Alternating glyph shapes in multi-axis variable font

Glyphs
1

Hi! I’m building 4-axis (weight, width, contrast and italic // all from 0-100 units) variable font. I’d like to have my letter e.g. double-storey “a” change to single-storey “a” between 0 and 1 unit on the italic axis. Is it possible?

I assume The Bracket Trick works for weight, single-axis only, and The Brace Trick works for weight and width, double-axis only, also this https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/alternating-glyph-shapes-with-multiple-axes method works for non-variable fonts only. Am I right?

2

There are still some limitations if you have more than 3 axes. Consider keeping the ital variations in separate files for now. As for the brace trick, try to keep your shapes as straight-forward as possible, and keep your masters in a completely rectangular arrangement. The latter is the case if all your Master coordinates are either 0 or 100 on any given axis, which I assume they are.

Yes, you’re right.

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3

Thank You so much! I will follow your advice. I’ll probably keep italics in the separate file.

Do u know if there is a possibility of developing some kind of support for those multi-axis cases at some predictable time?

4

Some time next year.

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