Very long names in Variable font

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Hello! When I run my font through FontSpector, it outputs this error that the “combined length of family and style must not exceed 32 characters”.

So I was wondering if there is a custom parameter that I can add to my variable font export to fix this issue? Maybe to shorted ExtraBold to ExBd for example.

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I think this is an outdated warning. Which environment can handle variable fonts but not long combined names?

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I think MS Office doesn’t display over 32 chars (or so) in the menu correctly.

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MS Office already has problems with 12 characters. The menu is so tiny.

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This reply made me burst out laughing :rofl: I guess I don’t have to worry about the warning then?

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You can’t display a VF instance with more than 32 characters (excluding RIBBI particules) in MS Word (Windows and Mac if I remember correctly). You can see it in the menu, select it, but a fallback style is displayed.

Since Word uses the location of the FVAR but the naming of the STAT, a work around that we found is to have an abbreviated STAT table. So in the FVAR table you have normal names, but in the STAT you have abbreviations. This way you have your style name as you wish in Indesign and other apps, and abbreviated styles in Word.

It seems stupid to do something like that, but for what I tested it works and solves the issue when nothing else is possible.

1 Like
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I’ll report this to our good friends at Microsoft.
@jadderdude can you send me your file?

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Only if the intended use of the typeface is in Word for Windows.

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I have the same problem on Mac actually.
I just went through a long testing process to have a final word on this matter.

If I didn’t do a mistake in the process, there are my conclusions:

On Mac Word:

  • Limit of Family Name is 28 characters (sometimes 29, but 28 always worked)
  • For 1 axis fonts, this limitation doesn’t seem related to style name length — I tested a style name of 42 characters and all instances were displayed correctly
  • There seems to be a limitation of characters when style names are combined through multiple axes. Instances with Family Name + Style Name > 32 (excluding RIBBI particules) couldn’t be displayed correctly.

On Windows Word:

  • Style names seem to be limited: for a family name of 28 characters, limit of style name is 25 characters.
  • There is the same issue for combined style names as in Mac.

For these test, I kept nameID1, 16 and 25 consistent. Inconsistency between nameID1 and 16 was creating display bugs.

For max compatibility and until fixed:

  • Keep family name < 29 characters
  • Keep style name < 26 characters
  • For multiple axis fonts, abbreviate style names in STAT table so the full instance name is ≤ 32 characters
3 Likes
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The font didn’t work or the menu entry was cut off?

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On Mac, you can see it in the menu but it’s one of the RIBBI that is displayed on the page. On Windows it’s either this or the instance doesn’t appear at all in the menu.

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This seems to be a good case for GitHub - schriftgestalt/FontTechKnowledge: A place to collect all the little quirks with fonts and software · GitHub

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I think I don’t understand what that means.

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It means if you selects “My Font Light” > Word will display “My Font Regular”
My Font Black will fallback on Bold
My Font Medium Italic will fallback Italic
etc.

It also happened that the origin or the first instance is displayed as default fallback instead of the actual Regular style