# AttributedString: Character Counting Bug with Font Ligatures **URL:** \ **Category:** General JUCE discussion\ **Created:** [February 26, 2025, 12:13pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355 "2025-02-26T12:13:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![martinrobinson-2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/martinrobinson-2/32/630_2.png) [@martinrobinson-2](https://forum.juce.com/u/martinrobinson-2)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:13pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/1 "2025-02-26T12:13:48Z")
Here’s a fun one! In JUCE 8 I am experiencing what looks like a bug to do with font ligatures (e.g., a combined ‘ff’ into a single shape in some fonts). I’ve narrowed it down to this example using Proxima Nova: ```auto #include class MainComponent : public Component { public: MainComponent() { auto fonts = Font::findAllTypefaceNames(); if (! fonts.contains ("Proxima Nova")) throw std::runtime_error ( "\nPlease install the 'Proxima Nova Regular.otf' font to reproduce this example. See: \n" "https://github.com/roshinthomas/Proximanova-fonts/blob/master/Proxima%20Nova%20Regular.otf"); Font font ("Proxima Nova", 18.0f, Font::plain); string.append ("Hello, World!\n", font.withHeight (36.0f).withStyle (Font::bold), Colours::black); string.append ("Different, World!\n", font, Colours::red); string.append ("Why is 'W' in 'Why' red?\n", [font] () mutable{ font.setTypefaceName ("Arial"); return font; }(), Colours::blue); string.append ("Is it the 'ff' ligature throwing off the counting?\n", font, Colours::red); setSize (320, 240); } ~MainComponent() override = default; void paint (Graphics& g) override { g.fillAll (Colours::lightgrey); string.draw (g, getLocalBounds().reduced (20).toFloat()); } private: AttributedString string; }; ``` I’m testing this with JUCE 8 [using latest develop](https://github.com/juce-framework/JUCE/tree/389516feeb632adb5d20b111cf4c6fa45632c9d8). (I’m deliberately using the deprecated `Font` constructor so I can show this doesn’t happen in JUCE 7, using the `FontOptions` constructors yields the same results in JUCE 8.) As the text suggest, the ‘W’ in the first ‘Why’ on line 3 is carried on in red from the previous line (and ‘I’ on the last line continues in blue): ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/juce/original/3X/1/2/121e7a084d75515a3b5e257c488064c4b95bbf7f.png) Using JUCE 7.0.12 it renders correctly: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/juce/original/3X/7/5/75e970aa60246a98950119a6d8fefb537e292ca7.png) ---
**Author:** ![attila](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/attila/32/11206_2.png) [@attila](https://forum.juce.com/u/attila)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/2 "2025-02-27T12:28:58Z")
Thank you reporting this issue and providing the example code. This is indeed a problem caused by mishandling the ligature. We are working on a fix. ---
**Author:** ![martinrobinson-2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/martinrobinson-2/32/630_2.png) [@martinrobinson-2](https://forum.juce.com/u/martinrobinson-2)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/3 "2025-03-13T15:20:48Z")
I see some related commits on develop today, is it worth giving this a try or is this still in progress? ---
**Author:** ![attila](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/attila/32/11206_2.png) [@attila](https://forum.juce.com/u/attila)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/4 "2025-03-13T18:07:39Z")
Yes, these changes should also fix the problem described in this thread. Although you might want to wait for a C++20 fix that’s arriving soon. I’ll update this thread when it’s out. ---
**Author:** ![martinrobinson-2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/martinrobinson-2/32/630_2.png) [@martinrobinson-2](https://forum.juce.com/u/martinrobinson-2)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 8:38am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/5 "2025-03-14T08:38:59Z")
Great thanks, yeah I had to change the lamdba arguments for `std::accumulate()` to `auto, const auto&` in two places for our build system… ```auto diff --git forkSrcPrefix/modules/juce_gui_basics/widgets/juce_TextEditor.cpp forkDstPrefix/modules/juce_gui_basics/widgets/juce_TextEditor.cpp index 37742feea7f9ea1a979b1a36b21aeb27176a4151..5140fd839b4b21622935efa115f4079a52dc49b1 100644 --- forkSrcPrefix/modules/juce_gui_basics/widgets/juce_TextEditor.cpp +++ forkDstPrefix/modules/juce_gui_basics/widgets/juce_TextEditor.cpp @@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ struct TextEditor::RemoveAction final : public UndoableAction return std::accumulate (removedText.texts.begin(), removedText.texts.end(), 0, - [] (auto& sum, auto& value) + [] (auto sum, const auto& value) { return sum + (int) value.getNumBytesAsUTF8(); }); diff --git forkSrcPrefix/modules/juce_graphics/detail/juce_SimpleShapedText.cpp forkDstPrefix/modules/juce_graphics/detail/juce_SimpleShapedText.cpp index 227edd00d36ab1fa46505d05944b49a820c9ee71..e560cab37955c1aa2e60a0d077df2da114d7176e 100644 --- forkSrcPrefix/modules/juce_graphics/detail/juce_SimpleShapedText.cpp +++ forkDstPrefix/modules/juce_graphics/detail/juce_SimpleShapedText.cpp @@ -1320,7 +1320,7 @@ void SimpleShapedText::shape (const String& data, glyphSpansInLine.end(), std::make_pair (std::numeric_limits::max(), std::numeric_limits::min()), - [&] (auto& sum, auto& elem) -> std::pair + [&] (auto sum, const auto& elem) -> std::pair { const auto r = elem.textRange + lineRange.getStart(); ``` ---
**Author:** ![attila](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.juce.com/attila/32/11206_2.png) [@attila](https://forum.juce.com/u/attila)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://forum.juce.com/t/attributedstring-character-counting-bug-with-font-ligatures/65355/6 "2025-03-14T11:04:03Z")
A fix is out on `develop` >