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< [[TeX_Distributions#alternative_TeX_processors| Alternative TeX Processors]] | [[Fonts in XeTeX- Old Content]] | [[Encodings and Regimes in XeTeX]] >
[http://scripts.sil.org/xetex XeTeX] is a new TeX engine by Jonathan Kew and SIL International, which combines eTeX with pervasive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode Unicode] support and advanced font support (multiple language, special AAT and OpenType font features, trivial font installation). It does this by leveraging [http://developer.apple.com/fonts/ Apple Advanced Typography] support on MacOSX, so it gains its strength in features by sacrificing TeX's usual cross-platformness, and some backwards compatibility.
==XeTeX and ConTeXt==
XeTeX is a potential replacement for pdfeTeX in the ConTeXt workflow. It does not support all of the fancy PDF features found with pdfeTeX, but it supports most core features (see [[#Features|Features]] and [[#Issues|Issues]] on this page). Common consensus is that for text with non-heavy mathematics needs, XeTeX should be an interesting alternative.
 
Note that XeTeX uses [[Glossary#mkii|mkii]] and [[Glossary#LuaTeX|LuaTeX]] uses [[Glossary#mkiv|mkiv]] ;
in principle mkii is frozen so new features and improvements will only
happen in mkiv.
 
===Where to get XeTeX?===
* <b>Mac OS X</b>: The best and easiest way of installing XeTeX on MacOSX is by installing [http://www.tug.org/mactex/ MacTeX] (Gerben Wierda's [http://www.rna.nl/tex.html i-Installer] is no nore more supported). * <b>Linux</b>: you can download the source or binaries from [http://scripts.sil.org/xetex_linux SIL] or use the [http://www.pragma-ade.comnl/download-1.htm Stand-alone distribution from Pragma] ([http://www.pragma-ade.comnl/context/install/linuxtex.zip linuxtex.zip])* <b>Windows</b>: Not officially released yet, but available on [http://www.fsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jp/kakuto/win32-ptex/web2c75-e.html W32TeX] distribution and [http://miktex.org/ MiKTeX] distributions and can be used with stand-alone distr. See [[Windows Installation#XeTeX Installation|XeTeX Installation]] under Windows for detailed installation instructions.
Note:
====MacOSX: using TeXShop====
The fairly most common editor under MacOSX for TeX-related applications is [http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/ TeXShop], which is bundled in the MacTeX installation and typically does not require any specific setting to be used with ConTeXt. Using ConTeXt with XeTeX (typically referred as XeConTeXt) in TeXShop needs a little hack, as TeXShop has to include <{{cmd>|texexec --xtx</cmd> }} among its available typesetting engines.
You need to create an ASCII file named XeConTeXt.engine and put it under ~Library/TeXShop/Engines/. The file must contain
<texcode>
===Document Encoding===
XeTeX is able to handle UTF-8 or UTF-16 documents natively, without any interference or configuration from ConTeXt. Actually, in XeTeX utf-8 already is the default and the only supported regime.
ConTeX+XeTeX currently simply ignores the <{{cmd>|enableregime</cmd> }} command, assuming you are using utf-8 (''addendum'': not entirely true now; see http://archive.contextgarden.net/message/20071123.134401.73a53235.en.html ss.). For what is concerning encoding, the best practice is to encode the tex file with utf-8 (''addendum'' bis: '''this''' remains true!).
A planned feature is that ConTeXt allows you to use the regime of your choice (this is possible because of ConTeXt's use of named glyphs), so documents in latin-1 or even MacRoman encoding could be supported, given the proper <{{cmd>|enableregime</cmd> }} command. For characters out of reach of the given regime, you can use accents (like <tt>\'e</tt>) and/or named glyphs (<tt>\eacute</tt>).
Although XeTeX would prefer that you key in documents in full Unicode, with things like '''&mdash;''' and '''&ldquo;''' in the place of <tt>---</tt> and <tt>``</tt>, respectively. This is not always so feasible, so it provides a mechanism for inserting these "TeXish" ligatures. In a font specification, you need to insert <tt>mapping=tex-text</tt> as one of the font features. This is already done for all existing typescripts in <tt>type-xtx</tt>, but you should be aware of this concern if designing your own documents.
===Features===
From there, things proceed fairly normally. [[Fonts in XeTeX- Old Content]] get their own page, as they introduce some new features. Here are some new features that might be of interest:
; Unicode symbol sets : While not exclusive to XeTeX, exactly, you get easy access to named Unicode [[Symbols]]. XeTeX-specific commands switch to Apple-supplied default fonts for these symbols.
; Basic Bi-directional text : ConTeXt support for this was ushered in with XeTeX, but is fundamentally an eTeX feature. There is tentative support for direction changing with <tt>\pardir TRT</tt> and <tt>TLT</tt>, emulating Omega/Aleph's commands. These should be seen as low-level commands, to be intgrated with language switching, for example. There is a bad feature interaction between this and specials (e.g., color) support.
; Alternate script number conversions : Hans introduced some clever machinery into the conversion macros, allowing one to efficiently define a conversion vector (<{{cmd>|defineconversionvector</cmd>}}) for script-specific numbers. Arabic and Persian are provided.
; More Unicode : In the process of preparing XeTeX support in ConTeXt, many more Unicode glyphs were named and introduced into ConTeXt, including some Greek, Cyrillic, and Vietnamese.
; [[Fonts in XeTeX- Old Content|Typescripts]] : There are a number of typescripts defined to get a XeTeX user started.
===Issues===
; Hoefler Italic is too fancy : Hoefler Italic has swashes enabled by default. This is actually a product of Apple's implementation of the font. If this is unsuitable for you, add the feature: <tt>Smart Swashes=!Line Final Swashes</tt> to the HoeflerItalic font synonym in type-xtx.
[[Category:TeX extensions]][[Category:{{Installation]]navbox}}[[Category:Fonts]][[Category:InternationalOld Content]]

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