I just noticed that the ƒ (uni0192 aka. florin) will be changed into Ƒ (uni0191) when I case transform in InDesign and browsers. I don’t remember running into this issue before. Is this new? How do you deal with this issue?
The capitalization is not controlled by the font but by Unicode properties.
Yes I know. The question is if this is a recent change in Unicode (since I can’t remember running into this issue before).
I doubt it has been changed by Unicode. But a better place to ask this kind of stuff is Typedrawers.
It hasn’t been changed. The LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH HOOK is used as the florin currency symbol but is just an alphabetic character being used as other things. The uppercase is legitimate but not as a florin.
There was an attempt in 2009–2010 to encode a separate florin symbol to disunify it from the U+0192 Latin Small Letter f with Hook; alas, the proposal was rejected:
http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10108.htm#123-C19
http://unicode.org/alloc/nonapprovals.html
There was a not-quite-related thread on TypeDrawers: http://typedrawers.com/discussion/349/florin-sign-f
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Splendid. Thanks for that TD link.
Got the same issue today 
So what the best practice would be? To duplicate my florin.lf as Ƒ?
Thanks
Yes. That is what I did.
No headaches though. The florin symbol is there more for historical purposes. Use as folder symbol is more frequent than currency.
The upright florin (i.e., not slanted) character is still used in Ewe, a tonal language of Ghana; both uppercase and lowercase.
in my case I had designed a taller sort of italic f as florin.lf to get it aligned to lining figures as I supposed design it is more consistent. Would it be appropriate to put it into Ƒ unicode? I guess not
To be precise that would not be the florin, that would be the F with a hook. As a currency symbol, I do not think it really is in use anymore. Even in 20th century Netherlands, ‘f.’ and ‘fl.’ were way more common than ‘ƒ’. On paper, there are still a few countries that have florin as currency, so technically there is some relevance for the symbol and reason to include it in a font. But even in that context, I have not seen much real-life use of the ƒ symbol. On Curaçao and Sint Maarten, you will rather find ‘NAFL’ or ‘NAFl’ (example) than the symbol.
The problem is, Unicode does not differentiate between the lowercase F with hook and the florin currency symbol. So two possible solutions:
- If you want to support just the currency in your font, it is OK to duplicate it into the uppercase to avoid problems when setting all-cap text.
- If you want to support African alphabets including Ewe, I would suggest ignoring extra drawings for the currency symbol, and just draw the lowercase f extending into a hook at the bottom. It will do alright if it is ever used as currency symbol.
This should answer @jan’s question.
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great explication, thanks!!!