AD: Permanently disable all buttons in Typography panel

[wout]

One feature in AD is bugging me for quite some time now. When I type the letters fi, they disappear. I already found out I can fix it by disabling Character > Typography > fi, but every time I open a new document it's enabled again. In my case, it's particularly annoying because my last name and my company name start with fi.

So how can I disable this permanently? I don't even know what it's for, so I am probably never going to use it anyway.

[R C-R]

Most fonts include ligatures for certain letter combinations like "fi" & "fl." They should not disappear when you type them. Visually, only their spacing & possibly their appearance should change if Typography > Standard Ligatures (the button with the fi icon) is enabled in the Character panel & you are using a font that includes ligatures. If the font does not include a ligature for the combination, it should not matter if this option is enabled or not -- either way the two characters should appear the same because no substitutions should occur.

 

If they are disappearing, this might indicate a problem with the font you are using or with your computer's ability to accesses them. Are you using a Mac or a Window PC?

[MikeW]

The reason it is always enabled with a new document is because that is the font registry's recommendation for ligatures. Serif follows that recommendation for ligatures (and other tag registry feature recommendations).

 

If/when AD can ever save templates, likely a choice would stick. One could make a dummy template. Meaning a saved document with this turned off for the default type styles, then begin a new document with using that empty document. Maybe. I haven't tried it.

 

If the two characters are disappearing, that is non-standard behavior for a font. It might be that there is a ligature option in the font, but either an improper code assignment to that location or there simply is no fi ligature and with the presence of a lig feature, AD is simply still turning it on.

 

It is also possible that feature doesn't exist in the font and AD is erroneously turning it on. What the font is may be helpful. And if it is a free font, attaching it here would help. If it is a commercial font, Serif might be interested in seeing it and will (hopefully) request it be sent to them privately.

 

Mike

[wout]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Most fonts include ligatures for certain letter combinations like "fi" & "fl." They should not disappear when you type them. Visually, only their spacing & possibly their appearance should change if Typography > Standard Ligatures (the button with the fi icon) is enabled in the Character panel & you are using a font that includes ligatures. If the font does not include a ligature for the combination, it should not matter if this option is enabled or not -- either way the two characters should appear the same because no substitutions should occur.

 

If they are disappearing, this might indicate a problem with the font you are using or with your computer's ability to accesses them. Are you using a Mac or a Window PC?

2

I just read up on ligatures and it all makes much more sense now.

I'm using a font that I created back in 2002. Looking into the original file, the fi glyph was activated but empty. So it was an error on my side

Anyway, thanks for the explanation!