Caskaydia Cove introduces ligature issue not in Cascadia Code

[Kissaki]

Testing in Windows Terminal - font size 12, Windows 11, NF v3.0.2

I would expect the ligature for => to be the same and without visual artifacts.

Cascadia Code:

CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font Mono:

🗹 Requirements

• I have searched the issues for my issue and found nothing related and/or helpful
• I have searched the FAQ for help
• I have searched the Wiki for help

[Finii]

Oh, sorry to hear that. Lets find the reason.

Works in Writer

[phjordan]

I see the same, in Windows Terminal as well as in VS Code, Nerd Fonts 3.0.2

[Finii]

Can not reproduce on Win10, VS Code 1.71.0, NF 3.0.2:

My settings:

[Finii]

The problem with Windows Terminal is that they bundle Cascadia Cove (VF) with it and one can not uninstall it, which I hate.

Installing that thing now, hold tight.

[Finii]

@phjordan Btw, please share a picture of your config.json and maybe a view of the font settings dialog with 'cas' as search term:

You see I have no Cascadia Code installed. I unpacked the Caskaydia zip file, select all, right click, install (for user) (is how I installed the fonts).

[Finii]

Can see it with Windows Terminal:

(:thought_balloon: Now I can not restart VS Code, great)

[Finii]

• Could not start VS Code
• Revert changes in config.js - still not opening
• Remove VS Code via 'apps'
• Reinstall VS Code via MS Store - problem: can not install
• Reboot
• Reinstall VS Code via MS Store - problem: can not install
• Download VS Code msi
• Install - can not overwrite old files?
• Reboot / manual deletion of old files
• Install ok
• Start ... still not opening

Windows is so easy, everything works out of the box!

[phjordan]

Here are my font settings, Both 'Cascadia Code' and 'CaskaydiaCove...' are installed for all users.

I noticed that the editor.fontSize-setting does have an effect. I don't know anything about font rendering and scaling, but maybe this observation is of help. With 'Cascadia Code' set as font, the arrows seem fine for all font sizes.

My original VS code settings.json:

It looks fine with editor.fontSize commented out:

It looks fine with font size 14:

Font size 12:

Font size 22:

Edit: This is on Windows 10

[Finii]

Thanks for the input! There are indeed size-limits where the font switches rendering, I will check that.
And maybe I can get VS Code repaired on that one machine, all other machines I have are Win11...

Edit: Ah, report was for Win 11 🤦‍♀️

[Finii]

Ah, I have another hunch...
Which concrete Cascadia Code did you compare with? (Best would be a details screenshot of the font settings thing, when opened Cascadia Code)?

I fear that it might be the hints 🙄

[Finii]

Which concrete Cascadia Code did you compare with?

This is the reason why I hate the bundling of Windows Terminal with Cascadia Cove, because they bundle the VF and one has to go through a lengthy operation to remove that if you want the otf or pure ttf ones instead.

The font-patcher can not work with VF, so we use some static ttf variant (see the readme)

[phjordan]

Which concrete Cascadia Code did you compare with? (Best would be a details screenshot of the font settings thing, when opened Cascadia Code)?

Yes, it seems to be the bundled version of Cascadia Code that I have installed.

[FrancescoLuzzi]

Thanks for the input! There are indeed size-limits where the font switches rendering, I will check that. And maybe I can get VS Code repaired on that one machine, all other machines I have are Win11...

Edit: Ah, report was for Win 11 🤦‍♀️

Also reproducible on windows 10 👍🏼

[azdanov]

I also encountered this issue. Windows 11, Windows Terminal 1.17

Can see that -- near git are of different sizes

And it gets better with font size increase.

[harshv5094]

I've Installed the latest version of Caskaydia Cove NF on my windows 10, and now I'm seeing this box icons, I need help regarding this issue

[Finii]

@harshv1741 This is no ligature Issue.

Please check out

• Some glyphs missing after v3.x.x update #1190 (comment)

[Finii]

I would need someone who can test the potential fix, good would be a thorough test like @phjordan with all the arrows.

[Finii]

It would be great if someone who sees the arrows problem can check this font:

CaskaydiaCove_arrows.zip Version 3.2.1-10

(Probably you need to uninstall the old Caskaydia first, then reboot, then install the font given in this comment.)

Without reports it is hard to see if this will fix it or not... Help needed.

[FrancescoLuzzi]

Thanks for the update, i'll give it a try as soon as I can!

[FrancescoLuzzi]

It seems to be 99.9% resolved!

In some font sizes the "=>" ligature has a really small defect (there is a really small gap between the "equal" sign and the "greater than" sign

This is the "correct" arrow on a different size:

Same thing with:

[Finii]

Hmm, this is maybe also a hinting problem, this is most visible at 12 pt / 96 dpi.

The advance width is 9.4 pixel, and so the last pixel is only filled less than half, so it is rendered half-grey.
Of course this will vary with the number of characters in front of it.

The situation is comparable with FiraCode unpatched:

Just here other sizes show that same problem.

Are you sure Cascadia Code unpatched does not have the same problem at some sizes? Maybe you can try.
I need to fire up Glyphs3 to examine it. Or was there not a tool on Linux to show the subpixel rendering of variable fonts on Linux 🤔

I can check, but I believe this is a principle problem that can not be solved without 'massive' manual intervention.

Affected are a high number of glyphs (the font-patcher reports it auto-adjusts 88 glyphs), so that would be quite some work to do, manually edit the hints to extend more to the outside.
Well, and famous FiraCode has the same, so why should we be better ;-)

[FrancescoLuzzi]

Are you sure Cascadia Code unpatched does not have the same problem at some sizes? Maybe you can try.

Just uninstalled Caskaydia Cove, rebooted and tried using Cascadia Code, the issue is still there

Well... your patch worked just fine, it seems that Cascadia Code is the problem now.
Thanks!

[Finii]

Thank you for testing all that stuff!
I will do some final tests with the PR (because it completely changes how the configuration works), and then merge the fix.

[Finii]

@allcontributors please add @FrancescoLuzzi for bug

[allcontributors]

@Finii

I've put up a pull request to add @FrancescoLuzzi! 🎉

[nguyenlephuc2108]

Oh! == is don't work, or my computer have problem?

[Phoenix-]

Hi,
I've got exactly the same problem with -> and => ligatures. Actual on all font sizes and font weights, but severity differs from size to size.

Win11 22631.4037
NF 3.2.1
Screenshot is from Windows Fonts Manager, but actual for any text editor. Tried VS Code and Windows Terminal

[feliperomero3]

Hi, first, thank you for this nerd font, I've been using for four years now.

I'm experiencing the same ligature 'tearing' issue as @Phoenix-

(screen capture below)

In the --> ligature the 'tearing' is barely noticiable

In the ==> ligature, the 'tearing' is much more noticiable

These are the fonts shown in the screen capture (screen capture below)

My versions

CaskaydiaCove NF: Version 2111.001; VTT 6.35;Nerd Fonts 3.2.1

[Finii]

The problem is the hinting.

• Cascadia Code comes hand-hinted as VF (variable font).
• Nerd Fonts can not (for the foreseeable future) patch VF.
• Cascadia Code also comes as static variants but they are autohinted by ttfautohint.
• Thus Cascadia Code VF and Cascadia Code static differs 'a lot' visible in the lettershapes
• People complain that (especially) the small letters of Caskaydia Cove look different from Cascadia Code
  • Which they do and dont. They look different from Cascadia Cove VF because Caskaydia Cove is based on Cascadia Code static
• For most people the expected look is the one of Cascadia Code VF because it is preinstalled on Win (often)
• Instead of ttfautohint we push the Cascadia Code static fonts through VTT which is also an autohinter, but with a look more closely to the hand hinted original
• Except that VTT does not hint all glyphs the same
• We patch that font; Caskaydia Cove is Cascadia Code static rehinted by VTT to have a look similar to Cascadia Code VF
• Well, except what you noticed above, the special lig glyphs are not/differently hinted compared to each other, resulting in sub-pixel differences in the line positions, which are then rendered "on pixel off"

The possibilities here are:

1. Use Cascadia Code static with ttfautohint (which I assume do not have this problem, but not checked)
2. Hand-hint the problematic ligature glyphs
3. Rewrite font-patcher to patch VFs 😁

Then I obviously did something here with commit b2cf801 font-patcher: Allow to rehint some Cascadia glyphs
Ah, this is

• font-patcher: Allow to rehint some Cascadia glyphs #1613

That has been merged mid April 2024, just after the v3.2.1 release:

So probably your problems will (mostly) go away after the next release, which is v3.3.0, which is scheduled to happen this month (#1705). So please be patient a bit more. The fix is not 100% perfect but at least better (see notes / feedback above).

[Phoenix-]

Thanks for the explanation and for your work. Great fonts :)