Re: LaTeX export: when is it more useful to use LuaTeX instead of pdfTeX?

[Tim Cross]

Juan Manuel Macías <maciaschain@posteo.net> writes:

> Hi, Tim, thank you for your comments,
>
> Tim Cross writes:
>
>> Juan, I think it would be great to add your post to worg. I'm happy to
>> do this, but I think it wold also be good if we could include a basic
>> 'setup' i.e. what changes people might need to (or should do to maximise
>> benefit) in order to try out luatex. For example, what settings to put
>> in org-latex-pdf-process (I'm guessing something like "lualatex
>> -interaction nonstopmode -output-directory %o %f") and what (if any)
>> packages to add/remove from the org-latex-packages-alist etc (I'm
>> guessing that perhaps some font related packages may need tweaking?).
>>
>> Ideally, what would be good is a very simple recipe for what someone
>> should do in order to try out luatex and get the most out of it (or at
>> least see potential).
>
> I have no problem with my post being added to worg, but I don't have
> much experience in working with worg... Of course, I can prepare
> everything you need, if you think it might be useful.
>
> The *only* difference between a minimal document for lualatex and a
> minimal document for pdfLaTeX is that for LuaLaTeX it is not necessary
> to load the fontenc and inputenc packages. The following mwe
> compiles perfectly in LuaLaTeX:
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \begin{document}
> Hello world!
> á é í ó ú ñ à è ì ò ù
> \end{document}
>
> LuaTeX defaults to an otf version of the Computer Modern font, so any
> user who isn't interested in fonts and writing in non-Latin languages,
> but wants to work in a real Unicode environment, won't need to fine-tune
> fonts, nor load any special package. The rest is exactly the same as any
> document for pdfLaTeX.
>
> If in the Org document is added:
>
> #+LATEX_COMPILER: lualatex 
>
> the fontenc and inputenc packages are not loaded in the output, which is
> correct and it is the minimum requirement for LuaLaTeX. I think Org is
> already doing a good job here.
>
> If the user wants to use other fonts, the fontspec package must be
> loaded. Depending on the user's needs, you can go from the simplest to
> the most complex configurations (the different options and possibilities
> are explained in detail in the fontspec manual). The simplest: if a user
> just wants to use the Times New Roman font as the main font in his
> document, this lines would suffice:
>
> \usepackage{fontspec}
> \setmainfont{Times New Roman}
>
> That is, by indicating the name of the family (Times New Roman), luatex
> would use this family for normal text, italics, bold, etc. Of course,
> it's a good idea to load a family that has italic, bold, bold italic,
> and other subtypes. Fontspec has tons more options, but this would be
> the basics. But I think this aspect is more on the LaTeX side than in
> the Org side.
>
> LuaTeX can use the fonts installed on the system, without the need to
> add more (that is, simply by putting the name of the family, LuaTeX
> accesses them); and you can also use any font in any directory, just by
> giving the path. I wrote BTW this little package to preview any font in
> Emacs, and test the opentype features. it uses org-latex-preview in the
> background and compiles with LuaTeX:
>
> https://gitlab.com/maciaschain/org-font-spec-preview
>

Thanks Juan. It will be fairly trivial to compile the information you
have provided into a basic org document which I can then add to org. If
on the other hand you would prefer to write it up, all I need is an org
document which is based on the (current) org 'worg' template, which is
very simple i.e.

#+:begin_src org

#+TITLE:      [No title for now, please update]
#+AUTHOR:     Worg people
#+OPTIONS:    H:3 num:nil toc:t \n:nil ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t tex:t d:(HIDE) 
tags:not-in-toc
#+STARTUP:    align fold nodlcheck hidestars oddeven lognotestate
#+SEQ_TODO:   TODO(t) INPROGRESS(i) WAITING(w@) | DONE(d) CANCELED(c@)
#+TAGS:       Write(w) Update(u) Fix(f) Check(c) 
#+LANGUAGE:   en
#+PRIORITIES: A C B
#+CATEGORY:   worg
#+HTML_LINK_UP:    index.html
#+HTML_LINK_HOME:  https://orgmode.org/worg/

# This file is released by its authors and contributors under the GNU
# Free Documentation license v1.3 or later, code examples are released
# under the GNU General Public License v3 or later.

# This file is the default header for new Org files in Worg.  Feel free
# to tailor it to your needs.

#+end_src