[Tugindia] Font war [was] Matching spec...

[E. Krishnan]

On Thu, 19 Jun 2003, H S Rai wrote:

> In  `Computer Modern  Roman' when  `f' comes  with `l',  then combined
> sometimes  appers  to be  `A'.,  while  `f'  with  `i' appears  to  be
> wonderful. 

In traditional typesetting, certain combinations of letters (called 
ligatures) are treated as a single unit and special types are designed for 
them. High quality typesetting programs also follow this 
tradition. The combinations "ff", "fi", "fl" are some of the common 
ligatures in English. In Computer Modern, the ligature "fl" has the 
horizontal stroke of "f" touching the "l", creating a mild resemblance to 
"A" as you said. But this is not so in certain other fonts, such as Lucida 
Bright. I have a feeling that in traditional typesetting, it must be as 
in Computer Modern, since from what I have understood from his writings, 
Donald Knuth is often a stickler for tradition.

> my esthetic sense is so so ;-)

Aesthetics is often purely subjective, is it not?
-- 
Krishnan