Any #xelatex experts out there? I am having a VERY weird experience with fontspec.

I write

\setsansfont{NameOfFont}

And everything works as it should. Except when "NameOfFont" is the font I actually want, when everything *except* \textbf works correctly. Then it just renders normal weight text instead.

Nothing in the log file suggests any weirdness.

If I explicitly spell out the path and the filenames for all the weights then it works correctly; but I want other people to use this so that's not really a viable option.

The most confounding thing is that it *was* working, and I do not know what changed. My best guess is that some cache somewhere needs to be blown away... but Xelatex doesn't use a font cache.... I think?

Any ideas?

p.s. using a Mac.

#latex #fonts #fontspec #xetex

And finally, babel 25.14 simplifies how to declare languages. Something like \usepackage[marathi]{babel} is enough, without provide=*. Remember lazy loading is often better for handling secondary languages.

https://latex3.github.io/babel/news/whats-new-in-babel-25.14.html

#texlatex #luatex #xetex #multilingual #babel #typesetting

@saxnot There are several reasons. One of them is #xetex lacks a true #bidi model. But more importantly, #luatex provides tools for #PDF not available in #pdftex or #xetex. A couple of links: https://www.texdev.net/2024/11/05/engine-news-from-the-latex-project • https://latex3.github.io/babel/guides/migrating-xetex-luatex.html

#texlatex

Just wondering how can I persuade #chatgpt and #copilot that #babel does fully support #Unicode and #OpenType, and works seamless with #luatex and #xetex. 😖

#multilingual #texlatex

Now that #luatex is the recommended engine for LaTeX, you can find in the #babel site minimal localized documents for about 300 languages ​​and 45 scripts. There are also basic guides on how to migrate from #pdftex and #xetex.

#multilingual #texlatex #localization

https://latex3.github.io/babel/guides/index-locale.html