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Version 1.8 of OpenType was released in 2016, it included Variable fonts. The feature is mature and widely used nowadays. It would be great to have support for variable fonts.

For some fonts problems arise in Designer in the font style dropdown. As you can see in the images below Windows shows the several types of the Bahnschrift-font the correct way, but in Designer there's only a list full of 'Regular's for this font. The font is included in the attachments. Bahnschrift Bold Condensed.otf

Hey @Ash, is Variable Fonts support for the V2 Desktop and/or iPad Apps being worked on for any V2 version coming in the future?

Affinity Designer has font issue, with variable types. I downloaded and installed some google (Variable) font. Adobe softwares can handle it good, but Aff. Designer only can see "regular" types.

I'm seeing a difference between the kerning for variable fonts. I've captured these two images to show the differences, Google fonts: Montserrat and Josefin Sans. Both fonts are identical size and kerning settings, but the BOLD versions of these fonts show the X and A closer together (alongside other issues, notice the closeness of the 'T's), it appears to be a problem with vairable fonts files only. I was using the Google fonts repo inside my Fonts on the newer machine, however after looking into it further my older machine uses separate .ttf files versus the Google fonts repo (https://github.com/google/fonts) which uses [wght].ttf files. I've managed to transfer the original .ttf files from my old machine that I need, but wanted to flag to the Affinity team since the Google Fonts github repo and website provide these problematic [wght].ttf and similarly other websites with variables fonts files as default. I tested the issue with another variable font: (https://github.com/github/hubot-sans) > For anyone facing a similar issue, you can download the family of fonts from Google Fonts and they provide a 'static' folder where you can use the individual .ttf files.

A client gave me a TrueType font with OpenType Font Variations for the different weights but when I install it it shows up like this in Designer and all the regulars seem to look like the regular weight. Is there another place to access the different weights or is there another way to fix this? Charles

The problem is quite simple. I am not able to use variable fonts installed on my system. I have attached screenshots showing that my computer properly recognizes the font however, none of the programs, Photo 2, Designer 2, Publisher 2, correctly recognise my font. And yes, this is the case with other variable fonts as well, not just one. Fonts were downloaded from Google Fonts. Running Windows 11 22H2. Downloaded all programs from Microsoft Store. If you need any other info, I'll be happy to provide. P.S: Sucks to not be able to create something on the first day itself. But I guess launching a software has its share of challenges.

Just finished watching a WWDC session about the updates on Apple’s system font… they’re switching to a variable font file, and Im just wondering if I am going to be able to work with those new fonts once they’re released, on my iPad (and Mac). Are you guys planning to add variable font support?

How does Affinity Publisher deal with variable fonts? Are there any plans to integrate related features?

It's been more than 2 years people are requesting support for variable fonts. I'd like to bring this topic up since it seems not getting any attention. Of course this affects all Affinity products and not only Affinity Publisher. And if basic font support does not make it to the essential feature requirements please make sure to handle this failure/bug with a bit of dignity (even Photoshop 6 disables the styles for variable fonts and does not display random nonsense) Cheers, Timo

See top left, when installing a ttf file of variable weights from Google, they are not parsed correctly. Bitter-VariableFont_wght.ttf

Greetings! I've run into a font rendering issue in Publisher 1.10.4. I'm on MacOS 11.6.1. Edit to add: Alfred found a workaround below. Check out the first reply if you're working with variable-width fonts. In the first attachment you can see a Google Font, Newsreader (Regular weight in this case), in both the on-screen view from Publisher and the exported PDF from that same file. The in-app display of Newsreader is so bad that I wondered if I had installed the wrong font, or if there was a more serious issue. The kerning is different, and even the shape of some of the letters is different (look at where the arcs on the "m" connect, or even the shape of the "o"). I find it hard to even work with on screen - it's genuinely difficult for me to read it. Steps to duplicate are installing Newsreader, typing anything into any document in that font, and exporting a PDF for comparison. The screenshot is from a new file. In further bad news, I seem to have found another bug with this particular font while testing and reporting this one, which is that setting the font to "Bold" or "Light" or what-have-you and exporting a PDF again does not get you Bold in the PDF. The PDF retains Medium-weight. Changing the font weight works on-screen but not in export. See second attachment. This makes it really unusable. Any help would be appreciated. P.S.: I have already reported the issue to Google Fonts, and they of course told me to report it here, because getting any kind of help with modern applications is a never-ending-game of "go ask your mother."

It's possible?

Hi everyone! Will be support for variable fonts in the near future?

Hello, The Bahnschrift variable font that ships with Windows 10 displays 15 different styles, each with a name. Affinity Publisher finds 15 styles, but it can do nothing with them, not even display them.

Will there be any value of including Variable Fonts accessibility in Affinity products? I see this as being a great time-saver when working on projects requiring a single font in various weights. ** Not heard of Variable Fonts? reads here: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ux/typography/variable-fonts/ https://v-fonts.com/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Fonts/Variable_Fonts_Guide https://medium.com/variable-fonts/https-medium-com-tiro-introducing-opentype-variable-fonts-12ba6cd2369

Hi, I installed a variable font on my computer and it's working in browsers and in MS Word, but in Affinity Designer it's just show as "regular, regular, regular, regular" instead of "light, regular, bold, extra bold". Also, Affinity Designer can't put text in italic if you don't have italic font installed... I know in Word it can fake italic. Thank you

Tell me please, will Affinity support variable fonts in the near future? I am a developer of similar fonts. Thanks!

Variable fonts don't work yet (PS & TT flavored). In MS Word I can choose from endless named instances, in Publisher all styles are named Regular and look the same.

Hello, It seems that Affinity recognises the Instances in a variable font. That is good. Also the contours of these instances are looking okay! The problems is with the advance width of the glyphs. These stay the same though-out all the instances. That is wrong. The advance width can also be variable and need to be addressed. Hope it helps! Thom

Hello, We need and extra interface/panel for the variable fonts. All the 'visible' axes need to populate that, so we can fiddle around with these and get in realtime visible output on the pages. How these interfaces must look like? Maybe, for a start, just as Illustrator has now, with sliders? Later, more refined controls. Some axes are just on/off switches (checkboxes). Maybe a font with a two axes designspace should have a square view where the user can drag a location in and so control the two axes at once... (thinking out loud here) Thom

will professional handling of variable fonts be part of next update/release?