View source for XeTeX

{{short description|TeX typesetting engine}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2013}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = XeTeX
| logo                   = XeTeX Logo.svg
| logo size              = 200px
| author                 = Jonathan Kew
| developer              =
| latest release version = 0.999997
| latest release date    = {{Start date and age|2025|03|07}}
| programming language   = [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] ([[WEB]]), [[C (programming language)|C]] and [[C++]]
| operating_system       = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Typesetting]]
| license                = [[MIT License]]
| website                = {{URL|https://xetex.sourceforge.net}}
}}

'''XeTeX''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|iː|t|ɛ|x}} {{respell|ZEE|tekh}}<ref>{{cite interview|last=Kew |first=Jonathan |url=http://tug.org/interviews/interview-files/jonathan-kew.html |interviewer=Dave Walden |title=Jonathan Kew |work=TUG |date=April 3, 2007 |access-date=2009-11-20}}</ref>
or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|iː|t|ɛ|k}}; see also [[TeX#Pronunciation and spelling|Pronouncing and writing "TeX"]]), sometimes stylized as '''{{Stylized LaTeX|xetex}}''', is a [[TeX]] [[typesetting|typesetting engine]] using [[Unicode]] and supporting modern font technologies such as [[OpenType]], [[Graphite (SIL)|Graphite]] and [[Apple Advanced Typography]] (AAT). It was originally written by Jonathan Kew and is distributed under the [[MIT License|X11 free software license]].<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://sourceforge.net/p/xetex/code/ci/master/tree/source/texk/web2c/xetexdir/COPYING | title=XeTeX COPYING file | access-date=2013-03-18}}</ref>

Initially developed for [[macOS|Mac OS X]] only, it is now available for all major platforms. It natively supports Unicode and the input file is assumed to be in [[UTF-8]] encoding by default. XeTeX can use any fonts installed in the operating system without configuring [[TeX font metric]]s, and can make direct use of advanced typographic features of [[OpenType]], [[Apple Advanced Typography|AAT]] and [[Graphite (SIL)|Graphite]] technologies such as alternative [[glyph]]s and [[swash (typography)|swashes]], optional or historic [[Typographical ligature|ligatures]], and variable font weights. Support for OpenType local typographic conventions (<code>locl</code> tag) is also present. XeTeX even allows raw OpenType feature tags to be passed to the font. [[Microtypography]] is also supported. XeTeX also supports typesetting mathematics using Unicode fonts that contain special mathematical features, such as [[Cambria (typeface)#Cambria Math|Cambria Math]] or [[Asana-Math|Asana Math]] as an alternative to the traditional mathematical typesetting based on TeX font metrics.

LaTeX developers have announced that they no longer support new LaTeX functionalities on the XeTeX engine, and encourage users to migrate to [[LuaTeX]], another Unicode-supporting engine.<ref name="ltnews40">{{cite magazine |author=LaTeX Project Team |date=2024-11-01 |title=News from the “LaTeX Tagged PDF” project |url=https://www.latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews40.pdf |work=LaTeX News |issue=40 |access-date=2025-05-22}}</ref>

==Mode of operation==
[[Image:Rare and ancient ligatures in XeTeX.svg|thumbnail|280px|Rendering of [[Typographical ligature|ligatures]] and [[List of typographic features#Ligation and alternate forms features intended for all scripts|contextual alternates]] in XeTeX using an [[OpenType]] font ([[Hoefler Text]]).]]

XeTeX processes input in two stages. In the first stage XeTeX outputs an [[extended DVI]] (<code>xdv</code>) file, which is then converted to [[PDF]] by a driver. In the default operating mode the <code>xdv</code> output is piped directly to the driver without producing any user-visible intermediate files. It is possible to run just the first stage of XeTeX and save the <code>xdv</code>, although {{As of|2008|7|lc=on}} there are no viewers capable of displaying the intermediate format.

Two backend drivers are available to generate PDF from an <code>xdv</code> file:
* xdv2pdf, which uses [[Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging|ATSUI]] and [[QuickTime#QuickTime framework|QuickTime]] frameworks, and only works on [[Mac OS X]].
* xdvipdfmx, a modified version of [[dvipdfmx]], which uses [[FreeType]]. This driver works on all platforms.

Starting from version 0.997, the default driver is xdvipdfmx on all platforms. As of version 0.9999, xdv2pdf is no longer supported and its development has been discontinued.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://tug.org/pipermail/xetex/2013-March/024120.html | last=Hosny | first=Khaled | title=Future of xdv2pdf driver on Mac | date=March 12, 2013 | access-date=2013-06-07}}</ref>

XeTeX works well with both [[LaTeX]] and [[ConTeXt]] macro packages. It is usually invoked through <code>xelatex</code> when using LaTeX. It is usually used with the <code>fontspec</code> package, which provides a configurable interface for font selection, and allows complex font choices to be named and later reused.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/xetex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.pdf| last=Robertson| first=Will| date=August 9, 2008| title=The fontspec package| access-date=2009-01-08| archive-date=February 5, 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205222415/http://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/xetex/latex/fontspec/fontspec.pdf| url-status=dead}}</ref>

XeTeX is bundled with [[TeX Live]], [[MacTeX]], [[MiKTeX]] and [[Lyx]] (see the [[XeTeX#History|History]] below for dates and versions).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/XeTeX|title=LyX wiki {{!}} LyX / XeTeX|website=wiki.lyx.org|access-date=2017-08-25}}</ref>

==Example==
The following is an example of XeLaTeX source and rendered output. The typeface used is [[SIL Open Font License|OFL]]-licensed font [[Linux Libertine]]. The text is to be processed by the command <code>xelatex</code>.

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
<syntaxhighlight lang="latex">
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O}
\begin{document}
\section{Unicode support}

\subsection{English}
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
 
\subsection{Íslenska}
Hver maður er borinn frjáls og jafn öðrum að virðingu og réttindum.
 
\subsection{Русский}  
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и 
правах.
 
\subsection{Tiếng Việt}
Tất cả mọi người sinh ra đều được tự do và bình đẳng về nhân phẩm và 
quyền lợi.
 
\subsection{Ελληνικά} 
Ὅλοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεννιοῦνται ἐλεύθεροι καὶ ἴσοι στὴν ἀξιοπρέπεια 
καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα.

\section{Legacy syntax}
When he goes---``Hello World!''\\
She replies---“Hello dear!”
 
\section{Ligatures}
\fontspec[Ligatures={Common, Historic}]{Linux Libertine O Italic}
Questo è strano assai!
 
\section{Numerals}
\fontspec[Numbers={OldStyle}]{Linux Libertine O}Old style: 1234567\\
\fontspec[Numbers={Lining}]{Linux Libertine O}Lining: 1234567
 
\end{document}
</syntaxhighlight>
{{col-break}}
[[Image:XeTeX sample.svg|500px|none|The rendered output.]]
{{col-end}}

==Arabic support==

XeTeX also supports [[right-to-left]] scripts, such as [[Arabic]]. One way of rendering Arabic in XeTeX is to use the package arabxetex. In order to do so, the Arabic is placed inside the following:

<syntaxhighlight lang="latex">
\begin{arab}[utf]
.
.
.
\end{arab}
</syntaxhighlight>

The following code illustrates this:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
<syntaxhighlight lang="latex">
\documentclass[12pt,fleqn,titlepage,twoside,a4paper]{book}
\usepackage{etex}
\usepackage{amsfonts,amsmath,amssymb,graphicx}
\usepackage{txfonts}
\usepackage[centering,includeheadfoot,margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{tabvar}
\usepackage{arabxetex}
%\newfontfamily{\arabicfont}[Script=Arabic,Scale=1.5]{Traditional Arabic}

\parindent = 0pt

\begin{document}

\begin{arab}[utf]
\chapter*{\textarab[utf]{ حِكَم من تَجمـيعي }}
\section*{\textarab[utf]{   شِعر    }}

  أديـن بدين الحـــب أنـى تــوجـهت ركـائبه \qquad فالحـــب دينــي و إيماني\\
 لنا أسوة في بشر هند و اختها و قيس و ليلى \qquad ثـــــم مـــــي و غـــيــــلان
\end{arab}

\end{document}
</syntaxhighlight>
{{col-break}}
[[File:Xetex arabic text.png|500px|none|Arabic text using XeTeX]]
{{col-end}}

== Features ==
In bibliographic files (see below the BibTeX example) you can use Unicode entities and call them with their native scripting, for example <nowiki>\cite{Ekstrøm}</nowiki>, instead of a transliterated ASCII form like <nowiki>\cite{Ekstrom}</nowiki> which is mandatory using the [[pdfTeX]] engine.
<syntaxhighlight lang=bibtex>
% Encoding: UTF8
@ARTICLE(Ekstrom,
        AUTHOR    = "Author w",
        TITLE     = "{Ekstrøm title}",
        JOURNAL   = "Ekstr{\o}m Journal",
        YEAR      = 1965,
    note      = {Working with pdflatex}
        )
 @ARTICLE(Ekstrøm,
        AUTHOR    = "Author Ekstr{\o}m",
        TITLE     = "{Ekstrøm title}",
        JOURNAL   = "Ekstrøm Journal",
        YEAR      = "1965",
    note      = {Not working with pdflatex but with xelatex}
        )
</syntaxhighlight>

==History==

XeTeX was initially released for [[Mac OS X]] only in April 2004<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kew |first=Jonathan |orig-date=May 2nd, 2006 |title=The XETEX project: typesetting for the rest of the world |url=https://static-scripts.sil.org/cms/sites/nrsi/download/xetex_bachotex2006_paper/kew-bacho |journal=XIV Ogólnopolska Konferencja Polskiej Grupy Użytkowników Systemu TEX |pages=4-5 |no-pp=y}}</ref> with built-in [[Apple Advanced Typography|AAT]] and [[Unicode]] support. In 2005 support for OpenType layout features was first introduced. During BachoTeX 2006 a version for [[Linux]] was announced, which was ported to [[Microsoft Windows]] by Akira Kakuto a few months later, and finally included into [[TeX Live]] 2007 for all major platforms. XeTeX is also supported by [[LyX]] since version 2.0<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/NewInLyX20#backends|title=LyX wiki {{!}} LyX / New in LyX 2.0|website=wiki.lyx.org|access-date=2017-08-25}}</ref> and shipped with [[MiKTeX]] since version 2.7.
As of the inclusion in [[TeX Live]], XeTeX supports most macro packages written for [[LaTeX]], [[OpenType]], [[TrueType]] and [[PostScript]] fonts without any specific setup procedure.
Version 0.998 announced at [[BachoTeX]] 2008 supports [[Unicode normalization]] via the <code>\XeTeXinputnormalization</code> command.
Version 0.9999, released in May 2013, switched from [[International Components for Unicode|ICU]] Layout&nbsp;Engine to [[HarfBuzz]] for [[OpenType]] layout, and Graphite2 engine for [[Graphite (SIL)|Graphite]] layout, as well [[Core Text]] framework instead of [[ATSUI]] on Mac OS X.

XeTeX's original [[SourceForge]] code repository has not seen changes since January 20, 2020.<ref>{{cite web|
url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/xetex/|
title=XeTeX - Unicode-based TeX Code|
work=SourceForge|
date=May 21, 2024|
access-date=2024-05-27|
language=en}}</ref> It's still included in the TeX Live repository and occasionally receives fixes, but there have been no major developments. LaTeX developers have stated that it won't be supported in their ongoing effort to produce [[tagged PDF]],<ref name="ltnews40" /> and one developer consider it unmaintained.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wright |first=Joseph |date=2024-11-05 |title=Engine news from the LaTeX Project |url=https://www.texdev.net/2024/11/05/engine-news-from-the-latex-project |website=Some TeX Developments |access-date=2025-05-21}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

* [[LuaTeX]]
* [[Omega (TeX)]]
* [[Typeface]]
* [[TeXworks]] – A multi-platform, Unicode editor designed for working with TeX files, written by the author of XeTeX.
* [[List of TeX extensions]]

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* M. Goossens (Ed.) (2008) [http://xml.web.cern.ch/XML/lgc2/xetexmain.pdf The XeTeX Companion: TeX meets OpenType and Unicode].

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{Official website}}
* [http://nitens.org/taraborelli/latex The Beauty of LaTeX]: illustrates XeTeX use with professional fonts.
* [https://www.tug.org/xetexshowcase/ XeTeX Showcase at TUG].

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