[XeTeX] XeLaTeX font options

[Jonathan Kew]

On 18 May 2010, at 10:27, Peter Dyballa wrote:
>> 
>> As an aside, is there any place where I can find the Hoefler Text font
>> for Linux (or in .otf format)? I think that this serif font has a lot
>> of different options and ligatures and I enjoy to play around with
>> those. Or maybe there are other serif fonts that offer such a wide
>> variety of options? For me it's a good way to learn about font
>> varieties with gorgeous texts as an added bonus.

There are numerous fonts with advanced layout options these days, both commercial (e.g., the Adobe "Pro" fonts tend to have quite a few features) and free (one of my favorites is Calluna, by Jos Buivenga; the Regular face is available free).

> 
> Get yourself an intel based Mac (to be able to run virtual instances of other operating systems) and install Leopard (Tiger is too old, Snow Leopard uses a proprietary font format). When running some Solaris, BSD, Linux you might be able to use the Hoefler fonts. Maybe it works to copy them from the bought Mac OS 10.5.4 (best price) DVD with its install packages.

Two points: First, this wouldn't work as you suggest, because the Hoefler Text font on OS X uses AAT tables for its various layout features, and this technology is only supported by xetex on OS X, not on Linux.

Second, this would clearly be a violation of the OS X license, and as such I think it's quite inappropriate to be suggesting it at all.

> Or just buy them, if available.

Note that it would be necessary to find versions with OpenType layout tables rather than AAT, if they're intended for use on Linux.

JK