I am creating a ligature. It looks fine in the preview of the font creator software, but it doesn’t appear correctly in the proofing tool or in any word processing software.
For your reference image has been attached and sample font file download link is too shared.
Font project file is shared at this link: Unique Download Link | WeTransfer
I want them to form a ligature: ھ
Input: signsanah-arab hehdoachashmee-arab
required Output: signsanah-arab.hijri
I am using FontCreator v15.0.0.3024.
Thank you for sharing your project file and details.
I’ve looked into it, and the issue is not with your substitution rule itself but with the first character in your ligature. The character Arabic Sign Sanah (U+0601) belongs to the Unicode Other, Format category. Characters in this category are not treated as normal letters, and most shaping engines will ignore them when applying OpenType layout features.
That’s why the ligature works in FontCreator’s preview but doesn’t show up in external applications like Word or our proofing tool — the shaping engine simply doesn’t consider U+0601 as part of the text sequence.
Unfortunately, this means it cannot reliably be used to trigger a ligature substitution in OpenType. If you need a custom sequence like this, the only workaround would be to use a Private Use Area codepoint or another visible character to stand in for U+0601.
Thank you so much for the insightful explanation and your kind effort in reviewing the issue. Truly appreciated!
