[XeTeX] Checking if a font exists

[Alan Munn]

On Aug 29, 2010, at 12:24 PM, Michiel Kamermans wrote:

> Hi Alan,
>
>> Is there a way to check whether a font is present in a user's  
>> system?  I need to generate a document with Myriad Pro if it  
>> exists, Arial otherwise, and if neither, exit with an error.
>
> Myriad Pro is nothing like Arial, though... but just to make your  
> life worse: thought about version numbers? There are many versions  
> of Myriad Pro, and many versions of Arial. How do you know which  
> version numbers are permissible?

Well, since I have no information on that, I'll assume that all are  
useable.

>
> But let's step back for a moment because there's a fundamental  
> problem with your question: if you're using TeX, you're implicitly  
> saying you care deeply about the typesetting of your document, which  
> includes being particular about which stretches of text use what  
> font. Not just "which various fonts look good for this text", but  
> "which font is the one I intend to use for this bit of my document".  
> Rather than testing for several fonts on a user's machine, and  
> picking "the best match", like if the content were styled via (X)HTML 
> +CSS, with a font rule that specifies various fonts with fallbals,  
> part of the power of TeX is the fact that it will always look the  
> same on any machine it's compiled on, provided the dependencies are  
> met. So, either your document will look the same no matter what  
> machine it's compiled on, or it doesn't compile. The idea that it  
> will compile with Myriad Pro on one machine, and Arial on another,  
> basically violates the very idea of TeX.

Sure, in an ideal world.  But this particular application is to  
conform to standards set by my university, and for better or for  
worse, they've allowed Arial to substitute for Myriad Pro if the  
latter is not available. And it may turn out that since I can  
reasonably assume that Myriad Pro should be available, I can fix  
things so that it is the only font used, as long as it can be found.

>
> The better way to solve whatever problem you're having that made you  
> wonder how to detect certain fonts is to simply supply those fonts  
> along with your .tex source. If other people need to compile your  
> source, simply ensure that they have everything they need to compile  
> it?

Well I don't know if redistribution of Adobe fonts is permitted (I  
would assume not) so this really isn't a (legal) option.

Alan


-- 
Alan Munn
amunn at gmx.com