# How to add less common ligatures **URL:** \ **Category:** FontCreator - Support\ **Created:** [July 26, 2026, 6:43am UTC](https://forum.high-logic.com/t/how-to-add-less-common-ligatures/13612 "2026-07-26T06:43:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nreimer](https://forum.high-logic.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/77aa72/32.png) [@nreimer](https://forum.high-logic.com/u/nreimer)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 6:43am UTC](https://forum.high-logic.com/t/how-to-add-less-common-ligatures/13612/1 "2026-07-26T06:43:05Z")
I am new to FontCreator and am working on a handwritten font. I have a few different ligatures that aren’t as common that I plan to use like ‘Ti’ with the ‘i’ tucked under the ‘T’, ‘LL’ with the two stacked, ‘Qu’ with the tail of the ‘Q’ tucked perfectly under the ‘u’. Looking through different posts I discovered the OpenType Designer and the _Generate and Update OpenType Features_ section. With that I selected all the ligature options since I wasn’t sure which would be needed. I added the glyphs into my glyph library, set the _OT Class_ as ‘Ligature’ and that is as far as I’m able to go. So I have the glyphs listed in my library, however I can’t get them to function as ligatures. Is there a special way to get these less common or completely new ligatures to function like a regular ligature that I’m missing? Can new ligatures be created or is it just a set list? If this can’t be done as a ligature, is there a different route that I can use to get a similar outcome? ---
**Author:** ![ErwinDenissen](https://forum.high-logic.com/user_avatar/forum.high-logic.com/erwindenissen/32/9430_2.png) [@ErwinDenissen](https://forum.high-logic.com/u/ErwinDenissen)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 9:36am UTC](https://forum.high-logic.com/t/how-to-add-less-common-ligatures/13612/2 "2026-07-26T09:36:20Z")
Yes, you can create ligatures from any sequence of glyphs; they are not limited to a predefined list. Setting the **OT Class** to Ligature does not create the substitution by itself. FontCreator also needs to know which glyphs should be replaced. For your examples, name the ligature glyphs like this: - `T_i.liga` - `L_L.liga` - `Q_u.liga` Then open the **OpenType Designer** , choose **Generate and Update OpenType Features** , select **Standard Ligatures** , and generate the feature. This creates `liga` substitutions for: - `T` + `i` - `L` + `L` - `Q` + `u` The ligature glyphs do not need Unicode code points. The `liga` feature is appropriate here if you want these ligatures to be used automatically. Use `dlig` instead only when they should be optional and enabled manually by the user. You can test the result in the OpenType Designer preview with the **Standard Ligatures** feature enabled. ---
**Author:** ![nreimer](https://forum.high-logic.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/77aa72/32.png) [@nreimer](https://forum.high-logic.com/u/nreimer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2026, 5:17am UTC](https://forum.high-logic.com/t/how-to-add-less-common-ligatures/13612/3 "2026-07-28T05:17:34Z")
I knew I had to be missing something and I think that I didn’t think the .liga was needed since fi and fl simply were listed as that. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![ErwinDenissen](https://forum.high-logic.com/user_avatar/forum.high-logic.com/erwindenissen/32/9430_2.png) [@ErwinDenissen](https://forum.high-logic.com/u/ErwinDenissen)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://forum.high-logic.com/t/how-to-add-less-common-ligatures/13612/4 "2026-07-31T20:39:02Z")
That is understandable. The familiar `ff`, `fi`, `fl`, `ffi`, and `ffl` ligatures are special cases that FontCreator detects automatically, so they do not need a `.liga` suffix — FontCreator includes them when it generates the Standard Ligatures feature. There is a historical reason for this. Unicode assigned code points to these ligatures: - `ff` — U+FB00 - `fi` — U+FB01 - `fl` — U+FB02 - `ffi` — U+FB03 - `ffl` — U+FB04 These are compatibility characters, encoded only so that text from older, non-Unicode character sets can round-trip; Unicode explicitly discourages their use in ordinary text. Modern text should contain the individual characters — `f` followed by `i` — and the font’s OpenType `liga` feature substitutes the ligature glyph during display. Ligation is font behaviour, not a matter of which character you type. The code points remain because Unicode’s stability policy means an assigned character is never removed. Your `Ti`, `LL`, and `Qu` ligatures therefore need no Unicode code points at all — leave them unmapped. Naming them `T_i.liga`, `L_L.liga`, and `Q_u.liga` is enough: the underscore-separated part tells FontCreator which glyph sequence each one replaces, and the `.liga` suffix tells it to add them to the Standard Ligatures feature.