[OS X TeX] fontspec, disabling something.

[Maarten Sneep]

On May 12, 2007, at 01:48, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> I see the same as you do, and it seems to be a bug in either XeTeX  
> or the font, but not in fontspec: it's LineFinal and LineInitial  
> which have the desired effect in your case, not WordFinal and  
> WordInitial. More precisely:
>
> - Replace \emph{a nightmare} by \emph{one more nightmare}: only the  
> "e" at the end of nighmare has the final "swash". Hence WordFinal  
> applies to words, except the last word of the italic fragment which  
> is governed by LineFinal.
>
> - Add NoLineFinal: the "e" at the end of nightmare looses its swash.
>
> But maybe it's not even a bug, and that is intended behaviour, I'm  
> not sure.

You may be right there, as far as the system (I guess Apple, not TeX)  
is concerned, the switch back to upright may be considered a line  
ending.

> Remark 1: I found out about that by replacing the fontspec font  
> calls by the corresponding low-level LaTeX code, to see whether the  
> culprit was fontspec or the font.

My own knowledge of plain TeX is limited, thanks for figuring this out.

[snip]

Seeing this code makes me grateful the fontspec package exists.

> Remark 2: You can find out more about what's in a font by using AAT- 
> info.tex and OpenType-info.tex (in plain TeX) from the samples at  
> <http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/render_download.php? 
> site_id=nrsi&format=file&media_id=xetex_doc_094&filename=XeTeX_doc.zip 
> >. These are not in TeXLive.

Thanks, I was looking for something like this.

I would suggest a minor edit to the AAT-info.tex and OpenType-info.tex

Surround the \def\myfontname line with:

\ifx\myfontname\undefined
\def\myfontname{Hoefler Text Italic}
\fi

You can now call this file from a driver file:
\def\myfontname{Hoefler Text Italic}
\input AAT-info
and easily obtain any info you might like.

Now all I have to do is understand the symbols, and numbers in the  
output: Using the above example, what is the difference between a  
checked 'Line initial swashes [4]' and a non-checked 'Word Final  
Swashes [2]'. I guess that the [0] indicates that there are no  
characters present that fulfill the criterium, but I a short  
explanation may be helpful.

> Remark 3: In case you've got Classic on your Mac, beware the  
> version 3 of Hoefler Text shipped with Mac OS 9 doesn't have the  
> same characteristics as the version 5 shipped with Mac OS X Tiger.  
> For example, version 3 has small caps which version 5 doesn't have.  
> To make sure which version is active in case both are installed (as  
> on the PowerBook G4 on which I'm typing this, and on which the old  
> Classic version is the one active by default), you can use Font  
> Book or Linotype Font Explorer.

Classic has disappeared from my computer a long time ago.

Maarten
-- 
Freedom is slavery.  Ignorance is strength.  War is peace. -- Orwell



------------------------- Helpful Info -------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
List Reminders & Etiquette: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/list/