Automatic ligatures

[Matanya Ophee]

On 26/03/2012 9:20 PM, Roger Shuttleworth wrote:
> Hi Matanya
>
> As others have said, FrameMaker on Windows does not do ligatures; that's
> because they are not included in the Windows character sets.

That is only partially true. Indeed the fi and fl ligatures are not part 
of the main character set and not accessible with Alt-0xxx numeric 
keyboard codes, but they do reside at the bottom end of most type 1 and 
TT fonts with U-xxx accessible codes. Just open the font with Windows' 
Character map to see this. The fact remains that both QuarkExpress and 
InDesign found a way to access these characters. I see no reason why 
FrameMaker cannot accomplish the same.

What both QuarkExpress and InDesign also are unable to do is access the 
ff, ffi and ffl ligatures, since, indeed, these characters are only 
found in Expert fonts. I could live with just fi and fl, if necessary. 
Why, then, I do not migrate to these typographically superior programs?

because they are deficient on features that are important to me in the 
production of scholarly books such as footnotes, indexes etc. There is a 
Quark extension that can do this, but it cost about twice as much as the 
program itself. So there, I am stuck with FM-8 and expert fonts.


> The only
> resource that I am aware of is at
> http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/~hedrick/typography/
> <http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/%7Ehedrick/typography/>
> If you go to the bottom of that article, there's mention of a plugin for
> ligatures, but it appears to be only for FM 6 or 7. Perhaps the author
> may be able to suggest other resources.


Thanks. I'll look into that.


Matanya Ophee
Editions Orphée Inc.,
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Columbus, OH 43235-1226
Phone: 614-846-9517
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mailto:m.ophee at orphee.com
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