvoisin at mac.com> writes:

>>> I am trying to use "Minion Regular", a Windows TTF font, in
>>> xelatex.  The font comes as two separate files:
>>>
>>> 1. Minion Regular        : Contains the normal symbols
>>> 2. Minion Expert Regular : Has ligatures and old style numerals
>>>
>>> My problem is the following: How do I tell xelatex that the
>>> ligatures for Minion Regular are to be found in Minion Expert
>>> Regular?  If I just use Minion Regular without any additional
>>> information, xelatex does not generate any ligatures.
>>>
>>> I have found directives in fontspec.sty to tell xelatex about
>>> which font to use for BoldFace, Italics etc, but I have not found
>>> any mechanism to specify an auxiliary file for ligatures.

I don't think this can be solved on the XeTeX level. One could try to
solve this on the font level, though, by merging these two fonts and
adding appropriate OpenType features. Something simple like this *might*
allreaady work:

#!/usr/bin/env fontforge
Open("Minion-Regular.ttf")         # adjust name
MergeFonts("MinionExp-Regular.ttf) # adjust name
RenameGlyphs("AGL with PUA")
SelectAll()
DefaultATT("*")
Generate("Minion-OTL.ttf");

Should be called with both TTFs in the current directory.

> Beware though: if you mean your friend is using on Linux a font  
> copied from a Windows PC to a Linux PC, then there might be a  
> licensing issue there.

Why?

cheerio
ralf