Avalon natively supports OpenType fonts, which add a variety of typographic features that are unavailable in True Type fonts. One of those features is Ligatures, an ancient readibility technically that has been around for hundreds of years. We’ve enabled OpenType features throughout the platform; to illustrate, I’ll use a Button to show ligatures using an OpenType font, Palatino Linotype (which comes with Windows).
Notice how the adjacent Fs in “Effect” are connected. This is an example of a standard ligature, which is enabled by default in Avalon. The markup for this button is shown below:
<Button FontFamily="Palatino Linotype" FontSize="20" Padding="10"> Quixotic Effect </Button>
Because standard ligatures are enabled by default, you have to do extra work to disable them. I’ve provided the screen shot and markup for the button with standard ligatures disabled below:
<Button FontFamily="Palatino Linotype" FontSize="20" Padding="10">
<Inline Typography.StandardLigatures="False">
Quixotic Effect
</Inline>
</Button>
Another OpenType feature are discretionary ligatures, these are optional ligatures that are part of an OpenType font, but aren’t enabled by default because they tend to be historical or ornate, meaning they don’t particularly enhance readability. The image below illustrates the same Button with discretionary ligatures enabled:
Notice the swash that goes from the Q to underneath the U, as well as the connection between the c and t. Once again, the markup:
<Button FontFamily="Palatino Linotype" FontSize="20" Padding="10">
<Inline Typography.DiscretionaryLigatures="True">
Quixotic Effect
</Inline>
</Button>
12 Comments
Not to be a pain, but are connected F’s a good thing for readability in today’s type-driven world? On a lower cognition level it seems that recognizing that the single character created by joining two F’s represents two seperate characters adds computation time (for our minds). I’ve always thought that connecting written characters, such as cursive and this example, were _writing_ shortcuts - not _reading_ shortcuts? But then, I am no expert :)
Not to be a pain, but are connected F’s a good thing for readability in today’s type-driven world? On a lower cognition level it seems that recognizing that the single character created by joining two F’s represents two seperate characters adds computation time (for our minds). I’ve always thought that connecting written characters, such as cursive and this example, were _writing_ shortcuts - not _reading_ shortcuts? But then, I am no expert :)
The effect is a bit easier to understand when you consider the f-i ligature. When you try properly type-set and space those adjacent letters, they will collide. Ligatures were created to deal with this problem.
Also: Pretty much any book, newspaper, and magazine use ligatures in their printing, so you grow up reading (and recognizing) those letter and word shapes.
The effect is a bit easier to understand when you consider the f-i ligature. When you try properly type-set and space those adjacent letters, they will collide. Ligatures were created to deal with this problem.
Also: Pretty much any book, newspaper, and magazine use ligatures in their printing, so you grow up reading (and recognizing) those letter and word shapes.
fil is right. Using Palatino for this example is kind of funny, because it was created so that the tops of the f’s are very short, to avoid collisions (in the Linotype hot metal typesetting it was designed for). So it really doesn’t matter so much for Palatino. But in many typefaces this is an important/useful feature.
fil is right. Using Palatino for this example is kind of funny, because it was created so that the tops of the f’s are very short, to avoid collisions (in the Linotype hot metal typesetting it was designed for). So it really doesn’t matter so much for Palatino. But in many typefaces this is an important/useful feature.
Correct TPhinney — I only used Palatino in this example because it is one of the few fonts currently included with Windows that actually supports ligatures.
Correct TPhinney — I only used Palatino in this example because it is one of the few fonts currently included with Windows that actually supports ligatures.
What other fonts are supporting ligatures?
What other fonts are supporting ligatures?
Kenny: Of the fonts that currently ship with Windows, only Palatino Linotype supports Ligatures. Most quality OpenType fonts today support ligatures, since they are an important factor in quality text.
Kenny: Of the fonts that currently ship with Windows, only Palatino Linotype supports Ligatures. Most quality OpenType fonts today support ligatures, since they are an important factor in quality text.