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I am using TeXLive 2011 on Linux with a font called sasmono. When I compile my LaTeX source with xelatex, it reports

 (./myoutput.lst
Missing character: There is no ^^83 in font [/u/tiarno/tests/sasmono/sasmono.tt
f]/ICU:!

My LaTeX source:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\begin{document}

some text

{
    \fontspec[
  Path = "/u/tiarno/tests/sasmono/",
  Extension = .ttf]{sasmono}
\input{myoutput.lst}
}

\end{document}

The sasmono.ttf file is in the specified directory. When I open that file in FontBook on my Mac or in the font viewer on Windows, it shows a horizontal box-drawing character in slot 0x83 (131 decimal). The resulting PDF shows little boxes where the glyph would normally be.

The external file myoutput.lst is generated from another program. Am I missing something in my xelatex set up or maybe there's a problem with the font?

Tim A
  • 1,945
  • U+0083 doesn't correspond to any character in Unicode. – egreg Jan 31 '12 at 17:05
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    Using Windows Character Map, when I hover over the character I'm talking about the tooltip says:U+0192: Latin Small Letter F with hook Keystroke: Alt-0131. Even though it says that stuff, the character is actually the horizontal box drawing character. As i said, this is a 'special' font. – Tim A Jan 31 '12 at 17:07
  • Check that the external file is UTF-8 encoded. – egreg Jan 31 '12 at 17:08
  • I don't think it is in utf-8. I open it with notepad+ (it opens automatically in ansi) and I see the small letter f with hook. I switch encoding to utf-8 but the display doesn't change. How can I tell the encoding? It was generated on a windows machine, but it is supposed to be used with this sasmono font. – Tim A Jan 31 '12 at 17:19
  • The best you can do is to produce a PDF with some other program and include that. XeLaTeX supports non OpenType fonts, but they need to be installed "the old way". – egreg Jan 31 '12 at 17:23
  • ah, if i install them the old way (converting to tfm/pfb) then either xelatex or pdflatex should find the right glyph? – Tim A Jan 31 '12 at 17:34
  • I guess so; but you should also look at the documentation of \XeTeXinputencoding if the file is not UTF-8; texdoc xetex or look for XeTeX-reference.pdf – egreg Jan 31 '12 at 17:41
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    Well I think that it is currently quite unclear if the problem is with the font (e.g. if this font is to old and doesn't use unicode) or with the encoding of the file myoutput.lst. Try if the document works if you use e.g. \fontspec{Arial}: if yes get if possible an open type version of your font. If it fails with Arial too, use as egreg suggested \XeTeXinputencoding to declare the encoding of the file (or reencode the file). – Ulrike Fischer Jan 31 '12 at 20:06
  • @UlrikeFisher, I agree--I don't know where the problem lies. I don't have Arial on the linux machine, but when I tried \fontspec{DejaVu Sans} I get Warning Invalid CMap mapping entry. (ignored) and the pdf still shows the boxes instead of the glyph. I've tried \XeTeXinputencoding using bytes, and cp1252 with the same results. I thought bytes had to work, so I am at a loss. I know the glyph is in the font at position x83; I can see it in FontBook. This is an old, specially commissioned font from BitStream in order to have the box characters available in certain slot positions. – Tim A Feb 01 '12 at 15:12
  • This looks 'too localised' to me: I can't see how we can help as the font is so unusual. – Joseph Wright Apr 15 '12 at 10:48

0 Answers0