[XeTeX] wrong kerning and slow processing with xelatex in texlive 2010

[Vladimir Lomov]

Hi Vadim.

** Vadim Radionov [2010-10-12 16:08:30 +0400]:

>> Ok. you could check if this problem of engine or driver (xdvipdfmx) in
>> following way:
>> 1. Make pdf with xetex from TL2009:
>>  $ xetex test.tex
>> Save pdf as, for example, test_2009.pdf
>>
>> 2. Make pdf with xetex from TL2010:
>>  $ xetex test.tex
>> Save pdf as, for example, test_2010.pdf
>>
>> 3. Run xetex from TL2009
>>  $ xetex -no-pdf test.tex
>> this will give you test.xdv. Then run xdvipdfmx from TL2010
>>  $ xdvipdfmx test.xdv
>> Save pdf as test_xpdf2010.pdf
>>
>> 4. Run xetex from TL2010 (!)
>>  $ xdvipdfmx test.xdv
>> and xdvipdfmx from TL2009 (!)
>> Save pdf as test_xpdf2009.pdf
>>
> 
> #1 and #3 are good, #2 and #4 are bad
Interesting. According to log files that you post in other message you
use (!) TL 2010 from official TeX Live distribution AND (!!) (unknown) TL
from your (linux?) distribution (I assume that you use Debian or Debian-based
distro but this is wild guess). I compared TL 2009 and TL 2010 both from
official TeX Live distribution.

>From you results I could deduce that something wrong goes with xetex
from TL2010. You could enable kpathsea debugging and record used files
(-recorder, -kpathsea-debug=1 or 2 or 3, but beware it will generate a
lot of outout) to compare them.

>> Compare the resulted pdfs. In either case ensure that you have only _ONE_
>> OTF/TTF file, even if you think that that particular one (for example in
>> $HOME/.fonts) will be accessed firstly than other, drop that idea.
> 
> I'm not sure where xetex searches for otf files.  At least when i
> remove this font from ~/.fonts, xetex substitutes bold version, not
> other medium one.
Sorry, I should said that in other words. You should be sure that you have
only one file per font on your system. For example, the font
CharterITC-Regular is provided by file CharterITC-Regular.otf and you have
only ONE that file (in $HOME/.fonts or something else where fontconfig,
fc, could find it, that's how xetex searches for fonts, it uses
fontconfig). So if you have files, like ChaterITC-regular.ttf or
charter-regular.otf or etc which provides the same font name (if you
suspect that some font file could provide the same font name you could
check that using fontforge) they should be removed (or moved to other
place). If you have only ONE file that provides that font name it is ok.

>> Yes, now I have seen you files. But this is rather strange. You're
>> saying that you use TL2009 and TL2010 but according to pdfinfo both your
>> files  produced by the same xdvipdfmx.
> 
> This is strange, too. Here is my pdfinfo output :
> 
> (old xetex, directly or through -no-pdf and xdvipdfmx)
> Creator:         XeTeX output 2010.10.12:1600
> Producer:       xdvipdfmx (0.6)
> CreationDate:   Tue Oct 12 16:00:47 2010
> Tagged:         no
> Pages:          1
> Encrypted:      no
> Page size:      595.27 x 841.82 pts (A4)
> File size:      4628 bytes
> Optimized:      no
> PDF version:    1.4
I'm not sure when xdvipdfmx of 0.6 version was released.

> (TL2010, directly or through -no-pdf and xdvipdfmx)
> Creator:         XeTeX output 2010.10.12:1602
> Producer:       xdvipdfmx (0.7.8)
> CreationDate:   Tue Oct 12 16:02:02 2010
> Tagged:         no
> Pages:          1
> Encrypted:      no
> Page size:      595.28 x 841.89 pts (A4)
> File size:      3419 bytes
> Optimized:      no
> PDF version:    1.5
And this looks good.
> 
> So it is xetex interaction with the font that causes wrong kerning.
> What could be the next step?
> 
> PS. There's also strange difference in A4 paper size.
This is how you configure your TeX distribution.

For TL 2010 you could read tlmgr --help (about paper size). For your
system's TeX read the distro documentation.

---
WBR, Vladimir Lomov

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