Problem
The alpine-science-cn image has zero system fonts (fc-list returns empty). It only ships Latin Modern OTF from TeX, which is enough for pdflatex with Western European languages but insufficient for non-Latin scripts.
Current status
| Language group |
pdflatex |
xelatex/lualatex |
Status |
| French/German/Spanish/Italian |
✅ babel + LM |
✅ polyglossia + LM |
Works |
| Cyrillic (Russian, etc.) |
❌ no T2A encoding |
⚠️ polyglossia defs exist, no fonts |
Broken |
| Arabic |
❌ no RTL support |
⚠️ arabxetex exists, no fonts |
Broken |
What's available
polyglossia.sty ✅ (full language definitions including ru, ar, etc.)fontspec.sty ✅arabxetex.sty ✅babel-english, babel-japanese ✅babel-russian, babel-french, babel-german, etc. ❌- System fonts (Cyrillic, Arabic) ❌
- T2A encoding (
t2aenc.def) ❌
Proposed changes
- Install babel language packs:
babel-french, babel-german, babel-spanish, babel-italian, babel-russian
- Install Cyrillic support:
cyrillic package (provides T2A encoding)
- Install system fonts for xelatex/lualatex:
- Noto fonts (covers Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic, and more) or
- CMU (Computer Modern Unicode) for Cyrillic + Amiri/Scheherazade for Arabic
- Run
fc-cache -fv after font installation
Priority
Low — current users are primarily CJK + English. This is for future multilingual support.
Problem
The
alpine-science-cnimage has zero system fonts (fc-listreturns empty). It only ships Latin Modern OTF from TeX, which is enough for pdflatex with Western European languages but insufficient for non-Latin scripts.Current status
What's available
polyglossia.sty✅ (full language definitions including ru, ar, etc.)fontspec.sty✅arabxetex.sty✅babel-english,babel-japanese✅babel-russian,babel-french,babel-german, etc. ❌t2aenc.def) ❌Proposed changes
babel-french,babel-german,babel-spanish,babel-italian,babel-russiancyrillicpackage (provides T2A encoding)fc-cache -fvafter font installationPriority
Low — current users are primarily CJK + English. This is for future multilingual support.