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Ha! I didn't want to be that guy again, but… now that good, comic-bound variable fonts exist, maybe Serif will take notice. 🙃 Naaah, in all seriousnesss, not only do comic artists likely use other dedicated software packages, instead of the more generic Photoshop or Affinity Photo (though you could argue they might leave their balloons blank for a designer to finish or even localize them, or that they might want to do so themselves on a vector-based package, like Publisher), but this font is legitimately cool in its own right. And any cool and useful variable font deserves my praise, regardless of its application or the implications on the design market, so… thanks for sharing! Oooooo, this is cool. It's like Fixedsys, only from the 21st century and on a lot of steroids. 😂 And it's published under an SIL OFL 1.1 license?! I like all of what Microsoft is doing here. Thank you for sharing this one, too!

I am now switching over to variable fonts on the web, and I realise how valuable it is to use the weight axis (and optical axis, where the font has it) to find the ‘sweet spot‘ for text and headlines in each situation. It‘s frustrating not being able to do the same in print (if I’m using 440 on the web, 400 or 500 are not matches in print). I’m thinking that it may be a matter of moving back to Adobe for a while until Affinity catches up with this. I don‘t want to do this, but it’s becoming a must-have feature.

Just adding another voice for support for variable fonts. This is #1 on my list of priorities now.

+1. Variable fonts are super mainstream as an 'edgy' design style. Hopefully we'll see it soon as it's a pretty essential feature at this stage, especially working with web fonts.

I had the same issue yesterday, albeit with a different variable font. Didn't realise that Publisher didn't support variable fonts – so thanks for posting this!

Variable fonts (being discussed above) are different from regular TTF font files. I can confirm that 'normal' TTF fonts can be used in Affinity, simply install the font through your OS and you'll find it is available to use in any Affinity app. For more info, please see here - https://affinity.serif.com/store/resources-install-guide/#content:~:text=iPad%3A-,Installing fonts,Alternatively%2C you can double click on the font you wish to install and choose Install Font in the resulting dialog.

The specs for variable fonts are not set in stone yet, in that there are still axis tags being registered or in some stage of discussion prior to becomming a registered axis. And for some/many tags, even what a default setting should be isn't written in concrete yet. There is limited desktop application, primarily being Adobe and browsers. Adobe's implementationt is a showcase of X number of axis in a variable font. It would be good for support in Affinity products, but one needs to recognize that over the course of a year or two (or more), the number of axis is going to grow and if rational issues are found, specs (mainly tables in the font I suspect) and or defaults for an axis may change/grow as well. I create fonts and work on other's fonts. I wanna redo some into variable fonts. It means I may be able to sell fonts that were "dead" to new sales growth. So of course I desire wide application support. But that support really isn't there and likely will take some time before there is a widespread support. But I wouldn't say for an immature application such as AD that such support is or should be placed ahead of fixing bugs, adding drawing features and improving overall usability. Mike

Variable fonts are being included in my new project's base design. I'll need to use Adobe's applications until Affinity supports the newer font tech. I'd rather not.

Indeed. I have several variable fonts, I can see them in the font list, while I can't use them.... AD just doesn't allow me to choose it.

You're not alone. While I do appreciate sneak peaks such as the recent performance improvements demoed by Ash, I'm often left wondering where the Affinity product range is going, and whether it is indeed destined to be a modern suite of professional creative design applications (rivalling or surpassing that of Adobe), or whether its destiny lay in simply being the spiritual successor to the previous generation of Serif con/prosumer tools. While being able to endlessly zoom in on 600,000 objects with zero visual lag is technically very impressive, it's not a problem the vast majority of users have. Instead we continue to look for endless workarounds and speculate when/if the long-standing bug fixes along with all of the missing or incomplete features (contour < offsets, shape builder, live paint, image trace, vector brushes, vector patterns, improved/clean SVG output, outline strokes, excessive nodes/clean-up, variable fonts, footnotes, epub export, tagged/accessible PDFs, cloud sync, automation, scripting, plugins, etc, etc, etc…) we all are waiting for will ever come to be reality.

The Affinity apps don’t support variable fonts yet, so you need to install the static versions instead. Please post back if that isn’t the problem.

I was just reading the announcement post on the Adobe ID forum concerning variable fonts and thought I would share it here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/variable-fonts-in-indesign/m-p/10720582#M159607

Not a bug per se. Variable fonts are not supported in Affinity applications at all. No one knows if/when variable font support will be added.

No, just the stupid font manager on Macs shows the variable fonts even though they are not supported. On Windows the Affinity font selector shows what the OpenType specs recommend - the default master.

I accept your remark regarding the first feature request (which I will still defend on the grounds that, as per my stated MO, I'm trying to get as many team managers to realise just how serious the document model shortcomings are, but I respect your position so I will leave it at that), but not at all the one regarding variable fonts. It's completely misguided and unfair of you to lump a valid, exciting feature request with something that, I'll readily admit, is sad and stale of me to keep beating you over. Please do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. You see, I hadn't mentioned variable fonts in months (if not years, actually, as the last time I was with Rainer was two years ago), so some actual feedback, either public or private – again, I realise how you may not want to give away your plans, but heck, have me sign another specific NDA if you must –, on that matter and my generous offer – it can't be done in person anymore, as the event is pretty much over and Rainer is gone by now, but it's still fresh on his mind and I still have some workshops of my own which I'll have to ask him volume licences for –, would be much appreciated (anything else, IMHO, will be seen as nonchalance and dismissal of something that not only is related to my bread and butter, it seems to be all the rage in the type design community right now; much like the Bluetooth explosion with Apple Watch and the AirPods, third time seems to be the charm and the latest GX revival is what Multiple Master should've become if Adobe hadn't killed their own baby because it was “too confusing to use”). Oh, as would be a belated apology for the whole “baselinegate” thing, mind you. I got extremely mad at Serif because of your post but, once I realised it was you again, meh. You see, I actually forgot it was you, so I am very much willing to forgive (I always was; this was just further proof of that). By the way, for some context, I just spent the last couple of days talking with or otherwise listening to some of the finest minds in the world of type design. Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer's Glyphs.app is to FontLab what Affinity is to Adobe CC (actually, I'd say it's closer, but the power dynamics are the same, as Glyphs.app v. 2.0 forced FontLab Inc.'s hand and shaped FontLab VI and precipitated its release decisively, much like Adobe keeps lifting features from Affinity apps); Peter Bilak is the leading designer of font systems, and the closest we could get to a spiritual heir to the now sadly deceased Adrian Frutiger; our fellow countryman Dino dos Santos is one of the leading type designers for printed press and branding, having worked with multiple newspapers across the Atlantic and world-class clients such as FIFA, UEFA, multiple world exhibitions, etc.; besides being an awesome, inspiring designer, Fred Smeijers authored Counterpunch, a cult book that, being out of print, now costs more than €400 second hand; just to name a few… And, as I've been trying to make you realise for some years now, I'm not some random kid; my PhD plans are now out in the open and in full swing, as I'm about to submit an abstract to the Springer-backed, 11th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, I'll begin cooperating with Sérgio Martins, a University of Reading graduate who worked as a type design intern at Adobe, on an advanced type design workshop module and am currently lining up a panel of workshop hosts – the Spanish expert on modular geometric type systems and bespoke 3d-printed letterpress type, Roberto Gamonal Arroyo, being an example –, evaluators and interviewees – my first ones will actually be the KABK alumni and still the Hague-based Carvalho+Bernau couple/studio, who started it all 10 years ago when they gave us a workshop at our BFA – across Europe. This is actually becoming serious business, and I can assure you we're not some autistic types stuck alone in ivory towers; we're actually working in the field, cooperating amongst ourselves and with the software industry, and shaping the future of typography and graphic design as we speak. So, please show us – and when I say “us”, I really mean it in the sense of being the leading representative of the type design community in these forums, as I'm the only type design practitioner/researcher/educator I know of who advocated for Serif, but if there are any more of us out there please do chime in! – a wee bit more respect, Patrick.

Thanks for this quick answer Carl & Alfred! Ok, your adobe link above explains this. Do you know whether/when Serif plans to include support for "variable fonts"? I have used those fonts in many psd-files and would like continue using them when I migrate over from Adobe.

I'm talking about light, regular, bold, black, etc. and these are indeed variants of fonts. By algorithm, we can weigh down or lighten a grease on the fonts. In practice, this basically works on variable fonts. https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/docs/Web/CSS/font-weight#Polices_variables (French version)

Bahnschrift is a variable font. Affinity apps do not yet support variable fonts. It is my understanding support is planned.

Another vote to get this implemented. Variable fonts are everywhere now.

Affinity applications do not currently support variable fonts, nor color SVG fonts. Any fonts listing you see is just sort of a fluke.

Ah thanks Gary, I did search the forum for "variable font" before posting, found nothing. When variable fonts are not supported, only the default weight should show up once, which is not happening. In Calibri Variable, the outlines of the thinnest narrowest weight show up with the widths of the default Regular it seems.

Those should still show up in the list of fonts, they will just behave like non-color non-variable fonts when used within the Affinity products.

Thanks for the reference, Mike! I probably won't be reading those threads thoroughly, but I'll be sure to start at least looking at them regularly (and I'll read them in earnest probably as soon as I turn in my thesis in April, ha! ). Yes, I totally get the “herding cats” thing. And the whole being tight-lipped stuff, yep. Serif is, too, with their own tools, and it can only keep them safe for that long (just look at how Adobe has been blatantly ripping them off lately… Even the rounded corners functionality – but hey, at least I HATE those in Ai with a passion, as I can no longer select nodes on small zoom factors without accidentally selecting the corner-rounding handles instead more often than I'm willing to accept…). But surely you must agree that these guys could develop some of this stuff as proof-of-concept, to give their own clients some head-start on the type design process, with incomplete or semi-proprietary implementations on platforms like Adobe TypeKit, and we could, on our side, have at least the OS and non-Adobe design app guys (which aren't really competing on the type design tools arena) having a look at what's already available on most type design apps and standardising it afterwards and ASAP, no? And when I say “standardising”, I *really* mean standardising, not proprietary, OS-specific stuff like the AAT format (and I have much more faith in Microsoft, Apple and Google engineers sitting at a table to discuss typography than any of the other type design software guys, of course…). As for the GUI implementation being consistent or not, I mean… who gives a damn, really? Sad as it may be, I know I don't. I say, let them come up with solutions, and may the best become the standard. The money is really on getting variable fonts to *work* consistently across different apps and OSes, and I'd say that at least the rest of the OT features are a bit of a success in that regard… amirite? I'm not holding my breath either, but I'd be super sad if the guys at Serif, after all the accolades they've got recently, let themselves be left in the dust on this tiny (but hugely important) revolution. If anything, they should be at its forefront, even considering the commendable history Adobe has on typography… Actually, I'm wondering whether Serif shouldn't be teaming with some indie font developers to distribute their fonts permanently bundled with Affinity apps, and not just the temporary offerings they've made. Those would be a good differentiator, add more value to the apps and allow them to include samples typeset with said fonts, to safely showcase Affinity's (hopefully ever-improving) type tools across OSes. The only condition would be that those fonts would have to support the entire character set for the current localisations (except perhaps for Japanese, which would probably mean exceptionally higher bundling costs because of the thousands upon thousands of kanji it would have to include – fellow users from Japan: sorry! ) and a few OpenType features, to make them usable to most users and better than most of the free fonts you can find around the web. I'm not saying they'd have to include a metric ton of fonts like Adobe does, but throwing in a few cool ones just to get novice users started would be nice, yes. And having at least one variable font in the mix, if and when said features are implemented, would also be a no-brainer.

I may have stated this previously in this thread, but I use InDesign on an almost daily basis, along with other Adobe apps by virtue of having a lifetime Creative Cloud subscription. I bought Affinity Publisher a year and a half ago, mainly to play with it. I believe there was a promotional price at the time. In other words, I am spoiled in that I am able to use a mature app that includes excellent features, such as vertical writing. Still, InDesign is far from perfect, and I still maintain my skills that expose bugs in that app, most of which are font-related, because that is my specialty. I also know how to bring InDesign to its knees. Click here for an example from four years ago. Anyway, Affinity Publisher is a more mature app than VectorStyler, and as a result, I believe that it is more difficult for them to change their layout paradigm to accommodate a new writing direction. More mature apps need to consider issues, such as backward compatibility and so on, when making fundamental changes to their layout paradigm. This is less of a concern for less mature apps, such as those still in Beta. I, for one, am grateful that there are apps out there, such as Affinity Publisher and vectorStyle, because any competition can serve as motivation for Adobe to improve InDesign, and to fix bugs sooner rather than later. For example, I found quite a few bugs in InDesign's support for Variable Fonts, one of which is a very fundamental issue that affects Illustrator and Photoshop as well.

I would love to try your fix, please. I hope tho variable fonts will be supported in future, this is kinda major thing and I'm surprised Designer is not supporting it (I guess that's the reason of messed up Bahnshrift). Also, is there somewhere fixed Bahnshrift for Affinity? I was using this font in previous program and switching to Cooper Hewitt is the result of not supported Bahnshrift.