This is a problem I have never figured out. PDFLaTeX and XeLaTeX are all programs included in TeX Live. Take a look at the Mid-Autumn Festival. In fact, it is very simple. Let's summarize the opinions of several cool people on the Internet:
1. PDFTeX program: an implementation of the Tex language, that is, a program that converts the Tex language to typographical. It will directly compile the code written in the TeX language into a PDF file.
2. PDFLaTeX command: a command in the PDFTeX program to compile a tex file written in LaTeX format.
3. XeTeX program: A New Implementation of the TeX language, that is, a new program that converts the Tex language to typographical. Supports Unicode encoding and direct access to operating system fonts.
4. XeLaTeX command: a command in the XeTeX program to compile a tex file written in LaTeX format.
To put it simply, PDFLaTeX and XeLaTeX are two types of commands for compiling TeX files. The above content is described in detail here :. The biggest difference between the two is that the XeTeX corresponding to XeLaTeX provides better support for fonts, allowing users to use OS fonts instead of TeX Standard fonts, and better support for non-Latin fonts. See here for details: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15796519/difference-between-xelatex-and-pdflatex
However, there are advantages and disadvantages in everything. I found that XeLaTeX is used for compiling. If there are images or other elements in the paper that are not embedded in the font, the generated PDF file also has some fonts that are not embedded. Instead, because PDFLaTeX uses the TeX Standard font, all non-TeX Standard fonts are replaced when a PDF file is generated. Therefore, the PDF file generated by PDFLaTeX is embedded with all fonts by default, which brings great convenience to the layout of our paper. We recommend that you select an appropriate program based on your needs.
Recommended reading:
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