XeTeX: past, present, future


Jonathan Kew
SIL International
Play (46min) Download: M4V | MP3

What is XeTeX?

  • An extended TEX typesetting engine
  • Using modern font technologies
    • TrueType, OpenType
    • no TeX-specific font installation or configuration needed
  • With “smart rendering” support
    • Apple Advanced Typography (AAT)
    • OpenType Layout for typographic features and complex scripts
    • modern fonts are more than a collection of glyph images
  • Supporting the Unicode character set
    • inherently multilingual/multiscript typesetting system
    • greatly simplifies language support