Geo Ligatures
Date: November 19, 2024
Technology: FontForge, Python
Fun Fact: Œ
Technology: FontForge, Python
Fun Fact: Œ
Fonts can contain special codes called ligatures that dictate what glyph is displayed. For example, when you type "ae", some fonts have a ligature that automatically displays "æ". But, you can also add any code and display any glyph using ligatures.
In this example, I create a ligature for every country in the Natural Earth 1:110M Countries feature class, displayed by the code "country" + two letter country code. For example, typing "countryCA" results in the shape of Canada. I've also added Natural Earth 1:110M States, which you can trigger by typing "state" + two letter state code. For example, "stateCA" results in the shape of California.