How to properly install and use a new font with LuaLaTeX?

Question

I have problems trying to get new fonts to work when compiling with LuaLaTeX. I'm working on Mac and use TexShop (with the MacTeX package).

It goes like this:

I downloaded for example the Cardo font; I installed the Cardo font (it now appears in the Font Book); I tried to compile a simple text that goes like this:

\documentclass[11pt]{book}
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}    
\usepackage[frenchb]{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{unicode-math}
\setmainfont{Cardo}

\begin{document}
Hello world!
\end{document}

After compiling I obtained the following error message:

luaotfload | Font names database loaded: /Users/juan/Library/texlive/2012/texmf
-var/luatex-cache/generic/names/otfl-names.lua
luaotfload | Updating the font names database:
luaotfload | Scanning TEXMF fonts...
luaotfload | Scanning OS fonts...
luaotfload | Font names database saved: %s 
: /Users/juan/Library/texlive/2012/texmf-var/luatex-cache/generic/names/otfl-names.lua

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!
./testBembo.tex:6: fontspec error: "font-not-found"
! 
! The font "Cardo" cannot be found.
! 
! See the fontspec documentation for further information.
! 
! For immediate help type H <return>.
!...............................................  

l.6 \setmainfont{Cardo}

? 
Process aborted

• then I checked the otfl-names.lua and Cardo was missing;

• I then added the Cardo folder font to this folder:

  /usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/fonts/
  

• I executed the mkluatexfontdb -vvv command in a terminal;

• I re-checked the otfl-names.lua and Cardo was finally there;

So I naturally tried to compile the text again after resetting the computer and (as you might guess by now) I obtained (again!) the following error message:

luaotfload | Font names database loaded: /Users/juan/Library/texlive/2012/texmf
-var/luatex-cache/generic/names/otfl-names.lua
luaotfload | Updating the font names database:
luaotfload | Scanning TEXMF fonts...
luaotfload | Scanning OS fonts...
luaotfload | Font names database saved: %s 
: /Users/juan/Library/texlive/2012/texmf-var/luatex-cache/generic/names/otfl-na
mes.lua

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!
./testBembo.tex:6: fontspec error: "font-not-found"
! 
! The font "Cardo" cannot be found.
! 
! See the fontspec documentation for further information.
! 
! For immediate help type H <return>.
!...............................................  

l.6 \setmainfont{Cardo}

? 
Process aborted

The thing is driving me crazy! I migrated to LuaLaTeX only because I was promised to be able to use almost any font with it. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I came across the same problem as you when I first tried to use XeTeX. If you want fontspec to automatically find the path to the font and load it for you, then you need to have the font installed as a system font. On OS X, you can do this by navigating to Font Book -> Preferences and changing the "Default Installation Location" from "User" to "Computer". This should allow you to use the \setmainfont{<font name>} command without any prior configuration. For Linux distributions, you should consult the documentation for your desktop environment.

If you do not want to modify the set of system fonts, or you are working on a project in which you would like all of your resources to exist in one directory structure, you can specify the path to the font explicitly. For example, if you install Cardo as a user font (which is the default behavior on OS X), the font files should be copied to ~/Library/Fonts. Assuming that regular version of the font is supplied in a file called Cardo.ttf, you can load the font as follows. (Be sure to change <username> to your username).

\setmainfont[
    Path           = /Users/<username>/Library/Fonts/,
    Extension      = .ttf,
    Ligatures      = TeX
]{Cardo}

If you have bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of your font, you can use them by adding a few extra lines. In this example, I'm using a font called Crimson, which is supplied in the OTF format. The regular version of the font is called Crimson-Roman.otf; the bold, italic, and bold-italic variants are called Crimson-Bold.otf, Crimson-Italic.otf, and Crimson-BoldItalic.otf, respectively.

\setmainfont[
    Path           = /Users/<username>/Library/Fonts/,
    Extension      = .otf,
    Ligatures      = TeX,
    BoldFont       = Crimson-Bold,
    ItalicFont     = Crimson-Italic,
    BoldItalicFont = Crimson-BoldItalic
]{Crimson-Roman}

All of this information is available in the fontspec manual.

Edit

Since you still seem to be experiencing problems using other fonts with LuaTeX, I thought that posting my procedure step-by-step might help in identifying the problem. My texlive distribution is obtained from MacPorts; running lualatex -v returns the following: This is LuaTeX, Version beta-0.70.2-2013011221 (TeX Live 2012/MacPorts 2012_5).

• I downloaded the Baskerville font from this link. The font files are called LibreBaskerville-Regular.otf, LibreBaskerville-Bold.otf, and LibreBaskerville-Italic.otf.
• I installed the fonts as user fonts by double clicking the font files in Finder.
• I created a file called baskerville.tex with the following contents. (I replaced my username by <username>).

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[
    Path           = /Users/<username>/Library/Fonts/,
    Extension      = .otf,
    Ligatures      = TeX,
    BoldFont       = LibreBaskerville-Bold,
    ItalicFont     = LibreBaskerville-Italic
]{LibreBaskerville-Regular}
\begin{document}
This is a test.
\end{document}

• I compiled the file with the command lualatex baskerville.tex.

Answer 2

If your new fonts are in ~/.fonts and not being recognized by mkluatexfontdb, try this:

OSFONTDIR=${HOME}/.fonts:/usr/share/fonts//:/usr/share/texmf/fonts//   
mkluatexfontdb --force --verbose=-1 -vvv

Answer 3

On OSX, I was able to get things working in the following way:

1. Install to default user location (/Users/john/Library/Fonts)
2. mkluatexfontdb --force --verbose=-1 -vvv

That's all it took!

Answer 4

Using the solution from void-pointer, I tried to use Cardo with LuaLaTex, but ran into some issues with the font not being found.

Here are the edits that I had to make to his answer so that it would work for me. Basically, ignore the name that FontBook gives the font, and use the filename, minus the extension (which can be found with ⌘ + i in FontBook and looking for Location.

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[
    Path       = /Library/Fonts/, 
    Extension  = .ttf, 
    Ligatures  = TeX, 
    BoldFont   = Cardob101, 
    ItalicFont = Cardoi99,
]{Cardo104s}

N.B. Even the regular font name (i.e.\setmainfont[...]{regular-font-name}) needs to be the filename in Finder minus the extension.