[Tex/LaTex] Can XeLaTeX generate bold and italic font styles for typefaces that lack them

boldfontsfontspecitalicxetex

I use XeLaTeX in order to have easy access to fonts installed on my operating system, and Chinese in particular. Some of the Latin typefaces most pleasing to my eye do not have bold or italic font styles, and I wonder if XeLaTeX can remedy that.

I'm aware of the FakeBold and FakeSlant transformations within the fontspec package, but I'd be glad to know of a more attractive process, if there is one. (The specification, v2.1f, says, "Please don’t overuse these features; they are not a good alternative to having the real shapes.")

Best Answer

FakeBold and FakeSlant are exactly what you are looking for, and the warning in fontspec manual is valid for any "synthetic" font style; the quality of the result is variable and depends much on the complexity of the glyphs and need to be handled with care and as a last resort.