Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Get help with FontCreator here. Please do not post feature requests or bug reports here.
Post Reply
Ulla
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:44 pm

Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Ulla »

Hello, I am a new user in Font Creator. Please, help!
I bought Font Creator Professional version 12 and cannot figure it out) Please explain step by step how to create glyphs for ligatures of Cyrillic letters, for example - сс, вд, др, etc. That is, I cannot understand how to put two or three letters in one glyph so that when typing, they form ligatures. Thank you in advance and have a great day!
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

There are several steps to this.
  1. Create new empty glyphs for the ligatures. Since they are going to be used by OpenType features they do not need to be mapped. That is the recommendation unless your fonts are intended for use in applications that do not support OpenType ligatures. If you do wish to map them, use code-points in the Private Use Area from $E000 to $F8FF.
  2. Add the glyph с to the сс ligature and copy it, add glyphs в and д to the вд ligature, add the glyphs д and р to the др ligature, etc.
  3. In the Glyph Edit Window, adjust the position of the second glyph until you're satisfied with the spacing.
  4. Right-click on the second glyph, and open it in a new glyph edit window. Note the right side-bearing and close that window to return to the ligature glyph. (The process up to here can be automated if you intend to do it several times to different fonts. Ask later if you need this, once you have understood the basic process.)
  5. Enter the right side-bearing in the Glyph Properties Toolbar, and click on apply.
  6. Decompose the ligature and add contours to join the two glyphs as one ligature.
  7. Add the new ligatures to a liga feature in the OpenType Designer.
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

1. Adding the new glyphs

From the Insert menu, select Insert Glyph... The new ligature glyphs could be inserted after the last Cyrillic glyph, after any existing Private Use Area glyphs if you wish to map them, at the end of the font, or anywhere you wish.
Insert glyphs.png
Insert glyphs.png (5.51 KiB) Viewed 3239 times
Inserted Glyphs.png
Inserted Glyphs.png (2.24 KiB) Viewed 3239 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

2. Adding glyphs to the new ligatures

Open the new empty ligature glyph in a Glyph Edit Window, and click the G icon on the Glyph toolbar to insert Glyph to composite glyph. Search by name or scroll down to select the es-cyrl glyph and insert it.
Inserting es-cyrl Glyph.png
Inserting es-cyrl Glyph.png (5.93 KiB) Viewed 3239 times
3. Editing the New Ligature Glyph
We can copy this by holding down the Ctrl key and dragging the glyph to the right. Also hold down the shift key to constrain the movement to horizontal or vertical.
Ligature Glyph Properties.png
Ligature Glyph Properties.png (24.81 KiB) Viewed 3239 times
Use the Glyph Properties Toolbar (shortcut F4) to name the new ligature glyph and add a code-point if you wish to use the font in applications that do not support OpenType features. The naming convention uses a suffix of liga for ligature glyphs. This is optional, but it has some potential advantages.

Make the Composite glyph simple, and use the Drawing Tools (ellipse, free draw, etc.) to connect the two contours as you wish them to look. Use Get Union of Contours to join them together.
Join Contours.png
Join Contours.png (17.35 KiB) Viewed 3238 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Bhikkhu Pesala
Top Typographer
Top Typographer
Posts: 9873
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 5:28 am
Location: Seven Kings, London UK
Contact:

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

7. Adding the Ligature Feature

In the OpenType Designer, add a script for Cyrillic. Add a standard ligature feature for Cyrillic. Add a lookup table to the liga feature to use your newly created ligature glyphs. The screen shot shows Dejavu Sans, which already has 20 scripts and various features. I added the liga feature and the lookup table.
Standard Ligature Feature.png
Standard Ligature Feature.png (47.16 KiB) Viewed 3234 times
My FontsReviews: MainTypeFont CreatorHelpFC15 + MT12.0 @ Win 10 64-bit build 19045.2486
Leon Gauthier
Posts: 127
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 6:07 am

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Leon Gauthier »

Nice tutorial, Bhikkhu.
Ulla
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 09, 2019 11:44 pm

Re: Ligatures for the Cyrillic font. Please Help!!!

Post by Ulla »

Oh Bhikkhu,
thank you so much for the quick response! We will try...
And thank you for the Font Creator, it's great - simple and convenient)...
Best... Ulla)
Post Reply