Re: Why searching fonts in xetex is so slow?

[Yue Wang <yuleopen@gmail.com>]

Hi, Mojca:


you are absolutely right!

When load iwona with the following two typeface, the loading time
takes up 7-8 seconds.
TeXExec | runtime: 8.296

\definetypeface [iwona] [ss] [sans] [iwona] [default] [encoding=ec]
\definetypeface [iwona] [mm] [math] [iwona] [default] [encoding=ec]
\setupbodyfont[iwona,ss,12pt]
\starttext
\input zapf

$$\int_a^b f(x) d x = 0$$
\stoptext

However, when comment the second line (\definetypeface [iwona] [mm]
[math] [iwona] [default] [encoding=ec]),
TeXExec | runtime: 1.828
total compile time is reduced to only 2 seconds. (of course, equations
are typeset in latin modern).

How can I speed up math font loading? change add file: suffix (like
[file:rm-iwonar])  won't help :(

Yue Wang


On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 4:27 AM, Mojca Miklavec
<mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 13:33, Yue Wang wrote:
>> Hi, Hans
>>
>> Now I know why XeTeX uses 1-2 minutes to compile a simple document:
>> Each time first-setup.bat runs, it erase the user fontforge cache.
>> So if I compile a document right after updating ConTeXt minimals,
>> XeTeX will automatically run fc-cache to generate the font cache.
>>
>> Today I test a little bit, the time used for fc-cache -r is
>> approximately the xetex's first running time.
>
> True, XeTeX runs fc-cache every now and then, but I didn't manage to
> figure out when that happens. I would suggest to ask about that on the
> XeTeX mailing list. ConTeXt has zero influence on that behaviour,
> except that it could avoid searching via fc.
>
>> Next compilation uses about 7-8 seconds, which is reasonable (it first
>> searches the fc cache, then the texmf tree)
>> btw, can we change the type-otf.tex to force mkii to search fonts like
>> iwona and tex gyre in the texmf tree first?
>
> Iwona? There are lines like
>    \definefontsynonym [Iwona-Regular] [file:Iwona-Regular] [features=default]
> which means that it first searches on texmf tree, but I suspect that
> math fonts are being searched via fontconfig first. The way font
> searching is implemented now ([rm-iwonar] will look for
> \font\something="rm-iwonar" instead of \font\something=rm-iwona =>
> this means searching via fontconfig first; the font is not found
> there, so it searches in texmf tree further) it is not possible to
> convince ConTeXt to search in texmf tree first unless Hans changes
> core macros (the part that has been broken for almost a year).
>
> Mojca
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