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Is there a good (possibly free) opentype font out there with small-caps figures and small question and exclamation marks; and could I use them with xelatex + fontspec?

Or, better still, is there a workaround I can use with one of the excellent free fonts like Linux Libertine or TeX Gyre Pagella? I need this for my page headers, which I want to typeset in all-smallcaps; therefore it would be useful to have some kind of mechanism I can put in my pagestyle macro. Shrinking all-caps is not the way -- in Linux Libertine, for example, lining numbers and question and exclamation marks are noticably smaller than the capital letters, and anyway, scaled caps don't look that good.

Based on this answer I tried the following, which seems to work within normal text, but not in the pagestyle macro (I'm not very comfortable around \catcode and \lccode, so it's more or less copy and paste and trial and error; maybe it just needs the odd \protect strewn in?):

File mysmallcaps.sty:

\ProvidesPackage{mysmallcaps}
\newenvironment{mylcsc}{%
    \addfontfeature{Letters=UppercaseSmallCaps,Letters=SmallCaps,LetterSpace=2,WordSpace=1.2,Numbers=Lining}%
    \catcode`\'=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`\'\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\raisebox{-0.45ex}{\kern0.03em'}}}%
    \catcode`!=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`!\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.75]{\kern0.01em!}}}%
    \catcode`?=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`?\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.75]{\kern0.02em?}}}%
    \catcode`1=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`1\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{1}}}%
    \catcode`2=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`2\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{2}}}%
    \catcode`3=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`3\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{3}}}%
    \catcode`4=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`4\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{4}}}%
    \catcode`5=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`5\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{5}}}%
    \catcode`6=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`6\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{6}}}%
    \catcode`7=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`7\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{7}}}%
    \catcode`8=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`8\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{8}}}%
    \catcode`9=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`9\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{9}}}%
    \catcode`0=\active\begingroup\lccode`\~=`0\lowercase{\endgroup\def~{\protect\scalebox{1}[0.8]{0}}}%
}{}
% redefining \ps@headings like this does _not_ work:
\def\ps@mynewheadings{%
    \ps@headings
    \let\@oddfoot\@empty\let\@evenfoot\@empty
    \def\@evenhead{%
        \thepage\hfil
        \normalfont\small\begin{mylcsc}\MakeLowercase{\leftmark}\end{mylcsc}%
    }%
    \def\@oddhead{%
        {\normalfont\small\begin{mylcsc}\MakeLowercase{\rightmark}\end{mylcsc}}%
        \hfil\thepage%
    }%
}
\pagestyle{mynewheadings}

File test.tex:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Numbers=OldStyle, Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O}
\usepackage{mysmallcaps}
\begin{document}
    \chapter{Here comes Orwell's 1984!}
    \section{Whatever happened in 336\,\textsc{bc} that made the high priest blush?}%
    Can't? Won't! 0123456789\\[3mm]
    \emph{Small-caps with homemade corrections:}\\
    \begin{mylcsc}Can't? Won't! 0123456789\end{mylcsc}\\[3mm]
    \emph{Scaled all-caps:}\\
    \scalebox{0.65}[0.65]{\addfontfeature{Numbers=Lining, LetterSpace=4}\MakeUppercase{Can't? Won't! 0123456789}}\\[12mm]
    \lipsum\lipsum
\end{document}
\endinput
Community
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Blackface
  • 781
  • 3
    Maybe I'm deaf, dumb, crippled and blind (anybody remember the gread Blood, Sweat & Tears?), but I don't get what you want. If you'd like to have whatever in smallcaps, why don't you just write something like \textscs{bla} and you are done? – Keks Dose Jun 17 '14 at 07:45
  • Traditionally, old style figures are used with small caps. Just use the OpenType feature +onum or Figures=OldStyle in the options for fontspec. – ChrisS Jun 17 '14 at 07:50
  • @KeksDose Many fonts do not set "figures" (aka numbers) in a smaller size with \textsc. For example, in CM, the default font, 123 \textsc{123} shows no difference. – Steven B. Segletes Jun 17 '14 at 10:08
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    Here's an answer that gives some food for thought: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/171470/good-small-caps-font-to-use-with-arev/171545#171545 Handmade small caps that uses different horizontal and vertical scaling to achieve a reasonable result. – Steven B. Segletes Jun 17 '14 at 10:17
  • @Keksdose, the idea is to have a page header in small-capsonly, without any uppercase letters and without (m)any bits poking above the x-height or below the baseline. That way, I get a very straight horizintal line of text at the top of the page, which is legible, but not easily confused with the main block of text, and with no bristles and roughness to catch the eye accidentally. – Blackface Jun 17 '14 at 13:34
  • @ChrisS, see the comment above: "oldstyle" figures will stick out above and below the smallcaps. – Blackface Jun 17 '14 at 13:46
  • @Steven B. Segletes, I found that Libertine has special figures for an uppercase context, then I might be able to scale the whole text, but how do I access them? – Blackface Jun 17 '14 at 13:46
  • I am not sure on how to, for example, import just the figures from a different fontface, but there is certainly much discussion of libertine on this site, which you can search with http://tex.stackexchange.com/search?q=libertine – Steven B. Segletes Jun 17 '14 at 13:55
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    Perhaps this answer is of help: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/128767/libertine-newtxmath-and-text-oldstyle-figures-in-headers – Steven B. Segletes Jun 17 '14 at 14:05

2 Answers2

7

Even among commercial fonts, few have small cap figures and punctuation marks, but the following do, and I’ve used them successfully with luatex and xetex: Augustin, Cartier Book Pro, Jannon 10 Pro, and Neacademia Latin. In the case of Jannon 10 Pro, you have to specify Script=Default in your invocation of fontspec for the feature to work.

Here is a demonstration, from which you can see that Neacademia and Cartier have small cap figures whose ascending and descending parts are tucked in more (Cartier) or less (Neacademia), while the small cap figures in Jannon and Augustin are lining.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Contextuals=Alternate]{Neacademia Latin}

\newfontfamily\jannon[
  Script=Default,
  Contextuals=Inner,
  Numbers=OldStyle,
  ItalicFeatures={Contextuals={WordInitial,WordFinal}}
]{Jannon 10 Pro}

\newfontfamily\augustin[
  BoldFont={Augustin Bold},
  BoldItalicFont={Augustin Bold Italic},
  BoldFeatures={SmallCapsFont={Augustin Bold Small Caps}},
  ItalicFont={Augustin Italic},
  SmallCapsFont={Augustin Small Caps}
]{Augustin-Regular}

\newfontfamily\cartier[BoldFont={* Medium}]{Cartier Book Pro}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{rl}
Neacademia Latin & George Orwell, 1984?! \textsc{george orwell, 1984?!}\\
\jannon Jannon 10 Pro & \jannon George Orwell, 1984?! \textsc{george orwell, 1984?!}\\
\cartier Cartier Book Pro & \cartier George Orwell, 1984?! \textsc{george orwell, 1984?!}\\
\augustin Augustin & \augustin George Orwell, 1984?! \textsc{george orwell, 1984?!}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

output of the code above

Thérèse
  • 12,679
1

Based on some of the links in @Steven's comments to my OP I've come up with not really a solution but a working (for me) workaround (the result needs to be printed or viewed in high resolution/magnification, because the hinting seems to differ considerably from the unadulterated glyphs):

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[landscape]{geometry}
\usepackage{xltxtra}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{newunicodechar}
\newif\ifsc\scfalse
% Get me my capital ß:
\newunicodechar{ß}{\ss}
\let\oldSS\SS
\renewcommand{\SS}{\iffontchar\font"1E9E \symbol{"1E9E}\else \oldSS\fi}
%
\newcommand{\Ziffer}[2]{\ifsc\iffontchar\font#1 \symbol{#1}\else #2\fi\else #2\fi}
\newcommand{\Null}{\Ziffer{"E108}{0}}%
\newcommand{\Eins}{\Ziffer{"E109}{1}}%
\newcommand{\Zwei}{\Ziffer{"E10A}{2}}%
\newcommand{\Drei}{\Ziffer{"E10B}{3}}%
\newcommand{\Vier}{\Ziffer{"E10C}{4}}%
\newcommand{\Fuenf}{\Ziffer{"E10D}{5}}%
\newcommand{\Sechs}{\Ziffer{"E10E}{6}}%
\newcommand{\Sieben}{\Ziffer{"E10F}{7}}%
\newcommand{\Acht}{\Ziffer{"E110}{8}}%
\newcommand{\Neun}{\Ziffer{"E111}{9}}%
%
\setmainfont[Numbers={OldStyle,Proportional}, Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O}
%
\newcommand{\fakesc}[1]{{%
    \sctrue%
    \addfontfeature{%
        LetterSpace=2,
        Numbers={Lining, Proportional},
        FakeStretch=1.157,
        FakeBold=1.01,
    }%
\scalebox{0.7}[0.7]{{\MakeUppercase{#1}}}%
}}
\newcommand{\testtext}{(h\Null\Eins\Zwei\Drei\Acht\Neun h)? -- Don't! -- aäbcdefghijklmnoöpqrsßtuüvwxyz}
\begin{document}\noindent
    \normalsize normal font\\
    \normalfont\LARGE \testtext\\[2mm]
    \normalsize caps\,+\,smallcaps, out of the box:\\
    \LARGE \textsc{\testtext}\\[2mm]
    \normalsize homemade smallcaps (please compare at high resolution):\\
    \LARGE \fakesc{\testtext}\\[2mm]
\end{document}
\endinput

As you can see, the resulting font works better for my purpose than the original caps+smallcaps. There's considerably less bristling -- OK, there's still ÄÖÜ and Q and J, but they are much less intrusive than in the original c+sc shape. !?() and ' behave very well. If I don't use \scalebox but an existing or custom-made extra fontsize command, the result would even hyphenate (which I don't need).

To Do: I've got the feeling that not all fonts that use symbols "E108 through "E111 use these positions to put their full cap numerals. So I guess I'll need some kind of test to generalize this and make it harmless where it doesn't apply.

Blackface
  • 781