You are here: Rendering > Resources
Short URL: https://scripts.sil.org/xetex_download

XeTeX downloads

Jonathan Kew, 2009-04-07

Where to go for help

Note: SIL International no longer manages XeTeX development. Please refer to the following paragraphs to find excellent sources of help.

XeTeX Home http://xetex.sourceforge.net/

For questions or discussion about installing or using XeTeX and related packages, please go to the XeTeX mailing list hosted by the TeX Users Group, where experienced users and developers are likely to be able to help.

For bug reports about the XeTeX software itself, or specific feature requests (rather than general discussion), there is an issue tracker hosted at SourceForge.

The comment form on this page is available for general comments about the software or the web pages themselves (yes, I know they need updating!), but please do not expect technical support through this channel. You are much more likely to get useful responses on the mailing list.

Update — September 2013

The latest release of XeTeX is version 0.9999.3, which is included in TeX Live 2013. XeTeX is a standard component of the complete TeX Live distribution. This includes all major TeX-related programs and a huge range of additional fonts, macro packages, and utilities, with ready-to-use binaries for around 15 computer platforms including Mac OS X (PPC and x86), Windows, and various Linux and Unix-like systems on a range of CPU architectures.

The TeX Users Group hosts a XeTeX mailing list where interested users are welcome to discuss bugs, workarounds, wishes, etc.; while no commitments can be made as to future development, all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Latest release

The latest release of XeTeX is currently version 0.999.6, available as part of TeX Live 2008. This is the recommended version for general use, and is installed along with the rest of the standard TeX distribution; no additional steps are required to install or use XeTeX.

For possible use with older TeX distributions, an older XeTeX package remains available below.

Attention!

Please note that the downloads below are no longer recommended for general use; TeX Live 2008+ and other current distributions such as W32TeX, MikTeX, and ConTeXt are now the preferred way to get up-to-date versions of XeTeX.

Some Linux distros and similar packages are still shipping TeX Live 2007, which also contains a usable version of XeTeX, although not as current as the 2008 distribution. For such systems, the standalone TeX Live 2008 distribution can also be installed an alternative to the packages provided via distro repositories, for users who want more current versions.

Version 0.995, released 2006-08-16

Release 0.995 includes a number of bug fixes and new features, including an alternative (usually faster) output driver, and preliminary support for the full range of Unicode letters in math mode.

Highlights of the 0.995 release include:

includes latest fontspec.sty and other XeTeX-related packages (thanks, Will)
modified default spacing parameters for better appearance (will affect typesetting of existing documents!)
updated OpenType rendering to support 'locl' feature (if present in fonts)
improved handling of filenames with spaces
improved identification of words to be hyphenated when using Unicode fonts
support kerning in pre-OpenType fonts (using old-style kern tables instead of OpenType features)
improved support for vertical-mode typesetting with OpenType fonts (e.g., for Japanese)
support Unicode text in PDF bookmarks
support the various PDF boxes (bleed, trim, crop, etc.) in XeTeXpdffile
bug fix for hyphenation when language changes within a paragraph
bug fix to avoid crash on Intel Macs when accessing AAT features
added some experimental support for Unicode characters in math mode
experimental version of the xdvipdfmx driver is included; try running xetex with the option: -output-driver="xdvipdfmx -q -E"
support for using uninstalled TrueType or OpenType fonts, using fontx="[filename]" (yes, literal square brackets around the filename, to distinguish it from an actual font name); this requires the xdvipdfmx driver
and various other small bug-fixes... check the Subversion log if curious!

XeTeX license

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL SIL INTERNATIONAL BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Except as contained in this notice, the name of SIL International shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from SIL International.

The XeTeX program is derived from e-TeX, by the NTS team; e-TeX in turn is derived from Donald E. Knuth’s TeX.

TeX is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society.
e-TeX is a trademark of the NTS Group.

XeTeX downloads

Latest version for Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4

The XeTeX typesetting tool, v. 0.995 (rev.D)
Jonathan Kew, 2006-08-24
Download "XeTeX_0995.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 16MB [11607 downloads]

Alternatively, i‑Installer users may install XeTeX using the XeTeX i-Package listed in “Jonathan Kew’s i-Directory” (see File/Known Packages i-Directory).

The MacTeX package available from CTAN provides a complete TeX system that includes the XeTeX software, with no additional installation required.

For older Mac OS X systems

For users of older (pre-10.3) versions Mac OS X, there may be a better chance of success with an older release of XeTeX, as the latest version has not been tested on earlier systems:

The XeTeX typesetting tool, v. 0.99b
Jonathan Kew, 2006-01-09
Download "XeTeX_099b.dmg", Mac OS X disk image, 7MB [5637 downloads]

For other operating systems

See the separate XeTeX for Linux page for packages and notes related to running XeTeX on Unix-like operating systems.

Thanks to Akira Kakuto, who distributes the W32TeX software collection, there is now a Windows port of XeTeX available: see http://www.fsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jp/kakuto/win32-ptex/web2c75-e.html.

Source code

The source code for the current development version of XeTeX may be obtained by checking out a working copy from the repository at https://scripts.sil.org/svn-public/xetex/TRUNK using a Subversion client, or by downloading a tarball from the ViewVC interface at https://scripts.sil.org/svn-view/xetex/TRUNK.

Documentation and sample files

Note that these files are also included in the main .dmg download above.

XeTeX (0.94) documentation and sample files
Jonathan Kew, 2005-03-21
Download "XeTeX_doc.zip", ZIP archive, 470KB [18812 downloads]

Additional examples (updated December 8, 2005)

Sample of Chinese typesetting with XeTeX (source and PDFs)
Jonathan Kew, 2005-12-08
Download "xetex_chinese_sample.zip", ZIP archive, 702KB [8531 downloads]

Other papers

A talk about XeTeX, including the introduction of XeTeX for Linux, was presented at BachoTeX 2006 (April 30, 2006). The associated paper appears in the GUST bulletin from the conference, but unfortunately printing problems affected a number of the examples in the printed copies. The original PDF file is available here.

The XeTeX project — typesetting for the rest of the world
Jonathan Kew, 2006-04-30
Download "kew-bacho", Acrobat PDF document, 393KB [16439 downloads]

A talk introducing XeTeX was given at the 2nd Practical TeX conference, Chapel Hill, NC (June 2005). The printed version of this paper will appear in TUGboat, the journal of the TeX Users Group; currently, the slides from the presentation at PracTeX are available here.

Introduction to XeTeX (presentation slides)
Jonathan Kew, 2005-06-17
Download "xetex-intro-slides.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 2MB [14522 downloads]

A paper about XeTeX was presented at the 27th Internationalization and Unicode Conference in Berlin (April 2005); the printed version of that paper and the associated slides from the presentation are available here.

The Multilingual Lion — paper on XeTeX for IUC27
Jonathan Kew, 2005-01-26
Download "a309-iuc27.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 565KB [10329 downloads]

The Multilingual Lion — slides for IUC27 presentation
Jonathan Kew, 2005-04-07
Download "a309-iuc27-slides.pdf", Acrobat PDF document, 1MB [6229 downloads]

Underlying TeX setup

XeTeX has primarily been tested in conjunction with the TeX installation provided by Gerben Wierda's i‑Installer. Use with other TeX systems such as those installed by Fink, DarwinPorts, TeXLive, etc. may require manually unpacking and installing the XeTeX files, if the installation scripts are unable to navigate the TeX configuration.

© 2003-2024 SIL International, all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted elsewhere on this page.
Provided by SIL's Writing Systems Technology team (formerly known as NRSI). Read our Privacy Policy. Contact us here.