Proper Text output (kerning etc.)

[Robert Memering]

Hello all,

I recently upgraded to 2.7.13 from 2.4.4 because I wanted
to try some of the new features of the newer versions, esp.
"suggestAccidentals", which is a great improvement for me.
I am really happy! (Now I can listen to my midis from
full-of-musica-ficta renaissance pieces...)
I also agree that moving away from TeX is a good idea (I had
some serious problems with SUSE shipping misconfigured lilypond
2.4 packages that didn't work with tetex 3).

But when it comes to Text output, TeX is sadly missed.
I finally persuaded emacs to swallow fi-Ligatures and
em/en-dashes etc., so that I can at least get most of the
single characters I need. (ff and fl-Ligatures still missing...)

But what about metrics and kerning? Just type \markup{Ve}
(e.g. for "Veni sancte spiritus) and you know what I mean.
This hurts my eyes. I can't release books of sheet music
with text that looks like poor MS Word output.

Is there any way to get the old Text quality back?

Thanks in advance,
Robert