Typophile

Ligatures in InDesign vs. FontBook

Edward Long

Hi,

I'm trying to move some fonts (in this case Sabon) over from an older Mac onto a Leopard system.

The fonts are FFIL/LWFN suitcases and there is a separate folder with .AFM metrics files.

By just opening the FFIL in FontBook, the font seems to install but ligatures don't to work unless I use the font in InDesign. (i.e. the fi and fl ligatures are there in the list of glyphs but don't get automatically replaced).

Is there something else I need to do to enable the ligatures? I haven't restarted the computer since the install, would that help?

Frode Bo Helland

Not sure what causes this, but I strongly recommend switching to Linotype FontExplorer X.

filip blazek

InDesign has special built-in algorithm for basic ligature substitution of Type 1 fonts. If your font contain properly encoded ligature fi or fl (maybe other ligatures too), it is used in your text. It won't work in any other application and it has nothing to do with font management software.

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