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When I started using TeX, it was easy to build. Today I discovered that I can use different flavor of LaTeX to build my (La)TeX files. Is there a general rule of which flavor I should consider for a regular project (let say a letter to the Tax Office)?

With inputenc and fontenc I was able to use unicode so why should I consider XeLaTeX or LuaTeX instead?

nowox
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    There are several questions on the site about pdfTeX/XeTeX/LuaTeX or combinations thereof. There's no 'hard' rule as to which engine you should use, so if you are happy with a workflow then you should stick with it. (I use a combination of engines depending on my use case: for documents in English I'm quite happy with pdfTeX in most cases.) – Joseph Wright Aug 25 '15 at 13:21
  • @JosephWright It would be interesting to know your choices depending on your use cases. – nowox Aug 25 '15 at 13:33

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As Joseph said in the comments there are no fixed rules to decide on an engine. I tend to use pdflatex in most cases but switch to xelatex if I want to use an OpenType font that is not available for pdflatex.

An argument to use pdflatex might be that microtype has more power on that engine (as far as I know). While an argument for xelatex (or latex) is the native support of Unicode and the ability to use any font.

Tobi
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  • Good news, I did not know otf fonts are now supported. Bad news, xelatex is another engine to put on my list. – nowox Aug 25 '15 at 13:51