[XeTeX] OpenType fonts not found by xdvipdfmx on linux

[Jonathan Kew]

On 11 Sep 2007, at 9:53 pm, Paul Howson wrote:

> The document uses the Adobe Myriad Pro opentype font family, with
> font declarations like this:
>
> 	\font\freporttitle="Myriad Pro" at 17pt
> 	\font\freporttitlename="Myriad Pro Semibold" at 18pt
> 	\font\fbold="Myriad Pro Bold" at 10pt
>
> On MacOS these just work -- both xetex and the (xdv2pdf ?) driver
> find the correct fonts, the file names of which are:
>
> 	MyriadPro-Regular.otf
> 	MyriadPro-Semibold.otf
> 	MyriadPro-Bold.otf
>
> On Linux (using fontconfig) however, the Regular and Bold versions
> work, but the Semibold version doesn't. Xetex does not complain. But
> xdvipdfmx does complain that it cannot find the Semibold font.

I have seen some problems with the fontconfig-based (i.e., non-Mac  
OS) version, especially with more complex font families. This is an  
area that needs further testing and debugging....

If you're specifying fonts directly like this, not through fontspec  
(and so you're not relying on the automatic detection of family  
relationships, etc), one possible workaround is to use the filename,  
as in

   \font\freporttitle="[MyriadPro-Regular.otf]" at 17pt

etc; I believe these will pass robustly to xdvipdfmx. (Note that the  
files then need to be in a location where kpsewhich can find them,  
which may not be the same as the "installed" locations where  
fontconfig finds them. Or you can give paths in the \font command.)

One question: what does

   xetex -version

report about the fontconfig library version on your Linux machine? If  
you have an old-ish fontconfig library, that might account for some  
problems.

JK