https://bz.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=16032

--- Comment #71 from JC Ahangama <[email protected]> ---
I have been developing a TTF font since 2004 that follows the OT standard. It
is a proof-of-concept that Indic can be first romanized and then presented in
the native script using an orthographic smartfont. The idea may be
controversial but it might help to shed light on how fonts are rendered by
different applications and by operating systems.

My font has only standard ligatures (2500!). Many people think that standard
ligatures are things that can be turned on and off. They are not, at least not
according to OT Specs. Somebody here quoted on that directly from the OT specs.

liga: Standard, meaning it must show by default
clig: Same set of letters take this shape only in a certain surrounding 
rlig: Special feature by the particular font, that it demands should be shown,
but the application is not obligated to do it

As far as I understand and tested, only standard ligatures are mandatory. The
categorizing the ligature features is to allow the user to invoke them or not,
but not the standard ones. Therefore, an app need not even be aware if a font
has standard ligatures. When the user types, the font hands the glyph and tells
the app where it begins, next to the letter already there or to replace one or
more that are already there.

Take my font (http://www.smartfonts.net/ttf/aruna.ttf), open a text editor in
Windows or Linux (Notepad, Geany) and using the font, type 'kxma' (means
'instant' in Sanskrit) and observe what happens.

As you'll see, the four-letter ligature formed after you hit 'a'. These basic
TEXT EDITORS are not asking anything outside to help render the text. They
simply took whatever the glyph the font gave and puts it up. They are only
aware of the rows of Unicode codepoints underneath (called text runs). The
sizes of the words and line are all calculated according to the size of the
glyphs, and it all makes sense.


> We support OpenType fonts if platform specific layout engines support their 
> features. We don't support all of the ever evolving OT spec like stylilistic 
> alternates yet. 

Good, but please stop asking the Platform for help. OO and LO shows ligatures
perfectly inside Linux but not in Windows. Windows screws up Word, OO and LO
without discrimination.

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