Exporting variable font only within range of its instances

jansindl3r · February 13, 2023, 1:33pm

I have a font with masters with values 0 - 100.
the instances are not within smaller range, let’s say 30 – 70
I would like to have the masters not included in the variable font and then have it remapped so 70=250 and 30 = 50.

mekkablue · February 13, 2023, 2:02pm

You need to add matters at these spots (Font Info > Exports, select an instance and choose Instance as Master from the menu) and then consider a Disable Masters parameter in the variable font setting in Exports.

jansindl3r · February 13, 2023, 2:28pm

I don’t understand, so basically it’s impossible unless I create master at 30 and 70? I am having wider range for possible later extension of the font

SCarewe · February 13, 2023, 2:31pm

Correct, that’s not possible. I published a (very experimental) script that allows you to create subsets of variable fonts.

github.com

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

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

__doc__ = """
Create glyphs files to export subset variable fonts.
"""

import vanilla
import itertools


class CreateSubsets:
	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!")

This file has been truncated. show original

jansindl3r · February 13, 2023, 3:44pm

ahhh that’s annoying ll just go back custom build scripts, unfortunately put too much hope in glyphs to handle this

SCarewe · February 13, 2023, 3:49pm

You can automate it relatively easily in 3.2.

In 3.2, the “Disable Master” parameter actually works, meaning if you put master names into the parameter in a variable font setting, it will export a subset with the remaining masters. This means all you need to do is generate the missing new outer masters before export, you could do this with a script (my script above is quite messy, but maybe some of the methods might be helpful as they deal with intermediate/alternate layers).