Indexing fonts

[Peter Flynn]

On 20/12/2022 14:15, Marcel Fabian Krüger wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 04:20:33PM -0700, Karl Berry wrote:
>> \XeTeX\ and Lua\TeX\ can use any font installed on the system, not
>> just those in the \TeX\ trees. Such system fonts (not part of \TL)
>> are usually accessed by giving the font name, e.g.,
>> `\code{Liberation Serif}', although the system filename can also be
>> used.
> 
> The filename remark is true for LuaLaTeX / luaotfload, XeTeX allows 
> system filenames only if the system font directories are in the
> kpathsea search path which normally isn't the case (on Linux at
> least, I think it's more common on Windows to add the system fonts
> there).

I don't know where kpathsea habitually looks, but in a Debian 
texlive-full installation system font filenames work in XeLaTeX with 
fontspec (the only way I have tried them). System font filenames would 
normally be absolute, so I see no reason for them not to work. I am 
assuming that font names work only because they have been indexed by 
fc-cache.

Fortunately I am not documenting Lua[La]TeX.

Peter