: Do discretionary ligatures hold any other purpose than visual? Discretionary ligatures are non-standard ligatures such as: st and ct in Atlantica LF font Are they purely visual or is there any

@Hamm6457569

Discretionary ligatures, by definition, are intended to not be on by default. Standard ligatures are those that the type designer thought should be on by default.

The particular ligatures shown, the ct and st ligatures, are historical ligatures that date back centuries. They are considered rather archaic now, and would only be appropriate if one wanted an archaic effect.

No research has been done on discretionary ligatures having a benefit other than aesthetic. However, research has been done that shows that typography that is more appealing but not more functional (that is, typesetting that "looks nicer" but has no impact on reading speed or comprehension) have other, more subtle benefits in mood and performance on subsequent tasks.

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@Sims5801359

Standard ligatures and discretionary ligatures are features of a particular font, and the notion of discretionary ligatures only dates back to the introduction of OpenType fonts around ten years ago.

The font designer determines that "standard" ligatures should be used to replace certain letter pairs/triples, whereas "discretionary" ones may be used. The automatic application of either can be specified by the end designer in software.

Yes, there are very common ligatures, e.g. fi, but no real standard across typefaces.

The reasons why ligatures exist or are used at all is probably better handled as a separate question.

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@Michele215

Ligatures were originally created to decrease the amount of time to write something and layout type. There are numerous examples that go back thousands of years, but I think they became most popular with monks making copies of the Bible and later with early presses to reduce the number of type objects being grabbed from type drawers. Advances in press technology reduced their need over time. Now they are just for decoration (and I, for one, hope they never go away).

As for being distracting, I agree that those in the example are distracting, and I wouldn't even call them "true" ligatures. They really ought to just flow into the text, much like really tight kerning between "f" and "i".

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@Holmes874

It's decoration. Used at the discretion of the typesetter.

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