I have a Sans Serif design in Roman and Italic with compatible outlines, so in its current state it’s possible to export a single Variable font that covers both the Romans and the Italics.
Now, the client wants a separate variable font for the Romans and a separate for the Italics. And I would like to keep the document as it is; one document with both the Romans and Italics in the same source.
The question: Is it possible to have two variable instances in the same document? One for the Italics, and one for the Romans? To be able to export two variable fonts automatically.
There is a chance that it can be done. It depends a bit on the setup (brace and bracket layers).
You can add two more “Variable Font Settings”. You need to set the family and style name to make them distinct.
Then you add one “Disable Masters” parameter in each setting and give it the names of the masters you don’t need (all italic masters in the upright …).
I can confirm that Disable Masters works for this use case, but only up to a certain extent. I don’t quite remember what doesn’t work (I think that unused axes are still “exported” and show up in apps).
I have slightly improved the “Disable Masters” support. The update is out. The removed axis are still in the file but hidden. There are quite a few things that rely on axis index and to remove it properly is more work.
Cool, I’ll give it a try! But, does this mean (when you say the Italic axis is there but hidden) that the file size will also be equal as it was containing an Italic?
