Alternating glyph shapes in a variable font?

Glyphs
1

Hi Glyphs team,
I was wondering is there a way to substitute a glyph with its alternative for some instances in a variable font?
Basically I’d like to achieve the same result as described here but in a variable font: https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/alternating-glyph-shapes-with-multiple-axes

I want to sub a double-storey a with a single-storey one for italic axis, but they require different kerning groups, so can’t use the brace trick. Is there any workaround? I think I saw it in some font.

Thank you!

2

This is currently not possible with different glyphs. You might get it to work with a bracket layers (https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/alternating-glyph-shapes)

3

But Bracket Layers work only for one Axis design?
How about non-linear interpolation for one glyph in a Variable font?
Cheers,

4

That would be a brace layer. That is possible with a virtual master. See the Variable Font tutorial.

1 Like
5

Had read the tutorial back and forth before diving into bracket layer method and posting my Q.
Are there limitations on how many brace layers can be in the font?

6

No but it can get messy in two dimensions.