⟨ ⟩,| |,/ /, and[ ]are used here, seethis page.Inwriting andtypography, aligature occurs where two or moregraphemes or letters are joined to form a singleglyph. Examples are the characters⟨æ⟩ and⟨œ⟩ used in English and French, in which the letters⟨a⟩ and⟨e⟩ are joined for the first ligature and the letters⟨o⟩ and⟨e⟩ are joined for the second ligature. For stylistic and legibility reasons,⟨f⟩ and⟨i⟩ are often merged to create⟨fi⟩ (where thetittle on the⟨i⟩ merges with the hood of the⟨f⟩); the same is true of⟨s⟩ and⟨t⟩ to create⟨st⟩. The commonampersand,⟨&⟩, developed from a ligature in which the handwritten Latin letters⟨e⟩ and⟨t⟩ (spellinget,Latin for 'and') were combined.[1]
The earliest known scriptSumerian cuneiform andEgyptianhieratic both include many cases of character combinations that gradually evolve from ligatures into separately recognizable characters. Other notable ligatures, such as theBrahmicabugidas and theGermanicbind rune, figure prominently throughout ancient manuscripts. These new glyphs emerge alongside the proliferation of writing with a stylus, whether onpaper orclay, and often for a practical reason: fasterhandwriting. Merchants especially needed a way to speed up the process of written communication and found that conjoining letters and abbreviating words for lay use was more convenient for record keeping and transaction than the bulky long forms.[citation needed]
Around the 9th and 10th centuries, monasteries became a fountainhead for these type of script modifications. Medieval scribes who wrote inLatin increased their writing speed by combining characters and by introducingnotational abbreviations. Others conjoined letters for aesthetic purposes. For example, inblackletter, letters with right-facing bowls (⟨b⟩,⟨o⟩, and⟨p⟩) and those with left-facing bowls (⟨c⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨d⟩,⟨g⟩ and⟨q⟩) were written with the facing edges of the bowls superimposed. In many script forms, characters such as⟨h⟩,⟨m⟩, and⟨n⟩ had their vertical strokes superimposed.[citation needed] Scribes also used notational abbreviations to avoid having to write a whole character in one stroke. Manuscripts in the fourteenth century employed hundreds of such abbreviations.[citation needed]
Inhandwriting, a ligature is made by joining two or more characters in an atypical fashion by merging their parts, or by writing one above or inside the other. In printing, a ligature is a group of characters that is typeset as a unit, so the characters do not have to be joined. For example, in some cases the⟨fi⟩ ligature prints the letters⟨f⟩ and⟨i⟩ with a greater separation than when they are typeset as separate letters. Whenprinting with movable type was invented around 1450,[4] typefaces included many ligatures and additional letters, as they were based on handwriting. Ligatures made printing with movable type easier because onesort would replace frequent combinations of letters and also allowed more complex and interesting character designs which would otherwise collide with one another.[citation needed]
Because of their complexity, ligatures began to fall out of use in the 20th century. Sans serif typefaces, increasingly used for body text, generally avoid ligatures, though notable exceptions includeGill Sans andFutura. Inexpensivephototypesetting machines in the 1970s (which did not requirejourneyman knowledge or training to operate) also generally avoid them. A few, however, became characters in their own right, see below the sections aboutGerman ß,various Latin accented letters,& et al.
The trend against digraph use was further strengthened by thedesktop publishing revolution. Early computer software in particular had no way to allow for ligature substitution (the automatic use of ligatures where appropriate), while most new digital typefaces did not include ligatures. As most of the early PC development was designed for the English language (which already treated ligatures as optional at best) dependence on ligatures did not carry over to digital. Ligature use fell as the number of traditional handcompositors andhot metal typesetting machine operators dropped because of the mass production of the IBM Selectric brand of electric typewriter in 1961. A designer active in the period commented: "some of the world's greatest typefaces were quickly becoming some of the world's worst fonts."[5]
Ligatures have grown in popularity in the 21st century because of an increasing interest in creating typesetting systems that evoke arcane designs and classical scripts. One of the first computer typesetting programs to take advantage of computer-driven typesetting (and later laser printers) wasDonald Knuth'sTeX program. Now the standard method of mathematical typesetting, its default fonts are explicitly based on nineteenth-century styles. Many new fonts feature extensive ligature sets; these includeFF Scala, Seria and others byMartin Majoor andHoefler Text byJonathan Hoefler.Mrs Eaves byZuzana Licko contains a particularly large set to allow designers to create dramatic display text with a feel of antiquity.A parallel use of ligatures is seen in the creation of script fonts that join letterforms to simulate handwriting effectively. This trend is caused in part by the increased support for other languages and alphabets in modern computing, many of which use ligatures somewhat extensively. This has caused the development of new digital typesetting techniques such asOpenType, and the incorporation of ligature support into the text display systems ofmacOS,Windows, and applications likeMicrosoft Office. An increasing modern trend is to use a "Th" ligature which reduces spacing between these letters to make it easier to read, a trait infrequent in metal type.[6][7][8]
Today, modern font programming divides ligatures into three groups, which can be activated separately: standard, contextual and historical. Standard ligatures are needed to allow the font to display without errors such as character collision. Designers sometimes find contextual and historic ligatures desirable for creating effects or to evoke an old-fashioned print look.[citation needed]
Many ligatures combine⟨f⟩ with the following letter. A particularly prominent example is⟨fi⟩ (or⟨fi⟩, rendered with two normal letters). Thetittle of the⟨i⟩ in many typefaces collides with the hood of the⟨f⟩ when placed beside each other in a word, and are combined into a single glyph with the tittle absorbed into the⟨f⟩. Other ligatures with the letter f include⟨fj⟩,[a]⟨fl⟩ (fl),⟨ff⟩ (ff),⟨ffi⟩ (ffi), and⟨ffl⟩ (ffl). InLinotype, ligature matrices for⟨fa⟩,⟨fe⟩,⟨fo⟩,⟨fr⟩,⟨fs⟩,⟨ft⟩,⟨fb⟩,⟨fh⟩,⟨fu⟩,⟨fy⟩, and for⟨f⟩ followed by afull stop,comma, orhyphen are optional in many typefaces,[9] as well as the equivalent set for the doubled⟨ff⟩, as a method to overcome the machine's physical restrictions.[citation needed]
These arose because with the usual typesort forlowercase⟨f⟩, the end of its hood is on akern, which would be damaged by collision with raised parts of the next letter.[citation needed]
Ligatures crossing themorpheme boundary of a composite word are sometimes considered incorrect, especially in officialGerman orthography as outlined in theDuden. An English example of this would be⟨ff⟩ inshelfful; a German example would beSchifffahrt ("boat trip").[b] Some computer programs (such asTeX) provide a setting to disable ligatures for German, while some users have also written macros to identify which ligatures to disable.[10][11]
Turkish distinguishesdotted anddotless "I". If a ligature withf were to be used in words such asfırın [oven] andfikir [idea], this contrast would be obscured. The⟨fi⟩ ligature, at least in the form typical to other languages, is therefore not used in Turkish typography.[citation needed]
Remnants of the ligatures⟨ſʒ⟩ /⟨ſz⟩ ("sharp s",eszett) and⟨tʒ⟩/⟨tz⟩ ("sharp t",tezett) fromFraktur, a family of Germanblackletter typefaces, originally mandatory in Fraktur but now employed only stylistically, can be seen to this day on street signs for city squares whose name containsPlatz or ends in-platz. Instead, the "sz" ligature has merged into a single character, the Germanß – see below.
Sometimes, ligatures for⟨st⟩ (st),⟨ſt⟩ (ſt),⟨ch⟩,⟨ck⟩,⟨ct⟩,⟨Qu⟩ and⟨Th⟩ are used (e.g. in the typefaceLinux Libertine).[citation needed]
Besides conventional ligatures, in the metal type era some newspapers commissioned custom condensed single sorts for the names of common long names that might appear in news headings, such as "Eisenhower", "Chamberlain". In these cases the characters did not appear combined, just more tightly spaced than if printed conventionally.[12]
TheGerman letter⟨ß⟩ (Eszett, also called thescharfes S, meaningsharp s) is an official letter of the alphabet in Germany and Austria. A recognizableligature representing the⟨sz⟩ digraph develops in handwriting in the early 14th century.[13] Its nameEs-zett (meaning S-Z) suggests a connection of "long s and z" (ſʒ) but the Latin script also knows a ligature of "long s over round s" (ſs). Since German was mostly set in blackletter typefaces until the 1940s, and those typefaces were rarely set in uppercase, a capital version of theEszett never came into common use, even though its creation has been discussed since the end of the 19th century. Therefore, the common replacement in uppercase typesetting was originally SZ (Maße "measure" →MASZE, different fromMasse "mass" →MASSE) and later SS (Maße →MASSE). Until 2017, the SS replacement was the only valid spelling according to the official orthography in Germany and Austria. In Switzerland, the ß is omitted altogether in favour of ss. Thecapital version (ẞ) of the Eszett character was occasionally used since 1905/06, has been part of Unicode since 2008, and has appeared in more and more typefaces. Since the end of 2010, theStändiger Ausschuss für geographische Namen (StAGN) has suggested the new upper case character for "ß" rather than replacing it with "SS" or "SZ" for geographical names.[14] A new standardized German keyboard layout (DIN 2137-T2) has included the capital ß since 2012. The new character entered the official orthographic rules in June 2017.[citation needed]
A prominent feature of thecolonial orthography created byJohn Eliot (later used in the first Bible printed in the Americas, theMassachusett-languageMamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God, published in 1663) was the use of the double-o ligature⟨ꝏ⟩ to represent the/u/ offood as opposed to the/ʊ/ ofhook (although Eliot himself used⟨oo⟩ and⟨ꝏ⟩ interchangeably).[clarification needed] In the orthography in use since 2000 in theWampanoag communities participating in the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP), the ligature was replaced with the numeral⟨8⟩, partly because of its ease in typesetting and display as well as its similarity to the o-u ligature⟨Ȣ⟩ used inAbenaki. For example, compare the colonial-era spellingseepꝏash[15] with the modern Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP) spellingseep8ash.[16]
As the letter⟨W⟩ is an addition to theLatin alphabet that originated in the seventh century, the phoneme it represents was formerly written in various ways. InOld English, the runic letterwynn⟨Ƿ⟩) was used, butNorman influence forced wynn out of use. By the 14th century, the "new" letter⟨W⟩, originated as two⟨V⟩ glyphs or⟨U⟩ glyphs joined, developed into a legitimate letter with its own position in the alphabet. Because of its relative youth compared to other letters of the alphabet, only a few European languages (English, Dutch, German, Polish, Welsh, Maltese, and Walloon) use the letter in native words.[citation needed]
The character⟨Æ⟩ (lower case⟨æ⟩; in ancient times namedæsc) when used inDanish,Norwegian,Icelandic, orOld English is not a typographic ligature. It is a distinctletter — avowel — and when collated, may be given a different place in thealphabetical order thanAe.[citation needed]
In modernEnglish orthography,⟨Æ⟩ is not considered an independent letter but a spelling variant, for example: "encyclopædia" versus "encyclopaedia" or "encyclopedia". In this use,⟨Æ⟩ comes fromMedieval Latin, where it was an optional ligature in some specific words that had been transliterated and borrowed from Ancient Greek, for example, "Æneas". It is still found as a variant in English and French words descended or borrowed from Medieval Latin, but the trend has recently been towards printing the⟨A⟩ and⟨E⟩ separately.[17]
Similarly,⟨Œ⟩ and⟨œ⟩, while normally printed as ligatures in French, are replaced by component letters if technical restrictions require it.[citation needed]
InGerman orthography, theumlauted vowels⟨ä⟩,⟨ö⟩, and⟨ü⟩ historically arose from⟨ae⟩,⟨oe⟩,⟨ue⟩ ligatures (strictly, from these vowels with a small letter⟨e⟩ written as adiacritic, for example⟨aͤ⟩,⟨oͤ⟩,⟨uͤ⟩). It is common practice to replace them with⟨ae⟩,⟨oe⟩,⟨ue⟩ digraphs when the diacritics are unavailable, for example in electronic conversation. Phone books treat umlauted vowels as equivalent to the relevant digraph (so that a name Müller will appear at the same place as if it were spelled Mueller; German surnames have a strongly fixed orthography, either a name is spelled with⟨ü⟩ or with⟨ue⟩); however, the alphabetic order used in other books treats them as equivalent to the simple letters⟨a⟩,⟨o⟩ and⟨u⟩. The convention inScandinavian languages andFinnish is different: there the umlaut vowels are treated as independent letters with positions at the end of the alphabet.[citation needed]
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In Middle English, the wordthe (writtenþe) was frequently abbreviated as⟨þͤ⟩, a⟨þ⟩ (thorn) with a small⟨e⟩ written as a diacritic. Similarly, the wordthat was abbreviated to⟨þͭ⟩, a⟨þ⟩ with a small⟨t⟩ written as a diacritic. During the latter Middle English andEarly Modern English periods, the thorn in its common script, orcursive, form came to resemble a⟨y⟩ shape. With the arrival ofmovable type printing, the substitution of⟨y⟩ for⟨Þ⟩ became ubiquitous, leading to the common "ye", as in 'Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe'. One major reason for this was that⟨y⟩ existed in the printer'stypes thatWilliam Caxton and his contemporaries imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, while⟨Þ⟩ did not.[18]
Theringdiacritic used in vowels such as⟨å⟩ likewise originated as an⟨o⟩ -ligature.[19] Before the replacement of the older "aa" with "å" became ade facto practice, an "a" with another "a" on top (aͣ) could sometimes be used, for example inJohannes Bureus's,Runa: ABC-Boken (1611).[20] The⟨uo⟩ ligatureů in particular saw use inEarly Modern High German, but it merged in later Germanic languages with⟨u⟩ (e.g.MHGfuosz,ENHGfuͦß,Modern GermanFuß "foot"). It survives inCzech, where it is calledkroužek.
The letterhwair (ƕ), used only intransliteration of theGothic language, resembles a⟨hw⟩ ligature. It was introduced byphilologists around 1900 to replace thedigraph⟨hv⟩ formerly used to express the phoneme in question, e.g. byMigne in the 1860s (Patrologia Latina vol. 18).
TheByzantines had a uniqueo-u ligature⟨Ȣ⟩ that, while originally based on theGreek alphabet's ο-υ, carried over into Latin alphabets as well. This ligature is still seen today on icon artwork in Greek Orthodox churches, and sometimes in graffiti or other forms of informal or decorative writing.[citation needed]
Gha⟨ƣ⟩, a rarely used letter based on Q and G, was misconstrued by theISO to be an OI ligature because of its appearance, and is thus known (to the ISO and, in turn,Unicode) as "Oi". Historically, it was used in many Latin-based orthographies ofTurkic (e.g.,Azerbaijani) and othercentral Asian languages.[citation needed]
TheInternational Phonetic Alphabet formerly used ligatures to representaffricate consonants, of which six are encoded in Unicode:ʣ,ʤ,ʥ,ʦ,ʧ andʨ. Onefricative consonant is still represented with a ligature:ɮ, and theextensions to the IPA contain three more:ʩ,ʪ andʫ.[citation needed]
TheInitial Teaching Alphabet, a short-lived alphabet intended for young children, used a number of ligatures to represent long vowels:⟨ꜷ⟩,⟨æ⟩,⟨œ⟩,⟨ᵫ⟩,⟨ꭡ⟩, and ligatures for⟨ee⟩,⟨ou⟩ and⟨oi⟩ that are not encoded in Unicode. Ligatures for consonants also existed, including ligatures of⟨ʃh⟩,⟨ʈh⟩,⟨wh⟩,⟨ʗh⟩,⟨ng⟩ and a reversed⟨t⟩ with⟨h⟩ (neither the reversed t nor any of the consonant ligatures are in Unicode).[citation needed]
Rarer ligatures also exist, including⟨ꜳ⟩;⟨ꜵ⟩;⟨ꜷ⟩;⟨ꜹ⟩;⟨ꜻ⟩ (barred⟨av⟩);⟨ꜽ⟩;⟨ꝏ⟩, which is used in medievalNordic languages for/oː/ (a longclose-mid back rounded vowel),[21] as well as in some orthographies of theMassachusett language to representuː (a longclose back rounded vowel); ᵺ; ỻ, which was used inMedieval Welsh to representɬ (thevoiceless lateral fricative);[21] ꜩ; ᴂ; ᴔ; and ꭣ haveUnicode codepoints (in code blockLatin Extended-E for characters used in German dialectology (Teuthonista),[22] theAnthropos alphabet,Sakha andAmericanist usage).[citation needed]
The most common ligature in modern usage is theampersand⟨&⟩ . This was originally a ligature of⟨E⟩ and⟨t⟩ , forming theLatin word "et", meaning "and". It has exactly the same use inFrench and inEnglish. The ampersand comes in many different forms. Because of its ubiquity, it is generally no longer considered a ligature, but alogogram. Like many other ligatures, it has at times been considered a letter (e.g., in early Modern English); in English it is pronounced "and", not "et", except in the case of&c, pronounced "et cetera". In most typefaces, it does not immediately resemble the two letters used to form it, although certain typefaces use designs in the form of a ligature (examples include the original versions ofFutura andUnivers,Trebuchet MS, andCivilité, known in modern times as the italic ofGaramond).[citation needed]
Similarly, thenumber sign⟨#⟩ originated as a stylized abbreviation of the Roman termlibra pondo, written as ℔.[23] Over time, the number sign was simplified to how it is seen today, with two horizontal strokes across two slash-like strokes.[24] Now a logogram, the symbol is used mainly to denote (in the US) numbers, and weight in pounds.[25] It has also been used popularly onpush-button telephones and as thehashtag indicator.[26]
Theat sign⟨@⟩ is potentially a ligature, but there are many different theories about the origin. One theory says that the French wordà (meaningat), was simplified by scribes who, instead of lifting the pen to write the grave accent, drew an arc around the "a". Another states that it is short for the Latin word for "toward", "ad", with the⟨d⟩ being represented by the arc. Another says it is short for an abbreviation of the termeach at, with the⟨e⟩ encasing the⟨a⟩.[27] Around the 18th century, it started being used in commerce to indicate price per unit, as "15 units @ $1".[28] After the popularization ofEmail, this fairly unpopular character became widely known, used to tag specific users.[29] Lately, it has been used to de-gender nouns in Spanish with no agreed pronunciation.[citation needed]
Thedollar sign⟨$⟩ possibly originated as a ligature (for "pesos", although there are other theories as well) but is now a logogram.[30] At least once, theUnited States dollar used a symbol resembling an overlapping U-S ligature, with the right vertical bar of the U intersecting through the middle of the S ( US ) to resemble the modern dollar sign.[31]
TheSpanish peseta was sometimes symbolized by a ligature⟨₧⟩ (from Pts), and theFrench franc was often symbolized by the ligature⟨₣⟩ (from Fr).[citation needed]
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Inastronomy, theplanetary symbol for Mercury (☿) may be a ligature ofMercury'scaduceus and a cross (which was added in the 16th century to Christianize the pagan symbol),[32] though other sources disagree;[33] the symbol for Venus♀ may be a ligature of the Greek letters⟨ϕ⟩ (phi) and⟨κ⟩ (kappa).[33] The symbol for Jupiter (♃) descends from a Greekzeta with ahorizontal stroke,⟨Ƶ⟩, as an abbreviation forZeus.[32][34] Saturn'sastronomical symbol (♄) has been traced back to the GreekOxyrhynchus Papyri, where it can be seen to be a Greekkappa-rho with ahorizontal stroke, as an abbreviation forΚρονος (Cronus), the Greek name for the planet.[32] It later came to look like a lower-case Greeketa, with the cross added at the top in the 16th century to Christianize it. The dwarf planetPluto is symbolized by a PL ligature,♇.
A different PL ligature,⅊, represents theproperty line in surveying.[citation needed]
In engineering diagrams, a CL ligature,℄, represents the center line of an object.[citation needed]
Theinterrobang⟨‽⟩ is an unconventional punctuation meant to combine the interrogation point (or thequestion mark) and the bang (printer's slang forexclamation mark) into one symbol, used to denote a sentence which is both a question and is exclaimed. For example, the sentence "Is that actually true‽" shows that the speaker is surprised while asking their question.[35]
Alchemy useda set of mostly standardized symbols, many of which were ligatures: 🜇 (AR, foraqua regia); 🜈 (S inside a V, foraqua vitae); 🝫 (MB, forbalneum Mariae [Mary's bath], adouble boiler); 🝬 (VB, forbalneum vaporis, a steam bath); and 🝛 (aaa withoverline, foramalgam).[citation needed]
ComposerArnold Schoenberg introduced two ligatures asmusical symbols to denote melody and countermelody. The symbols are ligatures of HT and NT, 𝆦 and 𝆧, from the German forhauptstimme and nebenstimme respectively.[36][37]
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Digraphs, such as⟨ll⟩ inSpanish orWelsh, are not ligatures in the general case as the two letters are displayed as separate glyphs: although written together, when they are joined in handwriting oritalic fonts the base form of the letters is not changed and the individual glyphs remain separate. Like some ligatures discussed above, these digraphs may or may not be considered individual letters in their respective languages. Until the 1994 spelling reform, the digraphs⟨ch⟩ and⟨ll⟩ were considered separate letters in Spanish forcollation purposes. Catalan makes a difference between "Spanish ll" or palatalized l, writtenll as inllei (law), and "French ll" or geminated l, writtenl·l as incol·lega (colleague).[citation needed]
The difference can be illustrated with the French digraphœu, which is composed of the ligatureœ and the simplex letteru.[citation needed]
InDutch,⟨ij⟩ can be considered a digraph, a ligature, or a letter in itself, depending on the standard used. Its uppercase andlowercase forms are often available as a single glyph with a distinctive ligature in several professional typefaces (e.g.Zapfino).Sans serif uppercase⟨IJ⟩ glyphs, popular in theNetherlands, typically use a ligature resembling a⟨U⟩ with a broken left-hand stroke. Adding to the confusion, Dutch handwriting can render⟨y⟩ (which is not found in native Dutch words, but occurs in words borrowed from other languages) as a⟨ij⟩-glyph without the dots in its lowercase form and the⟨IJ⟩ in its uppercase form looking virtually identical (only slightly bigger). When written as two separate letters, both should be capitalized – or both not – to form a correctly spelled word, likeIJs orijs (ice).[citation needed]
Ligatures are not limited to Latin script:
Written Chinese has a long history of creating new characters by merging parts or wholes of otherChinese characters. However, a few of these combinations do not representmorphemes but retain the original multi-character (multiple morpheme) reading and are therefore not considered true characters themselves. In Chinese, these ligatures are calledhéwén (合文) orhéshū (合書); seepolysyllabic Chinese characters for more.
One popular ligature used onchūntiē decorations used forChinese Lunar New Year is a combination of the four characters forzhāocái jìnbǎo (招財進寶), meaning "ushering in wealth and fortune" and used as a popular New Year's greeting.
In 1924,Du Dingyou (杜定友; 1898–1967) created the ligature圕 from two of the three characters圖書館 (túshūguǎn), meaning "library".[40] Although it does have an assigned pronunciation oftuān and appears in many dictionaries, it is not amorpheme and cannot be used as such in Chinese. Instead, it is usually considered a graphic representation oftúshūguǎn.
In recent years, a Chineseinternet meme, theGrass Mud Horse, has had such a ligature associated with it combining the three relevant Chinese characters草,泥, and马 (Cǎonímǎ).
Similar to the ligatures were several "two-syllable Chinese characters" (雙音節漢字) created in the 19th century asChinese characters forSI units. In Chinese these units are disyllabic and standardly written with two characters, as厘米límǐ "centimeter" (厘 centi-,米 meter) or千瓦qiānwǎ "kilowatt". However, in the 19th century these were often written via compound characters, pronounced disyllabically, such as瓩 for千瓦 or糎 for厘米 – some of these characters were also used in Japan, where they were pronounced with borrowed European readings instead. These have now fallen out of general use, but are occasionally seen.[41]
TheCJK CompatibilityUnicode block features characters that have been combined into one square character in legacy character set so that it matches Japanese text.For example, the Japanese equivalent of "stock company",株式会社 (kabushiki gaisha) can be represented in 1 Unicode character⟨㍿⟩.Its romanized abbreviationK.K. can also be 1 character⟨㏍⟩.There are other Latin abbreviations such askg for "kilogram" that can be ligated into 1 square character⟨㎏⟩.
TheOpenType font format includes features for associating multipleglyphs to a single character, used for ligature substitution. Typesetting software may or may not implement this feature, even if it is explicitly present in the font's metadata.XeTeX is a TeX typesetting engine designed to make the most of such advanced features. This type of substitution used to be needed mainly for typesetting Arabic texts, but ligature lookups and substitutions are being put into all kinds of Western Latin OpenType fonts. In OpenType, there are standardliga, historicalhlig, contextualclig, discretionarydlig and requiredrlig ligatures.
Opinion is divided over whether it is the job of writers or typesetters to decide where to use ligatures.TeX is an example of a computer typesetting system that makes use of ligatures automatically. TheComputer Modern Roman typeface provided with TeX includes the five common ligatures⟨ff⟩ ,⟨fi⟩ ,⟨fl⟩ ,⟨ffi⟩ , and⟨ffl⟩ . When TeX finds these combinations in a text, it substitutes the appropriate ligature, unless overridden by the typesetter.
CSS3 provides control over these properties usingfont-feature-settings,[42] though the CSS Fonts Module Level 4 draft standard indicates that authors should prefer several other properties.[43] Those includefont-variant-ligatures,common-ligatures,discretionary-ligatures,historical-ligatures, andcontextual.[44]
This table below shows discrete letter pairs on the left, the correspondingUnicode ligature in the middle column, and the Unicode code point on the right. Provided you are using anoperating system andbrowser that can handle Unicode, and have the correct Unicodefonts installed, some or all of these will display correctly. See also the provided graphic.
Unicode maintains that ligaturing is a presentation issue rather than a character definition issue, and that, for example, "if a modern font is asked to display 'h' followed by 'r', and the font has an 'hr' ligature in it, it can display the ligature." Accordingly, the use of the special Unicode ligature characters is "discouraged", and "no more will be encoded in any circumstances".[45] (Unicode has continued to add ligatures, but only in such cases that the ligatures were used as distinct letters in a language or could be interpreted as standalonesymbols. For example, ligatures such as æ and œ are not used to replace arbitrary "ae" or "oe" sequences; it is generally considered incorrect to write "does" as "dœs".)
Microsoft Word disables ligature substitution by default, largely forbackward compatibility when editing documents created in earlier versions of Word. Users can enable automatic ligature substitution on the Advanced tab of the Font dialog box.
LibreOffice Writer enables standard ligature substitution by default for OpenType fonts, user can enable or disable any ligature substitution on the Features dialog box, which is accessible via the Features button of the Character dialog box, or alternatively, input a syntax with font name and feature into the Font Name input box, for example:Noto Sans:liga=0.
| Non-ligature | Ligature[45] | Unicode | HTML |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA, aa | Ꜳ, ꜳ[21] | U+A732, U+A733 | Ꜳ ꜳ |
| AE, ae | Æ, æ | U+00C6, U+00E6 | Æ æ |
| AO, ao | Ꜵ, ꜵ[21] | U+A734, U+A735 | Ꜵ ꜵ |
| AU, au | Ꜷ, ꜷ[21] | U+A736, U+A737 | Ꜷ ꜷ |
| AV, av | Ꜹ, ꜹ[21] | U+A738, U+A739 | Ꜹ ꜹ |
| AV, av (with bar) | Ꜻ, ꜻ[21] | U+A73A, U+A73B | Ꜻ ꜻ |
| AY, ay | Ꜽ, ꜽ[21] | U+A73C, U+A73D | Ꜽ ꜽ |
| et | 🙰 | U+1F670 | 🙰 |
| ff | ff | U+FB00 | ff |
| ffi | ffi | U+FB03 | ffi |
| ffl | ffl | U+FB04 | ffl |
| fi | fi | U+FB01 | fi |
| fl | fl | U+FB02 | fl |
| superscript HT | 𝆦 | U+1D1A6 | 𝆦 |
| Hv, hv | Ƕ, ƕ | U+01F6, U+0195 | Ƕ ƕ |
| lb | ℔ | U+2114 | ℔ ℔ |
| LL,ll | Ỻ, ỻ | U+1EFA, U+1EFB | Ỻ ỻ |
| OE, oe | Œ, œ | U+0152, U+0153 | Œ œ |
| OO, oo | Ꝏ, ꝏ[21] | U+A74E, U+A74F | Ꝏ ꝏ |
| ɔe | ꭢ | U+AB62 | ꭢ |
| ſs, ſz | ẞ,ß | U+1E9E, U+00DF | ß |
| st | st | U+FB06 | st |
| ſt | ſt | U+FB05 | ſt |
| superscript NT | 𝆧 | U+1D1A7 | 𝆧 |
| TZ, tz | Ꜩ, ꜩ | U+A728, U+A729 | Ꜩ ꜩ |
| ue | ᵫ | U+1D6B | ᵫ |
| uo | ꭣ[46] | U+AB63 | ꭣ |
| VV, vv | W, w | U+0057, U+0077 | W w |
| VY, vy | Ꝡ, ꝡ[21] | U+A760, U+A761 | Ꝡ ꝡ |
| ſs | Ꟗ ꟗ | U+A7D6, U+A7D7 | ꟗ ꟗ |
| ƿƿ | ꟕ | U+A7D5 | ꟕ ꟕ |
| þþ | ꟓ | U+A7D3 | ꟓ ꟓ |
There are separatecode points for the digraphDZ, theDutch digraphIJ, and for theSerbo-Croatian digraphs DŽ, LJ, and NJ. Although similar, these aredigraphs, not ligatures. SeeDigraphs in Unicode.
| Ligature[45] | Unicode | HTML | |
|---|---|---|---|
| superscript small capital AA | 𐞀[47][48] | U+10780 | 𐞀 |
| superscript ae | 𐞃[49] | U+10783 | 𐞃 |
| aə | ꬱ[46] | U+AB31 | ꬱ |
| əø | ꭁ | U+AB41 | ꭁ |
| db[c] | ȸ | U+0238 | ȸ |
| dz | ʣ | U+02A3 | ʣ |
| dʐ | ꭦ[50] | U+AB66 | ꭦ |
| dʑ (or dz curl) | ʥ | U+02A5 | ʥ |
| dʒ (or dezh) | ʤ | U+02A4 | ʤ |
| dʒ with palatal hook | 𝼒[51][48] | U+1DF12 | 𝼒 |
| dʒ with retroflex hook | 𝼙[52] | U+1DF19 | 𝼙 |
| fŋ (or feng) | ʩ | U+02A9 | ʩ |
| Superscript fŋ | 𐞐[47][48] | U+10790 | 𐞐 |
| fŋ with trill | 𝼀[47][48] | U+1DF00 | 𝼀 |
| ls (or less) | ʪ | U+02AA | ʪ |
| superscript ls | 𐞙[47][48] | U+10799 | 𐞙 |
| lz | ʫ | U+02AB | ʫ |
| superscript lz | 𐞚[47][48] | U+1079A | 𐞚 |
| lʒ (or lezh) | ɮ | U+026E | ɮ |
| superscript lʒ | 𐞞[47] | U+1079E | 𐞞 |
| lʒ with retroflex hook | 𝼅[47][48] | U+1DF05 | 𝼅 |
| superscript lʒ with retroflex hook | 𐞟[47] | U+1079F | 𐞟 |
| oə | ꭀ | U+AB40 | ꭀ |
| qp[c] | ȹ | U+0239 | ȹ |
| tɕ (or tc curl) | ʨ | U+02A8 | ʨ |
| superscript tɕ | 𐞫[49] | U+107AB | 𐞫 |
| ts (or tess) | ʦ | U+02A6 | ʦ |
| superscript ts | 𐞬[49] | U+107AC | 𐞬 |
| ts with retroflex hook | ꭧ | U+AB67 | ꭧ |
| superscript ts with retroflex hook | 𐞭[49] | U+107AD | 𐞭 |
| tʂ | ꭧ[50] | U+AB67 | ꭧ |
| tʃ (or tesh) | ʧ | U+02A7 | ʧ |
| superscript tʃ | 𐞮[49] | U+107AE | 𐞮 |
| tʃ with retroflex hook | 𝼜[52] | U+1DF1C | 𝼜 |
| tʃ with palatal hook | 𝼗[51][48] | U+1DF17 | 𝼗 |
| ui | ꭐ[54] | U+AB50 | ꭐ |
| turned ui | ꭑ[54] | U+AB51 | ꭑ |
| uu | ɯ | U+026F | ɯ |
Four "ligature ornaments" are included from U+1F670 to U+1F673 in theOrnamental Dingbats block: regular and bold variants of ℯT (script e and T) and of ɛT (open E and T).
Typographic ligatures are used in a form ofcontemporary art,[55] as can be illustrated by Chinese artistXu Bing's work in which he combines Latin letters to form characters that resemble Chinese.[56] Croatian designer Maja Škripelj also created a ligature that combinedGlagolitic letters ⰘⰓ foreuro coins.[57]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The types used by Caxton and his contemporaries originated in Holland and Belgium, and did not provide for the continuing use of elements of the Old English alphabet such as thorn <þ>, eth <ð>, and yogh <ʒ>. The substitution of visually similar typographic forms has led to some anomalies which persist to this day in the reprinting of archaic texts and the spelling of regional words. The widely misunderstood 'ye' occurs through a habit of printer's usage that originates in Caxton's time, when printers would substitute the <y> (often accompanied by a superscript <e>) in place of the thorn <þ> or the eth <ð>, both of which were used to denote both the voiced and non-voiced sounds, /ð/ and /θ/ (Anderson, D. (1969) The Art of Written Forms. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, p 169)
The Italianlibbra (from the old Latin wordlibra, 'balance') represented a weight almost exactly equal to theavoirdupois pound of England. The Italian abbreviation of lb with a line drawn across the letters was used for both weights.
# ..... number (written before a figure.)
The origin of these symbols has long been a matter of interest to scholars. Probably none now accepts the interpretation ofScaliger that ♂ represents the shield and spear of Mars and ♀ Venus's looking-glass. All the evidence favours the conclusion of the French classical scholar Claude de Saumaise (Salmasius, 1588–1653) that these symbols, as also those for Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter, are derived from contractions in Greek script of the Greek names of the planets which are Kronos (Saturn), Zeus (Jupiter), Thouros (Mars), Phosphoros (Venus) and Stilbon (Mercury). As observed by Linnaeus's one-time student Johann Beckmann in his History of Inventions (English transl., 1797), to understand their origin 'we must make ourselves acquainted with the oldest form of these characters which in all probability, like those used in writing, were subjected to many changes before they acquired that form which they have at present'.
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