[XeTeX] Adobe Kepler Std: Space between left paren and f

[Taylor Venable]

Hi, I am having an interesting problem when setting "(f" using XeTeX and
the Adobe Kepler Std fonts: in the resultant PDF, there is a space in
the middle, such that the output looks like "( f" instead.  I have
placed an example of the output on my website, showing several times
when the problem occurs:

http://metasyntax.net/kepler.pdf

In a PDF reader that allows character-wise selection (e.g. Evince) you
can select the space between the parenthesis and the f.  Here is the
source of that PDF above, which I compiled simply with "xetex <file>":

\font\kepler="Kepler Std:+liga" \kepler Regular, Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std:-liga" \kepler Regular, No Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Bold:+liga" \kepler Regular Bold, Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Bold:-liga" \kepler Regular Bold, No Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Italic:+liga" \kepler Regular Italic, Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Italic:-liga" \kepler Regular Italic, No Ligatures: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std:+smcp" \kepler Regular Small Caps: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Caption:+liga" \kepler Caption: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Subhead:+liga" \kepler Subhead: (f) (fi)\par
\font\kepler="Kepler Std Display:+liga" \kepler Display: (f) (fi)\par
\end

All instances of "(f" show up in the output as "( f" with the exception
of the small capitals.  With the fi ligature, there is a visible space
equivalent in size to that before the standalone f, but the space isn't
selectable in Evince like it is before standalone f.

Here's the output of "xetex -version":

XeTeX 3.1415926-2.2-0.9995.2 (TeX Live 2009)
kpathsea version 5.0.0
Copyright 2009 SIL International and Jonathan Kew.
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the XeTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the XeTeX source.
Primary author of XeTeX: Jonathan Kew.
Compiled with ICU version 3.8.1 [with modifications for XeTeX]
Compiled with zlib version 1.2.3; using 1.2.3
Compiled with FreeType2 version 2.3.9; using 2.3.9
Compiled with fontconfig version 2.6.0; using 2.6.0
Compiled with libpng version 1.2.39; using 1.2.39
Compiled with xpdf version 3.02pl3

And the result of "otfinfo -i KeplerStd-Regular.otf":

Family:              Kepler Std
Subfamily:           Regular
Full name:           Kepler Std
PostScript name:     KeplerStd-Regular
Version:             Version 2.020;PS 2.000;hotconv 1.0.51;makeotf.lib2.0.18671
Unique ID:           2.020;ADBE;KeplerStd-Regular
Designer:            Robert Slimbach
Vendor URL:          http://www.adobe.com/type/
Trademark:           Kepler is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
Copyright:           © 1996, 2003 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.
License URL:         http://www.adobe.com/type/legal.html

There are newer versions according to the Kepler readme file at:

http://store4.adobe.com/type/browser/html/readmes/KeplerStdReadMe.html

But none of the changes listed since 2.020 seem significant to this
problem.  I note that this problem does not occur with any other fonts,
nor any other combination of characters that I've found.  This seems
like a very strange problem, thanks in advance for any ideas on how to
fix this.

-- 
Taylor Venable
http://metasyntax.net/