stipub / stixfonts

OpenType Unicode fonts for Scientific, Technical, and Mathematical texts
SIL Open Font License 1.1
728 stars 41 forks source link

Lowercase /j overlaps /g in /g_j #258

Open JimEBlevins opened 1 year ago

JimEBlevins commented 1 year ago

Hello!

In STIX Two Text, \j overlaps \g in \gj.

STIX Two Text gj collision 20 October 2023 cropped

In 2020, a Typedrawer thread raised awareness of /g_j-collisions. There, the original poster suggested four responses to /g_j-collisions:

  1. Allow the crash.
  2. Modify base /g and/or base /j (most likely the latter).
  3. Make a /g_j ligature.
  4. Make a contextual alternate (most likely /j.short).

As a resident of Sweden, I would prefer that STIX Two implement (at least one option from) options 2--4 or option

  1. Provide an alternative /j (e.g., via a stylistic-alternate set or a character variant).

(Using LaTeX with the fontspec and babel packages, I found no difference when I specified Swedish. Similarly, in Microsoft Word and Libre Office Writer, specifying Swedish left the gj-collision invariant.)

In the Typedrawer thread, John Hudson (@tiroj) observed that the /g_j-collision impacts several languages:

Others noted that /g_j-collisions also afflict

The /g_j collision was highlighted by by Robert Bringhurst's font-testing paragraph (in The Elements of Typographical Style), which names the valkyrie Skeggjöld (from the Eddas).

Thank you for your help.

Best regards, -Jim