Re: org-mode export to (latex) PDF

[Jean-Christophe Helary <lists@traduction-libre.org>]

> On Jul 10, 2021, at 23:38, Juan Manuel Macías <maciaschain@posteo.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Jean-Christophe,
> 
> Jean-Christophe Helary writes:
> 
>> I had given up on Latex because mixing languages sounded like a huge
>> pain in the butt but I see that without some org-level infrastructure
>> it is not possible to achieve much when exporting to Latex/PDF (unless
>> I missed something).
> 
> Well, LaTeX has excellent (typographic and orthotypographic)
> multilingual support, using the babel or polyglossia packages. I
> especially recommend babel:
> http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/babel/base/babel.pdf

Thank you very much Juan.

I understand that Latex has excellent support for multilingual files. I use it sometimes for very complex multilingual texts (ancient Japanese and French for ex).

But with UTF-8 being ubiquitous on computers nowadays, I really can't be bothered to have to type all those sequences to have org-mode properly export to PDF something that it exports perfectly well to ODT without requiring anything extra.

Which is the reason why I was wondering about a "generic" default setting where the conversion engine behind org could just use a default multilingual package and a default "wide enough" generic font. I really mean a "good enough" export where all the characters are visible, nothing fancy.

Jean-Christophe 

> 
> And LaTeX also has very good support for oriental languages or languages
> with complex writing, especially in LuaTeX. In LuaTeX and XeTeX you can
> also use opentype fonts and opentype features.
> 
> The problem is how to translate that from Org --in an org-centric way--
> to LaTeX. Currently, you can apply LaTeX commands for multilingual
> management directly in your Org document. For example:
> 
> #+LaTeX_Header: \usepackage[several langs]{babel}
> 
> @@latex:\begin{otherlanguage*}{german}@@
> 
> ... some text in german ...
> 
> @@latex:\end{otherlanguage*}@@
> 
> Recently, I submitted a patch here that allows adding LaTeX attributes
> to `quote' blocks. Then, you could do something like this:
> 
> #+LaTeX_Header:\usepackage[german,english]{babel}
> #+LaTeX_Header:\usepackage{quoting}
> #+LaTeX_Header:\usepackage[babel=true,autostyle=true,german=quotes]{csquotes}
> #+LaTeX_Header:\SetBlockEnvironment{quoting}
> 
> #+ATTR_LaTeX: :environment foreigndisplayquote :options {german}
> #+begin_quote
> Eine Erklärung, wie sie einer Schrift in einer Vorrede nach der
> Gewohnheit vorausgeschickt wird ---über den Zweck, den der Verfasser
> sich in ihr vorgesetzt, sowie über die Veranlassungen und das
> Verhältnis, worin er sie zu andern frühern oder gleichzeitigen
> Behandlungen desselben Gegenstandes zu stehen glaubt--- scheint bei
> einer philosophischen Schrift nicht nur überflüssig, sondern um der
> Natur der Sache willen sogar unpassend und zweckwidrig zu sein (Hegel).
> #+end_quote
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Juan Manuel 
> 

-- 
Jean-Christophe Helary @brandelune
https://mac4translators.blogspot.com
https://sr.ht/~brandelune/omegat-as-a-book/