xetex(1)

xetex1

Extended tex with native support for unicode, opentype, system fonts

Usage

xetex [options] [&format] [{file | \commands}]

Overview

XeTeX (xetex) is a TeX engine with native support for Unicode, OpenType, and system-installed fonts, using third-party libraries such as ICU, HarfBuzz, and FreeType. It outputs an extended dvi format (xdv), which by default is translated to pdf by xdvipdfmx(1).

XeTeX includes the e-TeX extensions and many extensions from pdfTeX, sometimes using different primitive names.

Options

For the common TeX command-line options and handling, see tex(1). The following XeTeX-specific options are also supported:

-no-pdf

Generate XeTeX's extended DVI (.xdv) output instead of pdf.

-output-driver cmd

Run cmd instead of xdvipdfmx to translate xdv to pdf.

-papersize string

Set pdf media size to string.

Options removed: -draftmode, -enc, -ipc, -ipc-start, -translate-file.

Environment

See tex(1) and pdftex(1).

Files

See tex(1). Also:

$TEXMFMAIN/tex/generic/tex-ini-files/xetex.ini

The driver file that builds the plain format file for XeTeX, xetex.fmt, in TeX Live.

Releases

5 releases since Debian 10 (Buster); the text changed 4 times.

  1. 10
  2. 11
  3. 12
  4. 13
  5. Arch

Bugs

See tex(1).

Authors

XeTeX was created and is maintained by Jonathan Kew and others. It is released as part of TeX Live. This manual page was written by Karl Berry. It is released to the public domain.

Bug reports: https://sourceforge.net/p/xetex/bugs/
Public discussion list for pdfTeX-specific issues: https://lists.tug.org/pdftex
Public discussion list for TeX Live: https://lists.tug.org/tex-live
Public discussion list for all things TeX: https://lists.tug.org/texhax

From texlive-doc 2026.1-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.