Is it possible to make TIPA's fonts available to fontspec?

Question

I've finally accepted that it's not worth trying to use TIPA with fontspec, however, I do like its font. Specifically, I wish to continue using Latin Modern/Computer Modern as much as possible and, naturally, I don't really want a separate font for IPA. Worse still, there are some glyphs that simply aren't available in Latin Modern, Computer Modern, or even Computer Modern Unicode, such as the m̐, that's:

As you can see, TIPA does have the character. Computer Modern Unicode, however, does not. The "combining candrabindu" character has Unicode codepoint U+0310 and, as you can see, this codepoint is greyed out in the cm-unicode font table. (The full glyph is properly formed from a bog standard m and U+0310 combining candrabindu.)

So, suppose I forget the TIPA package and throw out the T3 encoding, can I at least use the font, either in its original metafont form, or perhaps by converting it to .TTF format?

Obviously throwing out the T3 encoding will be a not inconsiderable headache, seeing as how the glyphs will be difficult to access and the input file will likely be a mess. My input file is already a mess, though, because of the Sanskrit font I'm using, which has all of the tasty stuff in the private use area, Unicode not being ideal for Vedic Sanskrit, so I can live with that.

(Willing to accept alternative solutions, but not too willing to sacrifice Latin/Computer Modern (Unicode))

If anybody would like something to play about with, this will get TIPA to produce a m̐:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tipa}

\begin{document}

\textipa{\textdotbreve{m}}

\end{document}

And this

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{cmunrm.otf}

\begin{document}

m̐

\end{document}

Will produce an m with a box next to it.

Attempting to mix TIPA with fontspec will ... will not go well.

Well, I wasn't really sure what kind of MWE I could supply when asking for a way to convert TIPAs fonts to .TTF, or have fontspec use them directly (I believe the answer in this case is usually convert them to .TTF. Unfortunately, the T3 encoding appears to me to make that more difficult). But as I'm often to be found around the site asking for MWEs, I've given something to experiment with — Au101, Dec 10 '15 at 00:48
You could give an MnWE instead i.e. I'd like this to work, but it doesn't.... — cfr, Dec 10 '15 at 00:50
Sadly, I believe I already know from this that what I would like to work isn't going to work. I should have linked to that question in the first place, really, sorry about that. But the solution there is: use computer modern unicode, TIPA won't play with fontspec. But cm-unicode does not have everything I need. So, I need either to abandon computer modern (and friends), or make TIPA's fonts work with fontspec, and that's an under the bonnet font-y kind of a job, rather than a LaTeX code sort of a job — Au101, Dec 10 '15 at 00:54
Sorry, but I'm not seeing much development going on in the CMU fonts. :( Would typing \dotbreve{m} be good? — egreg, Dec 10 '15 at 00:54
@egreg it gives the same output (m with box), because - I assume - cm-unicode does not have the glyph. You can hack it together with 0306 (combining breve) and 0307 (combining dot above) but that's scraping the bottom of the barrel isn't it? — Au101, Dec 10 '15 at 00:56
@Au101 I was thinking about defining a new accent \dotbreve from a special encoding (that would use the TIPA fonts, but specially set up). Not something to do so late at night. — egreg, Dec 10 '15 at 00:58
@egreg I'd be very happy to use that if you know how to make it fly. Personally I always liked ASCII-only input and control sequences, but I accepted I was in the minority there and tried biting the bullet and switching to cm-unicode. Unfortunately, its character set is a bit under populated ;) — Au101, Dec 10 '15 at 01:00

egreg · Answer 1 · 2015-12-10T14:44:57.570

7

You can fake the accent (until you're able to convince the maintainers of cm-unicode into adding it to the fonts).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{cmunrm.otf}

% breve=02D8
% dot=02D9

\DeclareRobustCommand{\dotbreve}[1]{%
  \begingroup
  \sbox0{#1}%
  \sbox2{\ooalign{\hidewidth^^^^02d8\hidewidth\cr\kern-0.025em^^^^02d9\cr}}%
  \ooalign{%
    \hidewidth\raisebox{\dimexpr\ht0-1ex}{\box2}\hidewidth\cr
    \box0\cr
  }%
  \endgroup
}

\begin{document}

\dotbreve{m}\dotbreve{g}\dotbreve{A}

\end{document}

Alternative solution: use another font just for the accent glyph.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{cmunrm.otf}
\newfontfamily{\altaccentfont}{FreeSerif}

\DeclareRobustCommand{\candrabindu}[1]{{%
  \edef\currentfont{\the\font}%
  \altaccentfont\accent"0981\currentfont#1%
}}

\begin{document}

\candrabindu{m}\candrabindu{g}\candrabindu{A}

\end{document}

You may prefer U+0310 from Linux Libertine

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{cmunrm.otf}
\newfontfamily{\altaccentfont}{Linux Libertine O}

\DeclareRobustCommand{\candrabindu}[1]{%
  {\edef\currentfont{\the\font}\altaccentfont\accent"0310\currentfont#1}%
}

\begin{document}

\candrabindu{m}\candrabindu{g}\candrabindu{A}

\end{document}

edited Dec 10 '15 at 14:44

answered Dec 10 '15 at 08:30

egreg

1,121,712

2

Don't expect to see any requests being implemented. Straight from the horse's mouth: "the development of the fonts is stopped and no further versions are expected". – Sverre Dec 10 '15 at 11:42
the first example you show is the nicest (in my opinion) except for two things: the dot is too large, and it is lower than ideal. if you could smallify the dot while keeping it centered horizontally with the top at the same level as the top of the larger dot, it would be very much nicer. – barbara beeton Dec 10 '15 at 15:01
I'm just wondering if it's possible to adapt the last part of your answer here (using Linux Libertine O for the accent) for use with italics. I've found the approach works well if I set the main font to be an italic font, but if I instead set up a specific italic font, issue \itshape and then, later, use the \candrabindu command, the accent is quite off centre – Au101 Dec 14 '15 at 01:10
@Au101 Using accents from different fonts has this problem, I'm afraid. – egreg Dec 14 '15 at 01:18
I thought you'd say that. \DeclareRobustCommand{\cb}[1]{% {\edef\currentfont{\the\font}% \upshape\altaccentfont\accent"0310\currentfont#1}% } works quite well, but I'm not sure how sinful it is :P – Au101 Dec 14 '15 at 01:24
@Au101 Indeed! I didn't think to that! – egreg Dec 14 '15 at 07:26

score 2 · Answer 2 · 2015-12-10T12:10:11.190

2

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{cmunrm.otf}
\newfontface\LL{Linux Libertine O}
\def\dbm#1{{\LL#1\char"0310}}

\begin{document}
main font CM

\dbm{m}\dbm{g}

\end{document}

edited Dec 10 '15 at 12:10

answered Dec 10 '15 at 09:33

This is just using a different font that has the combining character. But the OP explicitly says he doesn't want to use a different font. – Sverre Dec 10 '15 at 11:44
"(Willing to accept alternative solutions, but not too willing to sacrifice Latin/Computer Modern (Unicode))" ... He was talking about CM! – Dec 10 '15 at 12:02
Yes? Libertine is not CM. TIPA is. That's why he wants to use the TIPA glyphs with CM. – Sverre Dec 10 '15 at 12:04
Ah yes, I read it the other way round. Will provide an alternative solution. – Dec 10 '15 at 12:06
@Sverre: and done ... – Dec 10 '15 at 12:10

Is it possible to make TIPA's fonts available to fontspec?

2 Answers2