<?tkfirst>
Description
Allows you to define whether kerning for a character should be activated before a ligature is applied, or after it has been applied.
Example 526. When to apply a kerning table
An example of when to apply a kerning table before a letter is replaced is in the case of the word 'difficult', where in some fonts the letters 'f f i' are converted to the single character 'ffi'. The correct kern for 'i/ffi' is, however, the same as the kern for 'i/f' and so PTC ALD should apply this kern first and then change the 'f f i' into an 'ffi'. The diagrams below show how 'i/f' kerns and how changing the setting of <?tkfirst> alters the text appearance.
tkfirst 0
tkfirst 1
The most noticeable difference in this second example is that the 'i/c' kern has been disabled.
Syntax
<?tkfirst kern before lig:o?>
<?tkfirst>
[no parameter] | Invoke the Kerning - before ligs dialog box. |
kern before lig | 0 | Kern text before a ligature is applied, converting any available kerning values for letters by a ligature. In the word 'difficult', these are the 'i??c' pair. | 1 | Kern text after the ligature has been applied, ignoring kerning values for the original letters. |
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Additional Information
With earlier versions of PTC ALD , text to which both kerning and ligature tables apply had the ligature applied first then the kerning, which meant that kerning was always carried out on the 'replacement' letter. In some circumstances, particularly when setting foreign languages, this is not necessarily the best order; it being better to kern using the values for the original letter in the text stream.
