From: John H. Jenkins (jenkins@apple.com)
Date: Thu Jan 25 2007 - 18:18:51 CST
On Jan 25, 2007, at 4:39 PM, Ruszlan Gaszanov wrote:
> Richard Wordingham wrote:
>
>> In general, the effects of ZWJ and ZWNJ are optional. Thus if I
>> use ZWJ in
>> 'Caesar', it is up to the rendering system as to whether I see
>> something
>> like 'C¾sar'. (In some scripts, ZWJ and ZWNJ do have effects that
>> are
>> mandatory on rendering systems.)
>
> Uh, ok... and how about making those effects mandatory for Latin/
> Greek/Cyrillic etc. too?
>
It is *precisely* this suggestion which makes Latin/Greek/Cyrillic
typographers faint in horror. *Forbidding* ligation in certain
contexts where it is linguistically inappropriate isn't so bad as
making ligature formation *mandatory*. (Other scripts are different
in this regard, I hasten to add before someone else does.) ¾ is a
borderline case because it is a distinct letter in some alphabets, but
saying that you *must* draw <f ZWJ i> as ̃ is bad because the
existence of an ̃ ligature simply doesn't make sense in some type
designs.
In Latin typography, ligature formation is largely a matter of
stylistic preference. Stylistic preferences do not belong in plain
text.
========
John H. Jenkins
jenkins@apple.com
jhjenkins@mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/
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