LuaTeX
Encyclopedia
LuaTeX is a TeX
based computer typesetting
system which started as a version of pdfTeX
with a Lua scripting engine embedded. After some experiments it was adopted by the pdfTeX team as a successor to pdfTeX (itself an extension of eTeX, which generates PDFs). Later in the project some functionality of Aleph was included (esp. multi-directional typesetting). The project was originally sponsored by the Oriental TeX project, founded by Idris Samawi Hamid, Hans Hagen, and Taco Hoekwater.
LuaTeX offers native support for OpenType
fonts. In contrast to XeTeX
, the fonts are not accessed through the operating system libraries, but through a library based on FontForge
.
A related project is MPLib (an extended MetaPost
library module), which brings a graphics engine into TeX.
The LuaTeX team is: Taco Hoekwater, Hartmut Henkel and Hans Hagen.
, both ConTeXt
mark IV and LaTeX with extra packages (e.g. luaotfload, luamplib, luatexbase, luatextra) make use of new LuaTeX features. Both are supported in TeX Live
2010 with LuaTeX 0.60. Special support in plain TeX is still under development.
TeX
TeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....
based computer typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
system which started as a version of pdfTeX
PdfTeX
The computer program pdfTeX is an extension of Knuth's typesetting program TeX, and was originally written and developed into a publicly usable product by Hàn Thế Thành as a part of the work for his PhD thesis at the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Brno...
with a Lua scripting engine embedded. After some experiments it was adopted by the pdfTeX team as a successor to pdfTeX (itself an extension of eTeX, which generates PDFs). Later in the project some functionality of Aleph was included (esp. multi-directional typesetting). The project was originally sponsored by the Oriental TeX project, founded by Idris Samawi Hamid, Hans Hagen, and Taco Hoekwater.
Objective of the project
The main objective of the project is to provide a version of TeX where all internals are accessible from Lua. In the process of opening up TeX much of the internal code is rewritten. Instead of hard coding new features in TeX itself, users (or macro package writers) can write their own extensions.LuaTeX offers native support for OpenType
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
fonts. In contrast to XeTeX
XeTeX
XeTeX is a TeX typesetting engine using Unicode and supporting modern font technologies such as OpenType or Apple Advanced Typography...
, the fonts are not accessed through the operating system libraries, but through a library based on FontForge
FontForge
FontForge is a typeface editor program developed by George Williams. FontForge is free software and is distributed under the BSD license. FontForge is available for several operating systems and is localized in several languages.- Features :Fontforge supports many font formats, including...
.
A related project is MPLib (an extended MetaPost
MetaPost
MetaPost refers to both a programming language and the interpreter of the MetaPost programming language. Both are derived from Donald Knuth's Metafont language and interpreter. MetaPost excels at producing diagrams in the PostScript programming language from a geometric/algebraic description...
library module), which brings a graphics engine into TeX.
The LuaTeX team is: Taco Hoekwater, Hartmut Henkel and Hans Hagen.
Versions
The first public beta was launched at TUG 2007 in San Diego. The first formal release was planned for the end of 2009, and the first stable production version was released in 2010. It is expected to have version 1.00 in 2012., both ConTeXt
ConTeXt
ConTeXt is a general-purpose document processor. It is especially suited for structured documents, automated document production, very fine typography, and multi-lingual typesetting. It is based in part on the TeX typesetting system, and uses a document markup language for manuscript preparation...
mark IV and LaTeX with extra packages (e.g. luaotfload, luamplib, luatexbase, luatextra) make use of new LuaTeX features. Both are supported in TeX Live
TeX Live
TeX Live is a TeX distribution which is the replacement of its no-longer supported counterpart teTeX.It is now the default TeX distribution for several Linux distributions such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntuand Gentoo....
2010 with LuaTeX 0.60. Special support in plain TeX is still under development.
Further reading
- Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard: A guide to LuaLaTeX. 11 November 2010.
- LuaTeX development team: LuaTeX reference manual (0.70.1). 20 May 2011.
- LuaTeX development team: LuaTeX reference manual (0.71.0). 11 October 2011.