[XeTeX] Newbie's XeTeX questions

Elof Ng elof.huang at runbox.com
Wed Nov 29 15:16:11 CET 2017


So XeTeX= Plain TeX +Unicode support and XeLaTeX = LaTeX +Unicode support?


On 11/29/2017 09:53 PM, Zdenek Wagner wrote:
> Hi,
>
> to put it simply, XeTeX is just TeX but it works internally in 
> Unicode, accepts the source files in UTF-8 (BOM is accepted but is not 
> mandatory) and can use TrueType and OpenType fonts installed in the 
> operating system. This means that the \font primitive has other 
> functionality. It is not necessary to know the details from the very 
> beginning but depending on what you want to use, whether XeTeX or 
> XeLaTeX, you have to learn the basics of plain TeX or LaTeX and the 
> basics of language and font selection (packages polyglossia and 
> fontspec in case of XeLaTeX). These packages are quite large, if you 
> choose XeLaTeX, start with simple examples and do not read the whole 
> manual, return to it later after gaining some experience.
>
>
> Zdeněk Wagner
> http://ttsm.icpf.cas.cz/team/wagner.shtml
> http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz
>
> 2017-11-29 12:02 GMT+01:00 Elof Ng <elof.huang at runbox.com 
> <mailto:elof.huang at runbox.com>>:
>
>     In the document named "XETEX, the Multilingual Lion: TEX meets
>     Unicode and smart font technologies", Kew mentioned the e-TEX’s
>     typesetting engine, saying XeTeX is in fact based on it, but I
>     found nothing about the e-TEX.
>
>     Is it same as PlainTeX?
>
>     I have briefly read the XeTeX Reference guid, Companion, they just
>     introduce the topics related to the font, what about the others?
>
>     Is XeTeX composed same as PlainTeX?
>
>     Do I have to learn TeX first?
>
>
>
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