cocoa - Ligatures not do not work in UILabel/NSAttributedString in iOS 6 -

i trying turn on ligatures (nsligatureattributename) nsattributedstring displayed uilabel.

i targeting ios 6.1 , running in ipad simulator.

my set of test words are:

• aeciospore
• coeliac
• halfheaded
• cliffhanging
• aufkommender
• snuffkin
• domineesbriefjes
• offtrack
• dahinraffte
• coffins

my test code simple, loops through list of words , display 1 in uilabel using text property:

self.normallabel.text = words[i]; 

and other using attributedtext property, after creating nsattributedstring (see brandon campbell's answer more info on value of nsligatureattributename):

nsdictionary *attrs = @{    nsfontattributename : [uifont systemfontofsize:74.0],                             nsligatureattributename : @1, //@2 not supported in ios                             nsbackgroundcolorattributename : [uicolor redcolor]};  self.attr.attributedtext = [[nsattributedstring alloc] initwithstring:words[i] attributes:attrs]; 

as can see i'm setting nsligatureattributename 2 (as nsnumber). has no effect on words:

i'm using systemfont (helvetica neue), here debugger output:

(lldb) po self.attr.attributedtext $0 = 0x0719bc90 aeciospore{     nsbackgroundcolor = "uidevicergbcolorspace 1 0 0 1";     nsfont = "<uicffont: 0x719cc80> font-family: \".helvetica neueui\"; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 74px";     nsligature = 1; } (lldb)  

according docs nsligatureattributename 2 unsupported on ios.

nsligatureattributename value of attribute nsnumber object containing integer. ligatures cause specific character combinations rendered using single custom glyph corresponds characters. value 0 indicates no ligatures. value 1 indicates use of default ligatures. value 2 indicates use of ligatures. default value attribute 1. (note value 2 unsupported on ios.) available in ios 6.0 , later.

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/uikit/reference/nsattributedstring_uikit_additions/reference/reference.html