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Variable Fonts

v-fonts.com

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Re: Variable Fonts

#41

Post by CharlesW »

kragen wrote: post #7

i prefer calling this concept by its original name, "metafont", in part because "variable font" is sometimes used as lazy shorthand for "variable-pitch font", i.e. proportional rather than fixed-pitch like a typewriter. on the other hand, "metafont" is also the name of a particular piece of free software for this purpose

Although they share the concept of "parametric font technologies", variable fonts are a completely different expression of that than metafonts. Where a metafont glyph is programmatic (complex, but great flexibility and control), a variable font glyph is mostly declaritive (simpler and more accessible, but less flexible in some respects), consisting of a set of variations with defined axes to control how the variations should be interpolated/tweened to control properties like weight, width, slant, etc.

A good overview of variable fonts is "Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts" (2016): https://medium.com/variable-fonts/https-medium-com-tiro-intr...

Re: Variable Fonts

#42

Post by WillAdams »

ghusbands wrote: post #26
kragen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is a well-known piece of free software for this called "metafont" (also the original name for the concept here being neologized "variable font"—a "metafont" is an infinite set of fonts produced by an algorithm from input variables) but it doesn't have a gui and can't import woff or truetype

I think you may be missing the point. Metafonts have absolutely nothing to do with "variable fonts". It's a completely different branch of font technology. You cannot produce a variable font as OP intends using metafont.

Not directly/easily, one would need to:

- instantiate two (or more) separate design instances (the extremes)

- export them as an outline --- see METATYPE1

- edit them so that each character in each design instance has the same number of nodes (maybe this isn't a requirement anymore?)

- combine them into a variable font

Re: Variable Fonts

#44

Post by crazygringo »

alberth wrote: post #40
crazygringo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, both in theory and in practice [1]. What I'm more curious about is whether variable fonts can save disk space. I.e. whether a variable font that interpolates between "regular" and "bold" is smaller than one font file in "regular" and another in "bold". Because so much about the two variations is the same -- the same glyphs, the same number of anchor points, in the same order... it's just the actual anchor point…

Does any online tool exist to automate the creation of a subset variable font? (Like Font Squirrel from above)

Not that I'm aware of, but the command-line instructions I linked to are quite simple to follow.

And it would be pretty easy to throw them on a server as well if you wanted to build your own online interface for it.

Re: Variable Fonts

#45

Post by CharlesW »

frognumber wrote: post #39

Can someone explain the difference between multiple master fonts and variable fonts? I found MM fonts to be super-nice in the nineties. I could emphasize things and keep a very nice visual hierarchy while maintaining very nice stylistic consistency. I've been confused as to why we can't have them in 2023. These aren't nearly as pretty as the fonts I used close to three decades ago. Fonts programs are copyrightable (t…

> Can someone explain the difference between multiple master fonts and variable fonts?

Adobe's Multiple Master format and Apple's TrueType GX format are, respectively, the spiritual and DNA parents of OpenType Variable Fonts.

https://medium.com/variable-fonts/https-medium-com-tiro-intr...

Re: Variable Fonts

#46

Post by ghusbands »

kragen wrote: post #27
ghusbands wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may be missing the point. Metafonts have absolutely nothing to do with "variable fonts". It's a completely different branch of font technology. You cannot produce a variable font as OP intends using metafont.

metafonts, as implemented by the metafont program, and variable fonts are literally exactly the same thing: a parameterized font which produces an infinite set of fonts as you vary some parameters i think what you mean to say is that the metafont program isn't compatible with truetype or opentype, but i kind of already explained that in the comment you are replying to

No, "variable font" is not some generic term, especially in context. It refers to a specific technology. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_font

It has nothing at all to do with metafont, even if metafont also supports parameterized fonts.

Re: Variable Fonts

#47

Post by WillAdams »

chrismorgan wrote: post #16
cellis wrote: post #11

I originally submitted this article because I saw the NYT (maybe?) started using them. If you can view this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/28/world/asia/ch... , I had to squint and saw that, "yes! that's a different 'F', and that's a different 'L'". It made so much sense, I thought "surely they didn't hire an artist to handwrite these captions. They must be using some kind of 'variable font'", and I goo…

You mean the handwritten text, “FINISHED SCHOOL” and such? If so, even if you did that with text, you’d be very unlikely to use variable fonts at all, but rather just draw multiple versions of each character, and choose randomly or based on context (there are a few techniques). That’s waaaaaaaay easier than going variable would be—and variable still wouldn’t be sufficient to achieve the result on its own, though it c…

For a paper discussing selecting various alternates and constructing ligatures see:

https://tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf

Re: Variable Fonts

#48

Post by kragen »

ghusbands wrote: post #46
kragen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

metafonts, as implemented by the metafont program, and variable fonts are literally exactly the same thing: a parameterized font which produces an infinite set of fonts as you vary some parameters i think what you mean to say is that the metafont program isn't compatible with truetype or opentype, but i kind of already explained that in the comment you are replying to

No, "variable font" is not some generic term, especially in context. It refers to a specific technology. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_font It has nothing at all to do with metafont, even if metafont also supports parameterized fonts.

that page opens by saying it's a generic term, not the specific implementation of the concept in opentype:

> A variable font (VF) is a font file that is able to store a continuous range of design variants.

this definition is the same thing as the definition of a metafont, and clearly includes the metafonts implemented by the program named metafont. it seems like the authors of the page didn't know about the program named metafont, though, so they mistakenly think apple invented it

Re: Variable Fonts

#49

Post by ghusbands »

kragen wrote: post #48
ghusbands wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, "variable font" is not some generic term, especially in context. It refers to a specific technology. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_font It has nothing at all to do with metafont, even if metafont also supports parameterized fonts.

that page opens by saying it's a generic term, not the specific implementation of the concept in opentype: > A variable font (VF) is a font file that is able to store a continuous range of design variants. this definition is the same thing as the definition of a metafont, and clearly includes the metafonts implemented by the program named metafont. it seems like the authors of the page didn't know about the program n…

It does not claim it's a generic term. The whole page is about variable fonts as derived from "Apple's TrueType GX font variations"; one sentence taken out of context doesn't change that. If you search the internet for variable fonts, you only find people talking about this technology. Parameterized fonts as in metafont have never been called variable fonts and trying to claim otherwise is just creating unnecessary confusion.

Re: Variable Fonts

#50

Post by pathartl »

kibwen wrote: post #29

I'm torn. Variable fonts are neat, but they also lay bare how woefully complicated every single layer of our software stack is where even displaying a single glyph requires interpreting a Turing-complete programming language. As I get older I increasingly just want a more transparent and understandable system that does less, even if that means giving up bells and whistles like automagic font kerning.

I'd argue that it's unavoidable. These glyphs are meant for communicating to humans. Trying to reduce it removes the human element out of it, which can remove concepts like intent and context.
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