diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
index 1034511016..e227ad2c8e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py
@@ -411,6 +411,18 @@ OptionRecommendation(name='asciiize',
 )
         ),
 
+OptionRecommendation(name='keep_ligatures',
+            recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+            help=_('Preserve ligatures present in the input document. '
+                'A ligature is a special rendering of a pair of '
+                'characters like ff, fi, fl et cetera. '
+                'Most readers do not have support for '
+                'ligatures in their default fonts, so they are '
+                'unlikely to render correctly. By default, calibre '
+                'will turn a ligature into the corresponding pair of normal '
+                'characters. This option will preserve them instead.')
+        ),
+
 OptionRecommendation(name='title',
     recommended_value=None, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
     help=_('Set the title.')),
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
index ada4f1a3af..a42f0fc73b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
@@ -18,6 +18,24 @@ convert_entities = functools.partial(entity_to_unicode, exceptions=['quot',
     'apos', 'lt', 'gt', 'amp', '#60', '#62'])
 _span_pat = re.compile('<span.*?</span>', re.DOTALL|re.IGNORECASE)
 
+LIGATURES = {
+        u'\u00c6': u'AE',
+        u'\u00e6': u'ae',
+        u'\u0152': u'OE',
+        u'\u0153': u'oe',
+        u'\u0132': u'IJ',
+        u'\u0133': u'ij',
+        u'\u1D6B': u'ue',
+        u'\uFB00': u'ff',
+        u'\uFB01': u'fi',
+        u'\uFB02': u'fl',
+        u'\uFB03': u'ffi',
+        u'\uFB04': u'ffl',
+        u'\uFB05': u'ft',
+        u'\uFB06': u'st',
+        }
+
+_ligpat = re.compile(u'|'.join(LIGATURES))
 
 def sanitize_head(match):
     x = match.group(1)
@@ -228,6 +246,9 @@ class HTMLPreProcessor(object):
         else:
             rules = []
 
+        if not self.extra_opts.keep_ligatures:
+            html = _ligpat.sub(lambda m:LIGATURES[m.group()], html)
+
         end_rules = []
         if getattr(self.extra_opts, 'remove_header', None):
             try:
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.py b/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.py
index 8ef1f77351..e18657cf69 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class LookAndFeelWidget(Widget, Ui_Form):
                     'linearize_tables',
                     'disable_font_rescaling', 'insert_blank_line',
                     'remove_paragraph_spacing', 'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size','input_encoding',
-                    'asciiize']
+                    'asciiize', 'keep_ligatures']
                 )
         self.db, self.book_id = db, book_id
         self.initialize_options(get_option, get_help, db, book_id)
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.ui b/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.ui
index 6fbf4e11cd..764226012b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.ui
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/convert/look_and_feel.ui
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
      </property>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="1" column="2">
+   <item row="1" column="1" colspan="2">
     <widget class="QDoubleSpinBox" name="opt_base_font_size">
      <property name="suffix">
       <string> pt</string>
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
      </property>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="2" column="1" colspan="2">
+   <item row="2" column="1" colspan="3">
     <layout class="QHBoxLayout" name="horizontalLayout">
      <item>
       <widget class="QLineEdit" name="opt_font_size_mapping">
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@
         <string>...</string>
        </property>
        <property name="icon">
-        <iconset>
+        <iconset resource="../../../../resources/images.qrc">
          <normaloff>:/images/wizard.svg</normaloff>:/images/wizard.svg</iconset>
        </property>
        <property name="iconSize">
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@
      </property>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="3" column="2">
+   <item row="3" column="1" colspan="2">
     <widget class="QDoubleSpinBox" name="opt_line_height">
      <property name="suffix">
       <string> pt</string>
@@ -127,60 +127,50 @@
      </property>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="4" column="1" colspan="2">
+   <item row="4" column="1" colspan="3">
     <widget class="QLineEdit" name="opt_input_encoding"/>
    </item>
-   <item row="5" column="0" colspan="3">
-    <layout class="QHBoxLayout" name="horizontalLayout_3">
+   <item row="5" column="0" colspan="2">
+    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_remove_paragraph_spacing">
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>Remove &amp;spacing between paragraphs</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
+   <item row="5" column="2" colspan="2">
+    <layout class="QHBoxLayout" name="horizontalLayout_2">
      <item>
-      <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_remove_paragraph_spacing">
+      <widget class="QLabel" name="label_4">
        <property name="text">
-        <string>Remove &amp;spacing between paragraphs</string>
+        <string>Indent size:</string>
+       </property>
+       <property name="alignment">
+        <set>Qt::AlignRight|Qt::AlignTrailing|Qt::AlignVCenter</set>
        </property>
       </widget>
      </item>
      <item>
-      <spacer name="horizontalSpacer">
-       <property name="orientation">
-        <enum>Qt::Horizontal</enum>
+      <widget class="QDoubleSpinBox" name="opt_remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size">
+       <property name="toolTip">
+        <string>&lt;p&gt;When calibre removes inter paragraph spacing, it automatically sets a paragraph indent, to ensure that paragraphs can be easily distinguished. This option controls the width of that indent.</string>
        </property>
-       <property name="sizeHint" stdset="0">
-        <size>
-         <width>40</width>
-         <height>20</height>
-        </size>
+       <property name="suffix">
+        <string> em</string>
        </property>
-      </spacer>
-     </item>
-     <item>
-      <layout class="QHBoxLayout" name="horizontalLayout_2">
-       <item>
-        <widget class="QLabel" name="label_4">
-         <property name="text">
-          <string>Indent size:</string>
-         </property>
-         <property name="alignment">
-          <set>Qt::AlignRight|Qt::AlignTrailing|Qt::AlignVCenter</set>
-         </property>
-        </widget>
-       </item>
-       <item>
-        <widget class="QDoubleSpinBox" name="opt_remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size">
-         <property name="toolTip">
-          <string>&lt;p&gt;When calibre removes inter paragraph spacing, it automatically sets a paragraph indent, to ensure that paragraphs can be easily distinguished. This option controls the width of that indent.</string>
-         </property>
-         <property name="suffix">
-          <string> em</string>
-         </property>
-         <property name="decimals">
-          <number>1</number>
-         </property>
-        </widget>
-       </item>
-      </layout>
+       <property name="decimals">
+        <number>1</number>
+       </property>
+      </widget>
      </item>
     </layout>
    </item>
+   <item row="6" column="0">
+    <widget class="QLabel" name="label_5">
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>Text justification:</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
    <item row="7" column="0">
     <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_linearize_tables">
      <property name="text">
@@ -188,14 +178,7 @@
      </property>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="9" column="0">
-    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_asciiize">
-     <property name="text">
-      <string>&amp;Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII.</string>
-     </property>
-    </widget>
-   </item>
-   <item row="10" column="0" colspan="3">
+   <item row="9" column="0" colspan="4">
     <widget class="QGroupBox" name="groupBox">
      <property name="title">
       <string>Extra &amp;CSS</string>
@@ -207,21 +190,7 @@
      </layout>
     </widget>
    </item>
-   <item row="8" column="0">
-    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_insert_blank_line">
-     <property name="text">
-      <string>Insert &amp;blank line</string>
-     </property>
-    </widget>
-   </item>
-   <item row="6" column="0">
-    <widget class="QLabel" name="label_5">
-     <property name="text">
-      <string>Text justification:</string>
-     </property>
-    </widget>
-   </item>
-   <item row="6" column="2">
+   <item row="6" column="2" colspan="2">
     <widget class="QComboBox" name="opt_change_justification">
      <property name="currentIndex">
       <number>2</number>
@@ -243,6 +212,27 @@
      </item>
     </widget>
    </item>
+   <item row="7" column="1" colspan="3">
+    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_asciiize">
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>&amp;Transliterate unicode characters to ASCII</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
+   <item row="8" column="0">
+    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_insert_blank_line">
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>Insert &amp;blank line</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
+   <item row="8" column="1" colspan="2">
+    <widget class="QCheckBox" name="opt_keep_ligatures">
+     <property name="text">
+      <string>Keep &amp;ligatures</string>
+     </property>
+    </widget>
+   </item>
   </layout>
  </widget>
  <resources>