Kerning on Variable Fonts (.ttf Files) is off

[mat.loughnane]

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.

[Hangman]

Hi @mat.loughnaneand welcome to the forums…

The Affinity software suite doesn’t currently support variable width fonts which will be why you are seeing the discrepancy in the kerning between the variable width and true type versions of the typeface…

[mat.loughnane]

Thanks @Hangman - if I'm honest, at first I thought it was an issue with the way I had imported the Google Fonts but as I was writing this topic I started digging a little deeper and found the common problem of the variable fonts. I had only researched "Google Fonts, affinity designer kerning".

I'll just have to figure a better solution for getting fonts onto my machine and follow this topic

 

[walt.farrell]

7 minutes ago, mat.loughnane said:

at first I thought it was an issue with the way I had imported the Google Fonts

Yes, that is the issue. You installed the Variable fonts rather than the Static fonts.

[Ash]

Hi All,

I'm pleased to let you know we have now added support for Variable Fonts to the Affinity Suite on all platforms - available to try now in the 2.5 beta...