[XeTeX] Newbie's XeTeX questions

[Elof Ng]

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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[Zdenek Wagner]

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

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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[Elof Ng]

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

Post by Zdenek Wagner
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
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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[Philip TAYLOR]

Post by Elof Ng
So XeTeX= Plain TeX +Unicode support and XeLaTeX = LaTeX +Unicode support?

Don't overlook the fact that Xe[La]TeX supports platform fonts. This, to
me, is perhaps even more important than its ability to support Unicode.
Philip Taylor

[Elof Ng]

How do you know how many fonts do you have in your system when you are
editing the XeTeX? Just open the font directory?

Do I have to use the font filename on the XeTeX editing?

Post by Philip TAYLOR

Post by Elof Ng
So XeTeX= Plain TeX +Unicode support and XeLaTeX = LaTeX +Unicode support?

Don't overlook the fact that Xe[La]TeX supports platform fonts. This,
to me, is perhaps even more important than its ability to support Unicode.
Philip Taylor

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[Philip TAYLOR]

Post by Elof Ng
How do you know how many fonts do you have in your system when you are
editing the XeTeX? Just open the font directory?

Either Start / Control Panel / Fonts or open a program such as Microsoft
Word and look in the Fonts drop-down from the Home tab.

Post by Elof Ng
Do I have to use the font filename on the XeTeX editing?

TeXdoc XeTeX will tell you about the various ways in which you can
access platform fonts. An example from something currently open on my

Post by Elof Ng
\font \titlefont = "Albertus MT"
\font \glossfont = "Albertus MT Italic" scaled 900
\font \sectionfont = "Albertus Extra Bold" scaled \magstep 2

Philip Taylor

[maxwell]

Post by Elof Ng
How do you know how many fonts do you have in your system when you are
editing the XeTeX? Just open the font directory?

Under Linux, run fc-list (which you might need to install, at least I
did under Ubuntu). You might need to edit the /etc/fonts/local.conf to
add additional directories where fonts live, which fc-list wouldn't
otherwise find.

Post by Elof Ng
Do I have to use the font filename on the XeTeX editing?

The fontspec documentation explains, but normally no. It's sufficient
to use the name, like 'Charis SIL'. You can get the "official" name
from fc-list.

Mike Maxwell
University of Maryland



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[Apostolos Syropoulos]

Post by maxwell
Under Linux, run fc-list (which you might need to install, at least I
did under Ubuntu).  You might need to edit the /etc/fonts/local.conf to
add additional directories where fonts live, which fc-list wouldn't
otherwise find.

The same applies if you uses any modern Unix or Unix-like operating system.In general, Windows is one world and all other systems are another world.
A.S.

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Apostolos Syropoulos
Xanthi, Greece