Yhdistelmämerkkien
Yhdistelmämerkit, often translated as ligatures, are typographic characters created by merging two or more individual letters into a single glyph. They are employed to improve legibility, aesthetics, or to solve specific typesetting challenges. Common examples in Western typography include the ligature for "fi" (ff) and "fl" (fl), where the dot of the "i" is often merged with the "f" or "l" to prevent unsightly spacing issues and visual clutter. Similarly, the "ae" (æ) and "oe" (œ) ligatures are prevalent in languages like Danish, Norwegian, and French, respectively.
The use of ligatures dates back to the earliest days of printing, originating from handwritten scripts where