1 file- 2 variable fonts?

kemie · June 23, 2022, 6:31am

I currently have a font family with 2 variants: text and display. I have this set up in a single file and export both versions by using the replace glyphs and family name parameters. I’d like to export this into variable fonts, but am unsure how to go about this? Seems splitting into two files would be a lot of work since 80% of the font is exactly the same, so any changes would have to made twice.

GeorgSeifert · June 23, 2022, 7:18am

That is a bit tricky. But why not put them in one variable font?

kemie · June 23, 2022, 7:53am

Ideally I’d like to keep them as two families, but maybe the solution is separate families for static fonts and one with alternates for variable?

SCarewe · June 23, 2022, 8:22am

I don’t quite understand. Why are you using the Rename Glyphs parameter (to switch out glyphs)? Do the text and display variants not interpolate? I can’t quite picture your setup, but maybe this helps:

github.com

eweracs/glyphs-scripts/blob/master/Font Management/CreateVariableSubsetFiles.py

# MenuTitle: Create Variable Subset File
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

__doc__ = """
Creates a file to export a subset variable font.
"""

import vanilla
import itertools


class CreateSubset:
	def __init__(self):

		Message("This script is still heavily experimental, especially for managing special layers. Use at your own "
		        "risk.",
		        "Warning")

		if Font is None:
			Message("No font selected", "Select a font project!")

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kemie · June 23, 2022, 8:48am

For example, on the display version, my font has a one-storey a, the text version has a 2 storey a (a.ss01), so they don’t need to interpolate among themselves. So I set up Myfontdisplay exports as usual and Myfonttext with a parameter to rename a= a.ss01

Your script looks really interesting, but I’m having a bit of a hard time figuring it out. It automates creating a new glyphs file (super useful) But I’m unsure of what “remove in instance names” does.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

SCarewe · June 23, 2022, 2:15pm

Ah, yes, the script was developed alongside a client project, so it’s very specific to that project – meaning there is probably tons of stuff that won’t work on other files. “Remove in instance names” is intended for projects which have a variable font for everything, of which subsets are then created – meaning you might have instances called “Compressed Thin” in your main file, but when you create a subset file with only the compressed styles, you want your (remaining) instances only to be called (for example) “Thin”. So it allows you to remove the new family name from the instance names. Ignore it if this doesn’t apply to your project.

In your case, I’m afraid I don’t quite understand your setup. Do you have an optical size axis, meaning all glyphs change in, for example, contrast between text and display? Or are you only switching out some glyphs between text and display? In that case, you can simply add two separate variable font settings: One with Rename Glyphs and the other without. Then add a Remove Glyphs parameter with *.ss01 as the only line (if this is the suffix you are using for all glyphs you are exchanging).

Again, please forgive me if I’m misunderstanding your setup. A screenshot of your master setup would be very helpful. Thanks!

kemie · June 23, 2022, 2:56pm

Sorry, I’m probably not doing a good job explaining. I only have one axis, weight, and the idea is to generat two separate families with that one axis and with one type of glyphs (one with regular, the other swapped with .ss01)

In that case, you can simply add two separate variable font settings: One with Rename Glyphs and the other without.

THIS was the key! I was unaware you could have more than one VF setting. This works exactly as I needed it to.

Thank you!