Re: Ancient Greek in output PDF

[BP Jonsson <bpjonsson-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>]

Please excuse me for not noticing this thread until now!

Den 2017-01-24 kl. 20:15, skrev John Muccigrosso:
> 
> On Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 12:35:08 PM UTC-5, ousia wrote:
>>
>> Even defining a fallaback font for Greek characters should be easy with 
>> fontspec. But I haven’t used LaTeX for years and I don’t remember how to 
>> do it. 
>>
>>
> A quick look at the font spec docs didn't help me much. I think ideally I'd 
> like to be able to use something like \setgreekfont{blah} and have it use 
> that font whenever there's some continuous text using the Greek section of 
> Unicode.
> 
> That might be too much to ask though. 

In fact you can, at least assuming that you use XeLaTeX, which is a good idea anyway.  
The easiest way would be to include the necessary LaTeX commands in the document metadata:

```
---
header-includes:
    # Hide command with non-standard arg structure so pandoc doesn't mess it up!
  - \newcommand{\NoPandoc}[1]{#1}
  - \NoPandoc{\newfontfamily\greekfont{GFS Didot}[Script=Greek,Scale=MatchLowercase]}
...

## Tetrapharmacus

| Don't fear god,
| Don't worry about death;
| What is good is easy to get,
| What is terrible is easy to endure


## [Τετραφάρμακος]{lang="grc"}

<div lang="grc">

| Ἄφοβον ὁ θεός,
| ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος
| καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον,
| τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐεκκαρτέρητον

</div>

```

(You said that you want the Computer/Latin Modern style, and GFS Didot <http://www.greekfontsociety.gr/typefaces/20th_21st_century#GFS_Didot> is a Greek font in Modern style which you probably will find blends well with Latin Modern. As it happens Greek Modern fonts are usually not as extremely Modern as their Latin counterparts, but who are we to argue with Firmin Didot what a Greek Modern font should look like!? :-)

Now run pandoc with `--latexengine=xelatex` and everythiing should take care of itself.

Including code for setting the Greek font in your template is also relatively straightforward. Look for the place in the default LaTeX template where the polyglossia package is loaded:


```
\else
  \usepackage{polyglossia}
  \setmainlanguage[$polyglossia-lang.options$]{$polyglossia-lang.name$}
$for(polyglossia-otherlangs)$
  \setotherlanguage[$polyglossia-otherlangs.options$]{$polyglossia-otherlangs.name$}
$endfor$
\fi
```

and just before the `\fi` insert the following:

```
$if(greekfont)$
  \newfontfamily\greekfont{$greekfont$}[Script=Greek,Scale=MatchLowercase]
$endif$
```

Then you can use `-V greekfont='Font Name'` on the command line or `greekfont: Font Name` in the document metadata to specify the Greek font.

Since I use several languages using different fonts in my documents I have included a more general mechanism in my LaTeX template:

```
$for(lang-fonts)$
  \newfontfamily\$lang-fonts.lang$font{$lang-fonts.font$}[$if(lang-fonts.language)$Language=$lang-fonts.language$$endif$$if(lang-fonts.script)$Script=$lang-fonts.script$$endif$$if(lang-fonts.options)$$lang-fonts.options$$else$Scale=MatchLowercase$endif$]
$endfor$
```

(BTW the `\$` in that template code may throw your editor's highlighting if you use LaTeX highlighting. The solution is to comment out that line while editing the rest of the template.)

Then in my metadata I say:

```
lang-fonts:
  - lang: greek
    font: GFS Neohellenic
    script: Greek
    language: Greek
```

The multiplication of parameters is polyglossia's and fontspec's fault. You must use their terms here unlike when loading languages where pandoc does some streamlining behind the scenes.

(I use GFS Neohellenic together with Charis SIL.  While it looks quite different it blends well. If I don't need any fancy characters in sans I usually set GFS Neohellenic as the sans font too.)

/bpj

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