[OS X TeX] Accented characters in Xe(La)TeX

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 29.05.2010 um 02:26 schrieb <cfrees at imapmail.org> <cfrees at imapmail.org 
 >:

> Skia and Hoefler Text include some missing characters; Venturis gives
> frankly weird output.

No, it's rather OK. Not available glyphs are substituted with U+FFFF,  
which, depending on the font's design, can have different shapes.

>
> I take it the missing characters (^W, ^Y etc.) are due to Skia,  
> Hoefler
> and Venturis lacking them. So  unlike TeX, XeTeX does not or cannot
> create accented glyphs on the fly?

It can! You've seen it in all fonts you used in your test file. The  
problem with Venturis ADF is that the font does not have combining  
accents:

	otfinfo -g /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/fonts/opentype/arkandis/ 
venturis/VenturisADF-Regular.otf | wc -l
	     263
	otfinfo -g /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/fonts/opentype/arkandis/ 
venturis/VenturisADF-Regular.otf | grep -i combin | wc -l
	       0

So you only have the pre-composed glyphs available. LM, Skia, Hoefler,  
and others are real Unicode fonts and not just a restricted PostScript  
font file wrapped into OTF clothes with automatically created tables  
in their pockets with some standard features.

>
> Which means that XeTeX on a Mac will *never* use type 1 fonts, TFM
> files etc.? (So it reads pdftex.map to no real purpose?)

It tries to avoid it. TFM (not VF) is somehow supported (because it's  
some TeX), PostScript fonts can also be used. Using both on purpose  
can be sign of a brain damage: these fonts have no tables which allow  
typesetting text. They just have the dimensions of the glyphs' boxes  
and sometimes some kerning information. No way to switch to sub- or  
superscripts, alternatives, substitutes, ligatures...

Using TFM or PostScript fonts in XeTeX is like using Fred Flintstone's  
car. (Although its time seems to return.)

--
Greetings

   Pete

A morning without coffee is like something without something else.