Weird transformation of characters in default markdown editor: fi and fl

Support
1

Hello,

I use Joplin 1.0.79 on arch linux installed from aur repo since some days.
I also use kde with default config.

All is fine but in markdown editor (default one), anytime I type
‘fl’ it becomes the character ‘fl’ in one character but the cursor is still shifted of 2 chars as if a space char was added.
Same thing happens with ‘fi’ which becomes ‘fi’ in 1 char.
Note: it only happens if both letters are in lower case.

  • I do not have this issue in any other editors
  • I do not see any info,debug,error in JS console of Joplin once in debug mode.

Thanks a lot if you could have an idea about this, cause it prevents to type some very simple words.

2

You need to set a monospace font for the editor, in the settings.

3

I think it has something to do with font ligatures. You can read more about that term here and here.

To disable font ligatures in the editor, you can add a few lines of CSS code below in your userchrome.css file.

.ace_content {
  font-variant-ligatures: none;
}

Maybe it’s not a monospace font that you use in the editor. As far as I know, the “f”-ligatures are not applied in monospace fonts.

1 Like
4

Thank you for help and guidance, it now works like a charm. Anyway, that is better :relaxed: , I can type again words like fix or flux or ...

Cheers, keep on the good work and support on joplin!

5

Having the same problem. It’s really surprising to have ligatures while editing (and, funny enough, not on the renders).

Perhaps this should be on the default CSS?

6

The default monospace generic editor font does not support ligatures, neither does the default viewer font (at least on my copy of Windows!). However if you specify a different editor font in "settings" that supports ligatures the Joplin editor will use them.

As I understand it the reason that the viewer does not display ligatures if a ligature font is selected in the editor settings is because the editor settings apply to the editor only. If you use userstyle.css (which applies to the viewer only) to apply a ligature supporting font, the viewer will subsequently render ligatures as well.

So by changing a combination of the above you can have ligature fonts in the editor, or the viewer, or both, or neither (default).

7

I think this is the key part I disagree with. I shouldn't have to go out of my way and strip ligatures from monospaced fonts [1] just because I don't want them used in Joplin's editor. But, I guess that's a product concern, and I should chase the right deciders if I want to do something about it.

[1]: Why a monospaced font thinks is a good idea to distribute ligatures is a separate discussion. idgi either :man_shrugging:

8

You should definitely take that up with ace-editor. It’s one of their bonehead design decisions and Joplin just happened to choose to build its editor on top of it.

9

Was just trying the Mermaid plug in and the --> was also getting partially converted. Looked really odd. This helped fix that display issue.

.ace_content {
  font-variant-ligatures: none;
}

Thanks!