On TeX.SX there are a lot of questions of the form "How do I typeset [some phonetic symbol]?" For example:
- Typesetting modifier letter U+02ED
- The near-close, near-front unrounded vowel symbol
- The IPA symbol for the labiodental flap (ⱱ)
- How can I get the character ʟ̟ ?
- How can I get the ð symbol with TIPA?
- Is there a symbol for Dark 'l' (ɫ)?
- How do I get an Uvular Trill <ʀ> IPA symbol?
One of the issues that often comes up in answers to these questions is whether International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols should be typeset using
tipa
(a font package that uses T3 encoding for phonetic symbols) with pdfLaTeX,- a Unicode font with XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX, or
- a combination of these methods, as discussed at Custom phonetic font with tipa and fontspec.
What should a user consider when deciding which of these approaches to use?
This question is related to Is \aa or å preferred?, but I'm focused on the tipa
package specifically here, not the broader question of LaTeX-based macros vs. Unicode. This is also related to questions about pdfLaTeX vs. XeLaTeX vs. LuaLaTeX, but again I'm focused on tipa
, which can be used with any of those.
tipa
but I am on LuaLaTeX and have never not-found any symbol in the unicode. The question on non unicode symbols intipa
would be answered by its documentation for sure. – LaRiFaRi Jan 21 '15 at 7:02tipa
specifically and whether anyone has chosen to use it instead of Unicode on the basis of its technical capabilities. I've edited my question to better reflect this. – Jason Zentz Jan 21 '15 at 15:13tipa
lack symbols. Buttipa
lacks way more -- it doesn't even cover the IPA itself, even though that was the reasontipa
was created. But with XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX, you can always find some font out there that has the extra symbols you need (I do this when I transcribe things with the Norwegian phonetic alphabet, which isn't included by Unicode yet). Doing that is much harder or impossible with LaTeX/tipa. – Sverre Jan 21 '15 at 15:27tipa
manual is a great resource, but it makes no mention of Unicode, let alone provide corresponding Unicode codepoints for each symbol (it was last updated in 2004, so this isn't too surprising). I know thattipa
does contain some non-Unicode symbols, but I'm more concerned with whether there aretipa
symbols that users have actually needed and haven't been able to find in any Unicode font. – Jason Zentz Jan 21 '15 at 15:35tipa
is used: (1) Inertia vel sim. I'm lucky that I started using TeX when XeTeX was fairly mature (in 2012). But if I started in 2002, I would probably be atipa
user today. (2). People want to use LaTeX. I sometimes usetipa
, and the only reason is that I am writing a document that I wish to compile with LaTeX. LaTeX has some advantages over XeLaTeX (e.g.microtype
), but LuaLaTeX will eventually close that gap. – Sverre Jan 21 '15 at 16:14