Font options broken

[Flooski]

Using Designer v2.0.0 on Windows, font selection doesn't work correctly. See screenshots attached on the menu drop down and character pane. Instead of giving the various options, it just gives the Regular variant repeatedly.

 

Here's the main menu font dropdown:

 

And here's the Character pane:

[Justin_Sijbolts]

Looks to be an issue with Bahnschrift. Bahnschrift also shows "Regular" for me in Designer 2, but it does this in Affinity 1.10 as well.

Other fonts don't have that issue.

[kenmcd]

Bahnschrift is a variable font, and variable fonts are not supported.

When variable fonts are not supported the application is supposed show the default master - which in the Bahnschrift font is the Regular master. So that is what appears.

Note: you should be able to use that Regular default master like any other static font. (I need to confirm this in v2 later today, but I expect it works).

[Flooski]

Thank you for confirming.

I knew v1 didn't support them, but I'm surprised that v2 doesn't given the ready availability of variable fonts these days.

Variable fonts have apparently been about since 2016 (Bahnschritt was released in 2017), so they're not that new of a thing to support.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for v3.

[Distill7]

This happens to other fonts like Oswald (from fontsquirrel) where it separates the regular and the rest of the fonts. It also has normal and italic variants under the same name. This happens only in Affinity software.

[Flooski]

If variable fonts are definitely not supported in v2, perhaps the actual bug to report here is a UI issue.

In other words, there are 15 duplicates of "Regular" for variable fonts, when there should only be one "regular".

(I'd prefer variable font support of course, but at least fixing these duplicate "Regular"s will improve the UI.

[kenmcd]

40 minutes ago, Distill7 said:

This happens to other fonts like Oswald (from fontsquirrel) where it separates the regular and the rest of the fonts. It also has normal and italic variants under the same name. This happens only in Affinity software.

This is a different issue (for which you should have started a new thread).
The Oswald fonts from FontSquirrel are broken (badly).
The names are all messed-up.
Among other issues, the Regular font is in its own Typographic Family.
This is why you see it listed separately.
I can easily fix these - give me a little while and I will post them here.

Note: there are newer fixed versions on Google Fonts, but those do not include the Italics fonts.

[Distill7]

@LibreTrainingThanks for suggesting to fix it. And as you've said the google ones don't have italics which I need.

[kenmcd]

@Distill7
Here are fixed versions of the Oswald fonts from FontSquirrel.
I changed some of the weight names to the OpenType "standard" names.
And changed the family name to Oswald AF.
(not good to have unidentified modified versions floating around)

Oswald.AF.fixed.names.zip

Those should work fine now, but let me know if you have any issues.

[Distill7]

@LibreTraining Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.

[Distill7]

@LibreTraining Can you please tell me which software did you use to correct the font names?

[kenmcd]

12 minutes ago, Distill7 said:

@LibreTraining Can you please tell me which software did you use to correct the font names?

TransType by FontLab. Available for both Windows and Mac.
Easiest way to check, and fix, font name issues (very visual).
The learning curve is not bad. Decent documentation.
Was created for converting fonts between formats, so it does that too.
Should be in every designers toolbox.

My next goto application is FontLab.
Quite a bit more advanced, but does the the same thing (and more).
Not visual, so you need to know what you are looking at, and trying to achieve.

You can do it in FontCreator, but not as easy.

If you enjoy pain, you can use FontForge (free), but you have to know what you are doing as the interface is quite bad.

[Distill7]

55 minutes ago, LibreTraining said:

TransType by FontLab. Available for both Windows and Mac.
Easiest way to check, and fix, font name issues (very visual).
The learning curve is not bad. Decent documentation.
Was created for converting fonts between formats, so it does that too.
Should be in every designers toolbox.

My next goto application is FontLab.
Quite a bit more advanced, but does the the same thing (and more).
Not visual, so you need to know what you are looking at, and trying to achieve.

You can do it in FontCreator, but not as easy.

If you enjoy pain, you can use FontForge (free), but you have to know what you are doing as the interface is quite bad.

$97 for TransType, a software that I'll barely use here and there while Affinity 3 software that are more complicated and I use almost daily bought for $99.99. This just shows how crazy of a value is Affinity.

[AnnaWG]

I had the same problem, only Regular - other versions not. I checked in Windows in the Font folder and found there were no font variants (I discovered this with the LexendDeca font). In the Font folder it showed variants of this part, but after opening it there was no variant, only the Thin version. I downloaded all variants of this font again. All variants are in the "static" folder. When this font is selected, Affinity Desinder also shows variants of the font, not just Regular. So far I've only checked it on this one.

[kenmcd]

6 hours ago, AnnaWG said:

I had the same problem, only Regular - other versions not. I checked in Windows in the Font folder and found there were no font variants (I discovered this with the LexendDeca font). In the Font folder it showed variants of this part, but after opening it there was no variant, only the Thin version. I downloaded all variants of this font again. All variants are in the "static" folder. When this font is selected, Affinity Desinder also shows variants of the font, not just Regular. So far I've only checked it on this one.

Unfortunately I do not completely understand your post.

Lexend Deca includes both static fonts and a variable font.
Make sure you do not also have the variable font installed as the instance names in it will conflict with the font names in the static fonts - which can lead to unpredictable behavior.
What version of Lexend Deca do you have?
And where did you get it?

If that is not the issue, please clarify your question(s).

 

[AnnaWG]

On 13.11.2022 at 18:50, kenmcd said:

Niestety nie do końca rozumiem Twój post.

Lexend Deca zawiera zarówno statyczne czcionki, jak i zmienną czcionkę.
Upewnij się, że nie masz również zainstalowanej zmiennej czcionki, ponieważ zawarte w niej nazwy instancji będą kolidować z nazwami czcionek w czcionkach statycznych — co może prowadzić do nieprzewidywalnego zachowania.
Jaką masz wersję Lexend Deca?
A skąd to masz?

Jeśli to nie jest problem, wyjaśnij swoje pytania.

 

The point is that I had a problem with displaying the font version of LexendDeca in Affinity Designer 2. Only Regular was displayed, after checking in Windows 10, it turned out that I did not upload this font well, because I did not download all versions, although in the Font directory on Windows these fonts were showing as installed. Only opening the files of each version showed that those versions are not installed. I wrote it because in the case of this LexendDec font it is not an Affinity Designer 2 bug, but my oversight.