IJ (digraph)
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IJ, also encountered as Unicode compatibility characters IJ and ij, is a digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or a letter in itself. In
IJ here is written as one letter.
Here, IJ is written as Y.
In this version the ij is a single glyph.
Road sign in Rotterdam area with capitalised digraph IJ in proper name IJsselmonde
Kerning
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In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the space between two specific characters, or letterforms, in a font. It is not to be confused with tracking, by which spacing is adjusted uniformly
IJ (digraph)
…In most fonts that have a separate character for ij, the two composing parts are not connected but are separate glyphs, which are sometimes slightly kerned. An ij in written Dutch usually represents the diphthong , similar to the pronunciation of ⟨ay⟩ in "pay", and is preserved in such Dutch spellings as…
Some words are particularly difficult to space. The name of the Okavango River in southwest Africa is difficult because the letters AVA fit together well, but this makes the spaces on either side seem very large. Either wider or tighter letter spacing may help here.