I am using font creator to create an alphabet for a conlang, and one thing has me stumped. I’ve seen it done in other fonts so i know its possible…
I have a character that represents the dental fricative /ð/ and what i want is for when a person types ‘th’ the two characters are combined to create one character.
what’s this kind of setup called, and most of all, how’s it done?
if its not possible to do with fontcreator (why not) how did the other guy do it, and any ideas for a good work around?
It’s called a an OpenType glyph substitution or ligature.
See this tutorial to learn how to do it in FontCreator 7. If you want your font to always make the substitute then use the liga feature. If you usually want “th” to be displayed as “th” and only sometimes as a fricative, use the dlig feature.
Be aware that not all applications support OpenType glyph substitutions (GSUB).
If you don’t have FontCreator Professional or Standard Edition, it’s worth upgrading (see my FontCreator Review), or it can be done using the OpenType compiler or VOLT.
thanks that’s very helpful. unfortunately i’m on 6.0 right now, so i think i’ll be trying VOLT…
Just as an FYI, ‘dental fricative’ is a phonological term (‘dental’ as in teeth and ‘fricative’ as in friction, indicating that you produce the sound by expelling air with the tip of your tongue placed against your upper teeth). In IPA, eth (ð) is used for a voiced ‘th’ as in ‘this’, but theta (θ) is used for an unvoiced ‘th’ as in ‘thorn’. I don’t see how you could use the ‘liga’ feature under these circumstances.
VOLT seemed more difficult to use than the OpenType Compiler, which I learnt to use in a few days, whereas I soon gave up on VOLT.
Also, the scripts used by FontCreator 7.0 are very similar to those used by the OT Compiler, so if you have to learn how to use VOLT, your time would be better spend learning how to use the OT Compiler.