Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by TacticalCoder | Hacker News Reader

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"...but I think they're too rare now for it to be wise to use them"

The ligature of 'f' and 'i' is not "rare" and it is not "unwise" to use it. Actually many professionally typeset books are using it: it's not an "idea" as you wrote. It is something very real and often used.

It is so common and so good looking (I'd even say "so perfect") that you probably never noticed it but I can assure you that it's used in many of the books / newspapers / magazines you've read during your life.

I've written and typeset about a dozen book (one with LaTeX, all the others with QuarkXPress: it was before the InDesign days) and I can tell you that when I see a non-ligature "fi" I directly notice it because it is really poor looking.

Of course in addition to LaTeX, both QuarkXPress and Adobe's InDesign and several other professional typesetting software do the common ligatures.

I'm usually fairly cognizant of ligatures when I'm reading, but obviously I can only comment on the things I have read with my imperfect memory. The book I'm reading now (Harmonic Experience by Mathieu) is certainly what I would consider to be professionally typeset, and it does not use the "fi" ligature. Godel, Escher, Bach, on the other hand, does use it from what I remember. The Lifebox, The Sheashell, and the Soul does not use it (I just checked). From my memory, few of the physical novels I've read used it, but I'm not too confident in that memory because all of my novel reading has been done on a Kindle for several years (the portability and convenience won out over typography). I've read almost no physical newspapers or magazines since I was quite young, so you might be very correct about that.

It really comes down to who your audience is, and perhaps it's true that most things you would even consider using LaTeX for are intended for an audience savvy enough to not be distracted by ligatures.

I would actually go further. For the most part it makes frightfully no difference. Last I checked, the majority of fiction books out there have ligatures. As do many "professional" publications. Magazines are an odd mix. Last I recall, the expensive ones use them, the cheap ones don't.

All of this is to say that sure, you may notice and be cognizant of ligatures. Most people aren't.

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