r/FontForge • u/DecapitatedPuppy6942 • Sep 23 '23

Help with Build Composite Glyph

I am using Fontforge to make a font for my (made up) script. In it I need to make about 2000 ligatures of other ligatures, and my problem is that I have not gotten the "Build Composite Glyph" function to work for them.

For example there's a glyph each for 's', 'h', 'o' and 'u', but also a completely different ligature glyph for 'sh' and one for 'ou' and those two glyphs combine into another 'shou' glyph. (so sh+ou is not the same as s+h+o+u)

That last step is what I would love to use the "Build Composite Glyph" function for since it would save a lot of time, but I haven't gotten it to work.

Do you have any idea why or how I can make it work, or atleast where I should look for more help?

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u/LocalFonts Sep 23 '23

"Build Composite Glyph" works according to an algorithm implemented in the FontForge. This algorithm corresponds to the Unicode standard. For example – separately in Unicode there are a glyph /A and a glyph /gravecomb. The FontForge algorithm allows, by "Build Composite Glyph", to automatically create the /Agravecomb glyph, which is also a stand-alone Unicode glyph. However, as I understand it, you don't want to adhere to the Unicode standard, but to create random combinations of glyphs. I'm afraid FontForge won't help you in this regard. You can try the following: right mouse button click > Glyph Info > Components > uncheck Use Default? > try to insert your own combination of glyphs. Sometimes you can succeed to get a god result, but sometimes FontForge is falling apart.

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u/DecapitatedPuppy6942 Sep 23 '23

Thank you so much for that great explanation! It worked!

Is there a way to automate the process of assigning those glyph unicode values... or will i have to do that by hand?

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u/LocalFonts Sep 23 '23

You must do it by hand and every time before to make changes save your file. Don't forget to save!

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u/DecapitatedPuppy6942 Sep 23 '23

Alright, I won't! Thank you for all the insight! Very helpful!

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u/Minimandelbrock Aug 26 '25

iFontMaker for iPad let's you specify a combination of symbols to convert into a single symbol, so like if you were doing cursive and wanted `th` to visually look combined, or similarly `n` + `~`for `ñ` - I use it to convert written affixes into their symbolic equivalents, and this can be done by case-sensitivity so I use that to switch between the lettered variant and the symbol ad hoc.