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In FontLab, it’s very easy to create the Standard Ligatures feature. When you have your glyph that represents the ligature of “f” and “i”, use the Glyph panel to give it the correct name: “f_i”. Then in the Features panel, click the local menu icons (three horizontal lines), and choose “Add Auto Features”. FontLab creates the OpenType feature code that will make the automatic replacement work. (Figure 3.) If you add more ligatures with the standard names, press the star button on the Features panel to update the code. Or you can enter the ligature code manually: add the line “sub s t by s_t;” inside the “liga” feature definition to create the rule that replaces the sequence “st” with a dedicated “s_t” ligature. Just add the new line of code below an existing "sub" line; compile; close the panel; and you're done. Rahul Gajjar has a nice video tutorial at tiny.cc/fontlab7-fea1 that explains the steps needed to create ligatures. Ligatures are a great way to add spice to a text font. They're easy to design since they use parts of existing glyphs, and they're easy to program since each none is only a single line of code. Many fonts come with built-in ligatures, but you don't have to be limited to the usual favorites (see Dave Lawrence’s mega ligature font in the tiny.cc/fontlab7-fea2 video (Figure 4.). Invent some ligatures of your own and you can make your fonts really unique! For more information, visit: www.fontlab.com