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Ligatures


Doug Pershing

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  • 4 weeks later...

If you're talking about these kinds of things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligature_(typography)

They're just glyphs in a font like any other "letter."

 

If the ligature you want is in the ASCII range, such as "Æ" (not sure if that will show up on all browsers), then you can use one of the standard named entities in entity.def (or entity.mac.def) such as "Æ" in tagged markup. These entities are listed in the FusionPro Tags Reference Guide. You can also type such a character directly into the Variable Text Editor (see below) in any version of FusionPro.

 

Of course, many of the "precomposed" ligatures are in the Unicode (non-ASCII, or 16-bit) range:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_precomposed_Latin_characters_in_Unicode#Ligatures

So, you would need to use FusionPro 5.8 or later to use them in either the Variable Text Editor or in a composition.

 

You should be able to type (or copy-and-paste) such characters directly into the Variable Text Editor. On Windows, you can use the Character Map (Start -> Run -> charmap) to access extended Unicode characters, or use the appropriate Alt+number key combination. On Mac, you can use the Character Palette. (In OS X 10.5 [Leopard], go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu, click "Show input menu in menu bar", then you get a nice patriotic flag on your menu bar with a "Show Character Palette" option, from which you can insert any character directly into the Variable Text Editor. And I have to say that supporting this, along with Unicode input sources, was something for which we did a lot of work in FusionPro 5.8 for Mac.)

 

Also in FusionPro 5.8 or later, in addition to the standard named ASCII entities, you can use numeric Unicode entities in tagged markup , such as "ɐ or "ɐ"

Edited by Dan Korn
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I need to use characters that do not have alt characters, such as the 'fi' ligature. I have tried the decimal entry as & # 64257; (spaces added so this editor will not parse). This doesn't work. The unicode value is U+FB01. How can I use this character and other ones that do not have alt numbers? Edited by Doug Pershing
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I need to use characters that do not have alt characters, such as the 'fi' ligature. I have tried the decimal entry as & # 64257; (spaces added so this editor will not parse). This doesn't work. The unicode value is U+FB01. How can I use this character and other ones that do not have alt numbers?

 

First of all, the answer to your question depends on your operating system and the version of FusionPro you're using. You need to be using FusionPro 5.8 or newer to handle Unicode (double-byte, i.e. 16-bit, i.e. > 255 or 0xFF) characters. There's no way to use such characters, either in the Variable Text Editor or in a composition, in FusionPro 5.1 or earlier. However, if you are using a Unicode-capable version of FusionPro, any 16-bit Unicode character should be accessible, although not all fonts will contain glyphs for all characters.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "characters that do not have alt characters." On Windows, if I'm using a Unicode-aware application, I can hold down the Alt key and type 64257 on the numeric keypad (NOT on the number keys above the QWERTY letters), and the "fi" ligature shows up, at least in most fonts. This works for any Unicode character. It definitely works for me in the Variable Text Editor in FusionPro 6.0 with in the "Arial Unicode MS" font. Keep in mind that some fonts may show a different glyph at this code point, or may not include it at all.

 

On Windows, the Character Map (Start -> Run -> charmap) utility will show you any glyph for any Unicode character in any installed font. If you check the "Advanced view" box, you can enter a hexadecimal code in the "Go to Unicode" box. If you enter "FB01", it shows the "fi" ligature. (Yes, the Character Map wants hexadecimal and the Alt key combinations want decimal, at least on Windows XP; you can take up that issue with Microsoft.) You can also type "latin small ligature fi" (the full Unicode name of the character) in the "Search for" box to find it.

 

Back to FusionPro, in tagged markup, you can use either "fi" or "fi" to output the "fi" ligature. Again, you have to be using FusionPro 5.8 or newer, and you have to be outputting text in a font which supports Unicode and has a glyph at that particular code point. (Also, if the job was created in an older version of FusionPro, you may need to go to the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog and uncheck the "Limit processing to Latin-1 text" box.) If you think you're meeting these criteria and you're still not getting the character in your output, then check your log (.msg) file for any relevant messages.

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(Also, if the job was created in an older version of FusionPro, you may need to go to the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog and uncheck the "Limit processing to Latin-1 text" box.)

 

That was it. After unchecking that box both the decimal "fi" and "fi" characters work.

 

Thank you Dan

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  • 6 years later...

We have started using a font in Indesign Called Chartwell that lets us easily create and edit charts directly in Indesign. Here is a link to a video about it.

 

http://www.lynda.com/articles/indesigns-secrets-building-graphs-with-the-chartwell-font

 

Basically you can type in your percentages, select your text and turn on "Discretionary Ligatures" in the Character Palette's Open Type settings. This converts your numbers to a chart. Is there a way to get Fusion Pro to respond the same way to convert numbers to graphs using this font?

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We have started using a font in Indesign Called Chartwell that lets us easily create and edit charts directly in Indesign. Here is a link to a video about it.

 

http://www.lynda.com/articles/indesigns-secrets-building-graphs-with-the-chartwell-font

 

Basically you can type in your percentages, select your text and turn on "Discretionary Ligatures" in the Character Palette's Open Type settings. This converts your numbers to a chart. Is there a way to get Fusion Pro to respond the same way to convert numbers to graphs using this font?

Your question seems only tangentially related to the existing thread about ligatures. Please start a new thread for a new question.

 

That said, it seems that all that font is doing is taking particular sets of characters and representing them in particular ways. But that's really all that any font does. So I don't see offhand why that wouldn't work in FusionPro.

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