Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer
But don't ligatures make it harder to search? If the typographic character in the ebook is actually a single "fi" ligature glyph, won't a search for the word "fine" fail?
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That would (may???) be true if the ebook text actually contained the 1-char "fi" ligature rather than the 2-char string "fi".
This is not usually the case, though. Usually the ebook text only contains the normal 2-char strings (sometimes 3-char strings). It's the decent rendering apps (eink reader or phone/tablet) coupled with a font which actually contains ligature glyphs which automatically read the 2-char "fi" string and convert to the 1-char "fi" ligature on-the-fly before displaying on the screen.
It's somewhat similar with hyphenation. Decent rendering apps don't need "soft hyphens" to be present in the ebook text.