Font Weight Decreases When Exporting as PDF

[Omi]

Hello, helpful Affinity users,

Sometimes, when I export a PDF of an Affinity file that has live text layers, the font weight of some of the live text layers decreases.

This can be fixed by converting the live text layers to curves; however, sometimes I want to keep the layers as live text (e.g. if I want a hyperlink to remain active).

I've noticed that this seems to occur when I copy/paste text from another Affinity file—though I always use the keyboard shortcut to copy/paste without formatting (Cmd+Opt+Shift+V).

Can someone please help me determine why this may be occurring?

In an attempt to be helpful, I've attached the following:

• A screenshot of my PDF export settings
• A sample Affinity file ("Live Text Layers.afpub") that has my intended font weights
• An exported PDF with live text layers ("Live Text Layers.pdf") that has lighter font weights than my AFPUB file
• An exported PDF with text converted to curves ("Text Converted To Curves.pdf") that has my intended font weights
• A zipped folder that contains the font I'm using

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me figure this out!

Live Text Layers.afpub Live Text Layers.pdf Text Converted To Curves.pdf Montserrat font.zip

[kenmcd]

Un-install the variable fonts.
Montserrat-VariableFont_wght.ttf and Montserrat-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf

The Live Text Layers PDF shows the font embedded is Montserrat-Thin.
This is the default master in the variable font.

The variable font named instances names are the same as the font names in the static fonts, so it is confused and embedding the variable font, but since variable fonts are not supported, you get the default master - Thin.

Un-install the variable fonts and you should be fine.

 

p.s. to everyone - Never install both the static fonts and the variable fonts from Google Fonts at the same time - there will be name conflicts like this (because they purposely make the names the same so the static fonts and the variable fonts are interchangeable). Sometimes the font developer has a different variable version with a different name in the source repository (like commercial fonts).

[Omi]

13 minutes ago, kenmcd said:

Un-install the variable font (Montserrat-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf).

The Live Text Layers PDF shows the font embedded is Montserrat-Thin.
This is the default master in the variable font.

The variable font named instances names are the same as the font names in the static fonts, so it is confused and embedding the variable font, but since variable fonts are not supported, you get the default master - Thin.

Un-install the variable font and you should be fine.

Thanks for your help, @kenmcd! 

I un-installed both variable fonts ("Montserrat-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf" and "Montserrat-VariableFont_wght.ttf"), and now when I export PDFs of documents that use the Montserrat font family, the live text font weight doesn't change.

Thanks again!