Fi Character bug

[Robert H.]

Found an interesting minor bug in Publisher.  

I'm using the "Mangia" font set.   The font set has an italicized look to it.  However, if i type the letters "fi"  those two characters change to a non-italic font.

I'm guessing that this has to do with Publisher converting letters for different languages.  

Perhaps I'm missing some setting for US english.

I've attached a screen shot.

Best,

Robert Herrick

[walt.farrell]

I do not have that font, so I cannot actually try to see your problem.

However, many fonts have support for ligatures, and "fi" is usually a standard ligature in my experience.

For example, here is your word in Berlin Sans FB, the first time with Standard Ligatures enabled (the default) and the second with them disabled. Note the different shapes for the "fi" characters:

Possibly there is some problem in your font with how that ligature is constructed. Or possibly there is some problem in Publisher as you have guessed.

In either case, perhaps disabling Standard Ligatures would avoid the problem. With the word selected/highlighted, you can disable Standard Ligatures in the Character studio panel, in its Typography section, by clicking the fi icon:

 

[kenmcd]

@walt.farrell That was my first guess too, but it turns out the font has no ligatures at all.

@Robert H. Did you actually type this text, or did it get copied from another source?

I am assuming this is the Mangia font from one of the old Summitsoft collections. Correct?

Below on the first line I typed "Specific" - and you can see it looks as expected from this font.
The font has no ligatures at all. Not even the old legacy fi ligature which is one of the handful which do have an actual Unicode code point (FB01).
On the second line below I entered the fi ligature character (FB01) from Arial.
As you can see that looks a lot like the text in your image above.

So I am guessing this text was from another source, and that an actual fi ligature character (FB01) was in that text (not an OpenType replacement ligature) and in APub that character was replaced with a fallback font (Arial) because that character does not exist in the Mangia font.

You can test this theory by doing Export to PDF and then using a PDF editor/reader to check the actual fonts used on that "fi" in the text.

So it does not appear to be a "fi" bug, but depending on how the text came into the document it may be an import issue, or something else.

[Robert H.]

Sorry for the long delayed reply.

I typed the word "Specific".  As soon as I type the i after the f, the fi changes to the "fi" bug.  If I delete the I or the F, the font of the remaining F or I changes back to the expected look.

If I change fonts, the fi returns to "normal".   

Exporting to PDF, converts it to one character. File attached.

It's a bug. 

 

Best,

Robert

Specific test.pdf

[Pauls]

would it be possible to upload a copy of the font here please.

 

 

[Robert H.]

Sorry, Mangia is a commercial font, so I can't upload it.

However,  I tested this and it occurs with a number of fonts.

Consolas is a Microsoft font that it happens with.

I've tested this on both Mac and PC and it occurs on both.

Just type the work "Specific" or just the lower case letters fi  together.  Highlight the word, then scroll though your fonts, so that the font of the word changes.  You'll see that on some fonts the f and i will join together.

Regards,

Robert

[Alfred]

12 hours ago, Robert H. said:

Sorry, Mangia is a commercial font, so I can't upload it.

@Pauls has provided you with a private upload link, so no one other than Serif staff would have access to the file.

12 hours ago, Robert H. said:

Just type the work "Specific" or just the lower case letters fi  together.  Highlight the word, then scroll though your fonts, so that the font of the word changes.  You'll see that on some fonts the f and i will join together.

Although most fonts include the ‘fi’ ligature not all do, but the issue here is that choosing the Mangia font results in a fallback font being used when there is an attempt to substitute an ‘fi’ ligature that doesn’t exist. If you turn off the OpenType ‘Standard Ligature’ feature, ‘fi’ will not be substituted for an ‘f’ followed by an ‘i’, regardless of the font used.

[Robert H.]

Alfred -
That solved the problem.

Thanks!

Robert