Ligatures come in handy for functional uses or merely embellishment. But under what circumstances do you want To Ligature? When is it best Not to Ligature? And what’s the difference between a standard ligature and a discretionary ligature?

Some fonts and Web browsers enable Standard Ligatures by default, which can help address spacing issues. But in certain cases, you might not need them, and you’ll have to disable them yourself. Other fonts require you to turn ligatures on manually, such as the more decorative discretionary ligatures, using CSS. And to make matters more complicated, there’s one Web browser that’s a bit of a wild card when it comes to ligatures.

Ligatures, a Primer

The word ligature has roots in Latin, from ligatura and the verb ligare, meaning bind or tie. Typographically, that’s what a ligature does: it binds two or more characters into one. Ligatures have been a part of the typographer’s toolbox since the days of Johann Gutenberg.

Standard ligatures, also known as common ligatures, are more functional than anything else, and they typically include the letter f, such as fi, fl, ff, ffi, and ffl. Different languages will have different standard ligatures, as will different fonts, with OpenType fonts including a treasure trove of ligatures.