Selective Instance Export for Variable Fonts?

Glyphs
1

Is there a way to “Disable Exports” for specific instances only within a Variable Font Setting, similar to how “Disable Masters” works?

I want to export:

• the Variable Fonts (with a limited set of instances),
• the Static Fonts (desktop and web), and
• the Trial Fonts (with a different subset of styles),

all in a SINGLE export action.

The problem: if I define multiple Exports for statics and trials, all those instances end up in the Variable Font unless I manually disable them before exporting.

Is there a proper or recommended way to prevent certain instances from being included in the Variable Font export, without having to manually toggle instance visibility or run separate exports?

2
  • Variable font in the glyphs file,
  • Static fonts in separate glyphsproject files.
3

So is it not possible in one single action? I want a client to be able to export easily every time they update the source Glyphs file.

4

You can use a .glyphsproject file for this (File > New Project). Then add one project for each variable font setting, with the instances you want included.

5

@SCarewe Variable Font export doesn’t work (at least for me) in .glyphsproject. It just produces statics of the instances. So I don’t see the point of having a .glyphsproject , or am I wrong?

6

OTVar exports do not work in .glyphsproject files. And you would still have the same issue.

You could code it. But I wouldn’t say it’s worth the hassle.

I do OTVar exports from the Glyphs file directly. And all static export variants from the .glyphsproject files. Also because there are too many options that could be set the „wrong“ way in the export dialog.

7

Would it be possible to script the export of both the Glyphs file (static exports) and the .glyphsproject that are contained in one folder, so that they happen in one single action?

8

I coded a Glyphs export plugin for that; I’ll make it open source tomorrow.
It works with a custom parameter where you can set the instance’s full name to retain in the VF export.

EDIT : It’s not gonna work with your setup because if have multiple instances with full name

1 Like
9

There is the “Include in Variable Font” parameter in the instance settings. Add one an uncheck its checkbox in the instances that should not show up in the variable font.

10

Thanks, I didn’t know about this. The problem is that it applies to all variable fonts in the file. I’m trying to subset VFs, and it would be much more practical to choose which instances to include for each Variable Font Setting. A “Keep Instances” option would be very useful.

(Also, having a “Keep Masters” option would help a lot, the “Disable Masters” list can get quite long.)

11

How are you subsetting your VF? With Disable Masters, instances outside of the new interpolation space are discarded.

However, I strongly recommend using fontTools and varLib.instancer, which is much more stable.

I also wrote a Glyphs export plugin that subsets variable fonts based on your variable font settings (you can define axis ranges etc.). It uses fontTools for the subsetting.