Hello there, this is a bug on our side. For some reasons, yet unknown and out of our control, as the font API is the same that is used by MS Word, we get the two letters merged by default into a ligature. Until we investigate this properly, a workaround would be to place the caret at the tail end and press backspace to delete the "i" character, then type in what you want and add back manually the "i" letter. 

One thing to note: if you were to use an actual ligature, not the mistake the API does here, then you wouldn't be able to type in between the two letters or delete them separately as they are treated as one and we currently support what the font has setup as default. This is the same for MS Word, with the exception that they have indeed a possibility to turn this off.

Thanks for your reply and your suggestion.

I must correct you about Word: I'm using Word 2019 with ligatures enabled. (I see that it's a ligature, which is different from when ligatures are turned off.) Nevertheless, when I move the cursor through the ligature, it's two steps (not one). I can position the cursor in between the ligature and type (or delete). I can also use the delete key to delete the first letter.

So I'm not sure what you mean by "not the mistake the API does here". The mistake the API does is indeed that it's not like Word. If you thought that the behavior you describe is correct (which it isn't), then I wonder what you meant that the mistake in Studio currently is? Just that you can't turn off ligatures separately?

If I place the bellow character in Office 365 Word, I can't navigate between the 2 symbols, because it's 1 glyph. Don't know what 2019 does, but latest Office does not allow you by default to navigate between them. It might be also a Windows specific thing, as fonts and rendering text can sometimes be related to some Windows specific functionalities.

fi

This symbol is a real ligature.

Later Edit: The above symbol is a standard ligature. Normally they can't be broken up, because they are meant to stay together (unless you intentionally disable ligature support). The ligatures that allow in between editing are not the standard ones. For example, the obligatory ligatures from Arabic where the symbols Lam and Alif are combined in an organic manner because that is how Arabic works, it's not just for better graphics, like in the case of standard ligatures.

I just tested in Word in Office 365 (build 2402) and it has the same behavior as in Word 2019. First line has ligatures enabled, second line disabled. I can break up the ligature as described.

It makes no sense that a text editor would behave the way you're describing. If the ligature would stop behaving like two letters as one is editing, it would be very user-unfriendly. That's how Studio is currently behaving.

But I think I know what's going on. You're pasting in the glyph for the ligature "fi", this one: https://graphemica.com/%EF%AC%81

If so, that's not what this is about. In Word, choose an OpenType font with ligatures, like Calibri or Minion Pro. Then make sure Ligatures are enabled in Font > Advanced. Then type first "f", then "i". Now you get the ligature in the "organic manner", and you will see that you can break it up.

I hope you can use this to figure out how to get Studio to behave in the same way as Word.

I just tested in Word in Office 365 (build 2402) and it has the same behavior as in Word 2019. First line has ligatures enabled, second line disabled. I can break up the ligature as described.

It makes no sense that a text editor would behave the way you're describing. If the ligature would stop behaving like two letters as one is editing, it would be very user-unfriendly. That's how Studio is currently behaving.

But I think I know what's going on. You're pasting in the glyph for the ligature "fi", this one: https://graphemica.com/%EF%AC%81

If so, that's not what this is about. In Word, choose an OpenType font with ligatures, like Calibri or Minion Pro. Then make sure Ligatures are enabled in Font > Advanced. Then type first "f", then "i". Now you get the ligature in the "organic manner", and you will see that you can break it up.

I hope you can use this to figure out how to get Studio to behave in the same way as Word.

I've just tested this and you are completely right. I never knew this, but it converts it into a obligatory ligature on some fonts. Thank you for providing a very good example. In this case it's probably one of the pieces of information I get back that I never knew it existed and I'm ignoring.