[XeTeX] How to use ligatures for TTF fonts?

[Jonathan Kew]

On 30 Jan 2009, at 18:46, Adam Twardoch wrote:

> Jonathan Kew wrote:
>> What OS version are you using, and what version of Times New Roman is
>> this? Any fairly recent version Windows version of TNR should include
>> the OpenType tables that support these ligatures,
>
> Jonathan,
>
> The Microsoft core fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Tahoma
> etc.) only contain OpenType Layout code for complex scripts. So  
> there is
> ligature code for lam+alif in Times New Roman but not for f+i.

Oops.... sorry, my mistake. I confess I didn't try it personally!  
Actually, now that you mention it, I remember that I was aware of this  
before. Just didn't recall it when I was replying. :( So thanks for  
pointing this out.

> This has been done to prevent documents from reflowing when users use
> different Windows versions -- something that has been always a very  
> high
> priority with corporate users.

Yes, I understand this -- though it strikes me as bizarre that they'd  
do this when simply changing default printers can make a Word document  
reflow.

As for ligatures, they could simply have made it an option in their  
applications, and make it default to "off" when opening old documents,  
rather than deciding that we have to live with past limitations  
forever. Even Verdana kerning could have been made a "compatibility"  
option.... they have enough of those already, after all! Sigh.

JK