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Re: Calibri font issues

for

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Jun 29, 2016 6:36PM

Cliff wrote:
"How does the use of ligatures affect people with low moderate vision,
dyslexia, or other conditions that make text recognition a challenge?"

Depends upon the font and the ligature.
Most common ligatures really shouldn't affect readability/legibility for
those with text recognition impairments. The most common ligatures are ff,
fi, fl, and ffl because crossbars and ascenders tend to merge into one
another.

But some fonts go overboard on some ligatures with over-embellished swashes
and other parts of the characters, making it difficult for most people to
discern.

Screen caps attached;
First shows the fi ligature in Calibri, which is quite legible and shouldn't
cause any reading problems.
Second shows the st ligature in Minion Pro, which sports an embellished
swash connecting the s and t that makes it difficult for some people to
recognize the individual letters.

Bottom line:
1. Before using ligatures, make sure that the ones you'll use are readable.
2. Check which ligatures are available on your fonts using a character
chart, such as the built-in ones with the Windows and Apple operating
systems, or the Insert/Symbol command in MS Word.
3. Not all fonts have ligatures; it depends upon the font designer to
include them in the font's character set, and if so, how many letter
combinations will have ligatures.

--Bevi Chagnon

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Bevi Chagnon | www.PubCom.com
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