Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

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Lesley Prince
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Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Lesley Prince »

Hello
I apologise in advance for my obtuse stupidity, but I can't make head nor tail of the substitution and ligature elements of FontCreator. Scripts, for example; where are they in Open Type designer? Or do we have to write our own? The thing is, I am working on a number of 'historical' fonts for documentary work. These are intended to have the general feel of writing from, say, the 12th century, but do not need to be absolutely accurate (they are, after all, just film props). However, even as mere props there are many substitutions involved, such as a double 'l' bearing a ligature line linking the letters. Also, there are lots of contextual substitutions, such as the difference in form of the letter 's' within and at the end of a word. I have searched through the manual and the forum for some clue as to how I may access the substitution functions. Admittedly there are descriptions, but they are written for people who are expert, and I'm not, at least not in type creation. I create typefaces for particular purposes (not for sale), so I am not fully aware of all the terminology or technical ins and outs. From what I have read, I get the idea, but how to access scripts and implement them continues to elude. I do not believe myself to be a stupid person, but I do feel completely at sea with this, and would welcome any gentle help anyone would be prepared to offer.

Thank you in advance

Les Prince
Dr. Lesley Prince

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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Did you read the Tutorial and watch the video yet?
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Lesley Prince
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Lesley Prince »

Hi Bhikkhu
Thank you. Yes, I have looked at them. I have got as far as setting up a lookup for the ligatures, but when I test the code syntax I'm told it's not used. Looking at the results, I seem to have a proliferation of Ligature1, Ligature2, and so on, and I just can't get the thing to work. I am going to try and delete all scripts and start cleanly with the ligatures alone. Having looked at the code, I think I get the idea, but I am frustrated that I can't get it to work, hence my wail that I am all at sea.
Thank you for taking the trouble to reply.
Regards
Les
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Wails should be all at sea. :D

I will leave you to work it out for yourself as that's the best way to learn. Ask again if you get beached.
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Lesley Prince
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Lesley Prince »

:lol:
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Lesley Prince
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Lesley Prince »

Hello again Bhikkhu
I have tried and my frustration is considerable, so I shall have a cup of tea after I have posted this. I am attaching two screen shots, which are the latest attempts to get the script to work. Before attempting this, I deleted all scripts and other stuff so as to get a clean go at it. Seriously, I followed the manual to the letter, then to a different letter, tried several variations and all to no effect. The best I have received is that my lookup table is not used. I now have a font called test bed, which I am using to muck around and try things out (just so I don't muck up a font I want to keep) but … well I despair. So it will be at least two cups of tea.


If you can (and are willing to) offer any advice I would be prepared to put my cup down and try again.

Best wishes

Les
script troubles.PNG
script troubles.PNG (54.11 KiB) Viewed 4663 times
more script troubles.PNG
more script troubles.PNG (43.99 KiB) Viewed 4663 times
Dr. Lesley Prince

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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Erwin Denissen »

You’re almost there!

Try this:

Code: Select all

script latn {
feature Ligatures;
}
This is also described in the manual:
https://www.high-logic.com/fontcreator/ ... cript.html
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Re: Ligatures, substitutions and scripts

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Amazing what one missing ; can do, but that's coding for you!

If you clear all scripts, then open the Code Editor, FontCreator will add some default features for you.
Add Automatically.png
Add Automatically.png (2.78 KiB) Viewed 4660 times
If you do that, you will see the semicolon that is missing from your code, and causing the syntax error.
Feature Ligature.png
Feature Ligature.png (11.46 KiB) Viewed 4660 times
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