Faking ff ligatures

[Thierry Bouche]

»  The solution seems to me to be this: in those
» cases where a fount ends up with horrible-looking ffl and ffi `ligatures'
» made up of a real fi or fl ligature preceded by an `f', the best fix is to
» replace the `fi' and `fl' ligatures (in ffl and ffi only) with `f' `i' and
» `f' `l'.

that sounds reasonnable to me. For instance, in Lino Didot italic, the
f in the fi lig has a shape (even slope) completely different from
that of the standalone f, hence the string <f><fi> is an
abomination. In that case, it is better to use <f><f><i> with proper
kerning, yes.

» I was assuming this; I was considering playing around with the kerning in a
» TeX file until I'd found something that looked okay, and then using *that*
» kerning for *that* fount only.

ah, that was unclear, as you were talking of changing latin.mtx...

» > fontinst's complex way of doing nothing
» >is the only sane line here.

[the sanest way being maybe to suppress reference to inexisting ligs
at all, but that's another matter, discussed at length already...]

» I reckon the appropriate modification is writing a file ffl+ffi_hack.mtx
» and putting this in it:
» 
» \setglyph{ffi}
»    \glyph{f}{1000}
»    \movert{\kerning{f}{f}}
»    \glyph{f}{1000}
»    \movert{\kerning{f}{i}}
»    \glyph{i}{1000}
» \endsetglyph
» 
» \setglyph{ffl}
»    \glyph{f}{1000}
»    \movert{\kerning{f}{f}}
»    \glyph{f}{1000}
»    \movert{\kerning{f}{l}}
»    \glyph{l}{1000}
» \endsetglyph
» 
» and then saying something like:
» 
» \installfont    {pgslhr8t} {pgslh8r,latin,ffi+ffl_hack}
»                                                {T1} {T1}{pgslh}{m}{n}{}
» 
» Is this less mad?

YMMV (your madness may vary...)

Now, how will look your final efforts: efficients?
Thierry Bouche, Grenoble.