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Variable font

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The "design space" of the variable font Recursive Sans & Mono,[1]illustrated as thenetsof two cubes

Avariable font(VF) is afont filethat is able to store a continuous range of design variants. An entiretypeface(font family) can be stored in such a file, with an infinite number offontsavailable to be sampled.[2]

The variable font technology originated in Apple'sTrueType GXfont variations. The technology was adapted toOpenTypeasOpenType variable fonts(OTVF) in version 1.8 of the OpenType specification.[3][4][5]The technology was announced byAdobe,Apple,Google,andMicrosoftin September 2016. Making such a feature standardized in OpenType paved the way for support in many software platforms.[3][6][7][8]

Variable fonts should not be confused withvariable-width fonts.A variable font may be either variable-width offixed-width.[9]

Technology

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OpenType variable fonts are an adaptation of Apple'sTrueType GXfont variations to OpenType, with integration into key aspects of the OpenType format including OpenType Layout tables and bothTrueTypeand CFF glyph outline formats. It also surpasses TrueType GX by providing better interoperability, both between different fonts, and between variable fonts and font-formatting specifications such as those found inCascading Style Sheets.The technology allows software to access any design instance for a continuous range of designs defined within the font. When a specific design instance has been selected, the glyph outlines or other data values for that design instance are computed as font data is being processed during text layout and rasterization.

The technology uses interpolation and extrapolation mechanisms that have been supported in font-development tools and used by font designers for many years.[10]In that paradigm, the font designer creates a variable design, but then chooses specific instances to generate as static, non-variable fonts that get distributed to customers. With variable fonts, however, the font produced and distributed by the font designer can have built-in variability, and the interpolation mechanisms can now be built into operating systems and Web browsers or other applications, with specific design instances selected at time of use.

One of the key benefits of the technology is that it can significantly reduce the combined size of font data whenever multiple styles are in use. On the Web, this may allow a site to use more font styles while at the same time reducing page load times. A further benefit is that it gives access to a continuous range of style variations, which can provide benefits for responsive design.

The technology has been compared to Adobe'smultiple master fonts(MM fonts) technology, also from the 1990s, which used on-the-fly generation of font designs from master files by interpolation and extrapolation.[11][12][13][14]Multiple master fonts, however, required the user to generate a specific "instance" of the font for particular variation-axis values before it could be used. This is not required for OpenType variable fonts, however: named or arbitrary design instances can be selected and used on demand.

Adoption

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Operating systems

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InWindows 10, version 1709(or known as "Windows 10Fall Creators Update ") released in 2017, official support for variable fonts is provided by Microsoft,[15]along with the first variable font in Windows: the "Bahnschrift" font, which is a digitisation ofDIN 1451.[16][17]However, support for CFF2 fonts using OpenType outlines had caused issues with Windows text rendering engine, sometimes making UI text blank out; this was later fixed in 2023 with the KB5032278 update.[18]

Androidstarted to provide variable font support for mobile app developers in Android Oreo[19]or API level 26.[20]

Appleprovided variable font support in its operating system sincemacOS10.5/iOS 3.2,[21]but usage inSafarithroughWebKitonly comes in macOS 10.13/iOS 11 with Safari 11.[22][23]

FreeType,the font rendering program used by mostUnix-likesystems includingLinux,received variable font support in May 2017 (FreeType 2.8).[24]

Editors

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Adobe Creative Cloud2018 version, released 18 October 2017, includes support for variable fonts inPhotoshop[25]andIllustrator[26]and includes variable concept versions of the fontsAcumin,Minion,Myriad,Source Code,Source Sans,andSource Serif.

Creative Cloud 2020 has added variable font support forInDesign.[27]

Inkscapeversion 1.0 has added variable font support.[28]

LibreOfficeversion 7.5 has added variable font support.[29]

Browsers

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Variable fonts are controlled in theweb browserusing both existing properties for well-known options such as weight and a rawfont-variation-settingscontrol. Refer to the MDN pages of the CSS property for support history.[2]

References

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  1. ^Type, Arrow."Recursive Sans & Mono".recursive.design.Retrieved27 June2021.
  2. ^ab"Variable fonts guide - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets".MDN.
  3. ^ab"Introducing OpenType Font Variations".www.microsoft.com.
  4. ^Phinney, Thomas (February 2017)."Variable Fonts Are the Next Generation".Communication Arts.Retrieved20 September2017.
  5. ^Phinney, Thomas (14 September 2016)."The Lesson of Color Fonts for Variable Fonts".thomasphinney.com.Retrieved20 September2017.
  6. ^"CSS Fonts Module Level 4".drafts.csswg.org.
  7. ^Nieskens, Roel."Variable Fonts: the Future of (Web) Type".Typographica.Retrieved31 October2016.
  8. ^Hudson, John."Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts".Medium.Tiro Typeworks.Retrieved31 October2016.
  9. ^Beckwith, Kate."Ubuntu's new variable fonts".TypeNetwork.Retrieved8 August2024.
  10. ^Griscti, Jessica."Jess Loves Interpolation".Alphabettes.Retrieved15 May2016.
  11. ^Designing Multiple Master Typefaces(PDF).San José: Adobe Systems. 1997. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 28 January 2005.Retrieved20 September2017.
  12. ^Riggs, Tamye."The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story".Typekit blog.Adobe.Retrieved2 July2015.
  13. ^"The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: Expanding the Originals".Typekit.Adobe Systems.Retrieved8 January2016.
  14. ^Phinney, Thomas (18 March 2010)."Font Remix Tools (RMX) and Multiple Master Fonts in type design".Phinney.Retrieved4 July2015.
  15. ^"What's new in DirectWrite - Win32 apps".learn.microsoft.com.4 October 2021.Retrieved21 March2024.
  16. ^"Introducing the Bahnschrift font".Windows Blog.Microsoft.23 August 2017.Retrieved28 August2017.
  17. ^Protalinski, Emil (23 August 2017)."Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with shell, Edge, and input improvements".VentureBeat.Retrieved28 August2017.
  18. ^"Source Han Sans CFF2 VF (or any CFF2 font) causes Windows text rendering to blank out (Windows 10 and 11) · Issue #290 · adobe-fonts/source-han-sans".GitHub.Retrieved21 March2024.
  19. ^"Using Built-in Variable Font on Android - hồi âm đích bác khách".echo.moe.Retrieved21 March2024.
  20. ^Franks, Rebecca (2 May 2018)."Variable Fonts in Android O 🖍".Over Engineering.Retrieved21 March2024.
  21. ^"Variable Fonts – Support".v-fonts.com.Retrieved21 March2024.
  22. ^"CTFontDescriptorCreateCopyWithVariation".Apple Developer Documentation.Retrieved21 March2024.
  23. ^Davis, Jon (22 September 2017)."New WebKit Features in Safari 11".WebKit.
  24. ^"FreeType 2.8 Completes OpenType Variation Fonts Support - Phoronix".www.phoronix.com.
  25. ^"New features summary | October 2017 release of Photoshop CC".Retrieved19 October2017.
  26. ^"New features summary | October 2017 release of Illustrator CC".Retrieved19 October2017.
  27. ^"What's New with InDesign 2020? | CreativePro Network".4 November 2019.
  28. ^"Introducing Inkscape 1.0".inkscape.org.Retrieved1 July2020.
  29. ^"LibreOffice 7.5: Release Notes".The Document Foundation's Wiki.Retrieved3 February2023.
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