🚀 go-pugleaf

Fredrik Nyman writes

> Suppose you have a font that does not have ligatures, e.g.  vanilla
> Adobe Garamond.  Exactly what happens when I install the "Expert
> Set" which *does* contain ligatures?  Is the expert set a separate
> font as far as the NeXT is concerned, or will the Adobe Garamond
> character set become "extended" with the glyphs defined in the
> Expert Set font file?

> Also, do all/most/some of the NeXT text processing support ligatures?
> Will, for example, WriteNow, WP and FrameMaker print the /ffl glyph
> if it exists in the chosen character set, or will they cop out and
> print the glyphs f, f, and l?

Note that most Adobe font programs do contain a basic set of
ligatures.  Not as extensive as the ones available in those families
with expert sets, but a reasonable set.  See the back of the RedBook
for a list.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work as smoothly as one would like.
Seperate faces still stay seperate, and expert sets are separate.
To get characters from the expert set, you still have to switch
over to the font panel, click, click, and switch back.  These are
a good argument for why the font panel should have a font shelf
(and why the font shelf fonts should be accessible with Cmd-Shft-T
1-9 - that is, make Cmd-Shft-T a prefix for getting a font from
the shelf, and 1-9 be the position of the font on the shelf to
get...)  Maybe next year...

Expert sets don't use the standard encoding; they have their own
encoding, much like Symbol and Carta do.

Ligature substitution definitions are held in the AFM files, and
an application itself must do something to get the ligatures
automatically.  I'm not sure which programs do and don't.  Once a
document is done, it wouldn't take too much (although it is extra
work people shouldn't have to do manually...) to do global search
and replace for the ligatures.

Currently, as far as I'm aware, no program will grab ligatures out
of an expert set for substituting in a piece of text using the
regular face.  Personally, I don't see that this is such a complicated
thing to do.

Sigh.  Someday we'll get typefaces treated like the interconnected
databases that they really are...

--
Scott Byer                             NeXTMail: byer@mv.us.adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated               These are *my* opinions, and  
1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900        do not necessarily reflect
Mountain View, CA 94039-7900             the opinions of my employer.
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