I am making an all-uppercase display font that includes all characters from the central and Western European character sets on top of the standard alphabet.
People have told me that “the sky is the limit” about the possibilities for creating ligatures for letters that don’t work well together. As a type designer, are there any rules of thumb to follow when considering which ligatures to include in a font?
I have also heard that ligatures are only necessary for small text and that making ligatures for a display font is a waste of time. Is this true?
Any guidance or advice would be much appreciated,
-Sam
You will get more feedback if you post your question at https://typedrawers.com/. They have a Design category and a large number of type designers frequent the site.
The rule of thumb is that in most cases ligatures drag attention*, which might be interesting or annoying depending on the typeface. Is that a waste of time? If your typeface is meant for a wide audience, then most will ignore everything that is not on the keyboard. If the audience is designers, and the typeface is promoted as an OT-features-based playground, then it’s probably worth it.
*Except classic ligatures in classic serif typefaces
I completed the sign-up form for “TypeDrawers” and I can now log in. I keep getting a popup notification to “confirm my email.” However, no verification is in my inbox.
The only reason I am telling you about this is because I cannot seem to participate in any discussions or DM anyone on the platform. Do you know any admins for “TypeDrawers” I can contact for support?
Did you check the Spam/Junk folder? The only way to contact the Admins that I know of is if one has been verified and can post. I don’t have any email addresses for them.
I had this same issue a few months back; no confirmation emails in my inbox even after trying for a whole week. Eventually I contacted Info at JTDType com (James Hultquist-Todd, TD admin) and he manually approved my account.