[Tex/LaTex] Frequently loaded packages: Differences between pdfLaTeX and XeLaTeX

packagespdftexxetex

Until now, I have been compiling my LaTeX documents with pdfLaTeX. My standard document preamble includes the "usual suspects" for non-English speakers (inputenc, fontenc, babel) and a bunch of other packages. Assuming I were to convert to XeLaTeX, what modifications of my preamble are advisable? I'm aware that the expansion=true option of the microtype package is not (yet) available for XeLaTeX, and that fontspec is sort of a default package for OpenType fonts. What other packages (and package options) should be removed and, vice versa, incorporated when switching from pdfLaTeX to XeLaTeX?

Best Answer

Don't load inputenc or fontenc manually; use UTF-8 input and the fontspec package instead
Don't load the textcomp package; if you want macros to enter varios symbols, load the xunicode package (EDIT BY LOCKSTEP: According to Ulrike Fischer, "[i]n a current system you don't need to load xunicode at all, fontspec will do it at the correct place")
Use polyglossia instead of babel
For OpenType math support, use unicode-math instead of amsfonts/amssymb etc. (but amsmath can/should still be used).
The xltxtra package isn't necessary any more

Everything in this list is probably valid for LuaLaTeX, too, with the exception of xunicode, which requires XeTeX.

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[Tex/LaTex] File size difference between XeLaTeX and pdfLaTeX

For you minimal example it is the font format which makes the difference. This can be seen by comparing the PDFs in an editor which supports binary (like vim).

Also pdffonts is helpful:

xelatex: (1874 bytes compressed, 2444 bytes uncompressed)
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
ZOJBFE+CMR10                         Type 1C           yes yes no       6  0


pdflatex: (10785 bytes compressed, 11677 bytes uncompressed)
name                                 type              emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- --- --- --- ---------
SLFVOY+CMR10                         Type 1            yes yes no       2  0

The pdffonts manual states that "Type 1C" is the Compact Font Format (CFF) which is as the name says more compact.

With larger projects, I was still able to reduce the size by a factor of 2 with no noticeable changes in the output.

It depends on what font you are using and what you mean with "larger". I recently figured out that changing to T1 increase a 9-page manual (ydoc package) from 217K to 323K. Changing to the libertine font makes 482K out of it. See How to create small PDF files for the Internet for tips on how to reduce the file size.

[Tex/LaTex] Frequently loaded packages: Differences between pdfLaTeX and LuaLaTeX

Besides supporting a Lua interpreter, LuaTeX brings to pdfTeX quite the same changes as XeLaTeX (native Unicode support, support for system fonts).

For this reason, the question you linked to applies to LuaTeX as well, modulo the answers to this question about migrating from XeTeX to LuaTeX, which shows that apart from microtype support and font names, LuaTeX- and XeTeX-specific codes are mostly compatible.

babel works fine with LuaTeX as far as I can tell. At least with frenchb, I haven't had any issues.

Besides fontspec (which also works with XeTeX), there's more and more packages that use Lua to provide features. As an example, I have recently released the impnattypo package which has some LuaTeX specific features (thanks to Patrick), and I have more coming (such as the unreleased overcolored package).

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[Tex/LaTex] File size difference between XeLaTeX and pdfLaTeX

[Tex/LaTex] Frequently loaded packages: Differences between pdfLaTeX and LuaLaTeX

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