[Tex/LaTex] XeLaTeX, fontspec and printing the name of the current font

fontsfontspecxetex

Is it possible, using XeLaTeX and fontspec.sty, to write a macro, say, \printcurrentfont, such that it would print the name of the font currently in use? I have looked through the fontspec documentation, but so far have not found an answer.

Best Answer

You can access the internal and the external names of the current font respectively with \the\font and \fontname\font. The former must be stringified in order to print it.

Further massaging of the external font name can be added.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{fontspec}

\setmainfont{Libertinus Serif}
\setsansfont{TeX Gyre Adventor}[Scale=MatchUppercase]
\newfontfamily{\junicode}{Junicode}

\DeclareTextFontCommand{\textttup}{\normalfont\ttfamily}

\newcommand{\printinternalcurrentfont}{%
  \expandafter\textttup\expandafter{\expandafter\string\the\font}%
}
\newcommand{\printexternalcurrentfont}{%
  \expandafter\textttup\expandafter{\fontname\font}%
}

\begin{document}

\printinternalcurrentfont

\printexternalcurrentfont

\bigskip

{\itshape\printinternalcurrentfont\par\printexternalcurrentfont}

\bigskip

\sffamily

\printinternalcurrentfont

\printexternalcurrentfont

\bigskip

\junicode

\printinternalcurrentfont

\printexternalcurrentfont

\end{document}

Output with XeLaTeX

Output with LuaLaTeX

If you're not interested in the finer details, but just in the main font name part, change the definition of \printexternalcurrentfont into

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\printexternalcurrentfont}{%
  \expandafter\format@externalcurrentfont\fontname\font:\@nil
}
\def\format@externalcurrentfont#1:#2\@nil{%
  \textttup{\@ifnextchar"{\@gobble}{}#1}%
}
\makeatother

The output would become

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Font problem with XeLaTeX

Choosing the right name for a font is sometimes hard. The specification

\setmainfont[Ligatures=TeX]{Linux Libertine O}

should work if you have the font among the system fonts. However XeTeX is able to use also fonts that reside in the TeX tree and are not in the system fonts.

In the case of Linux Libertine, the call should be something like

\setmainfont
      [ Ligatures = TeX,
        Extension = .otf,
        SmallCapsFeatures={Letters=SmallCaps},
        UprightFont    = *_R,
        ItalicFont     = *_RI,
        BoldFont       = *_B,
        BoldItalicFont = *_BI,
      ] {LinLibertine}

The package libertine frees you from this burden. Check the package documentation to see what options can be passed to the call

\usepackage[...]{libertine}

where ... stands for zero or more option, such as oldstyle or lining to choose between the two styles for figures.

[Tex/LaTex] fontspec (xelatex) finding fonts by name, installed or in TEXMFHOME

Short answer, Yes.

When XeTeX is asked to load a font by its file name, it passes the name to kpathea library, so this works like any other TeX file path searching (e.g. \input’d files).

When it is asked to load a font by font name, it will use FontConfig on Linux and Windows, and Core Text font manager on Mac, so whatever fonts they can find, XeTeX will be able to use.