Lexend and ReadexPro cannot be made italic

[Dan1ell]

Hi Lovely Person,

I downloaded Readex Pro from the official website: https://www.lexend.com/

After installing into Font Book, I can make the font italic in Word but not in Affinity Publisher 2.

In affinity Publisher 2, I can make it bold and I can underline it but I cannot make it italic. The italic button is disabled.

Same issue with the original Lexend font.

I'm on Apple M1, MacOS Ventura 13.3.1.

What I would like is for Readex Pro and Lexend to be 'italiceable' in the Affinity suite of products on the mac.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Dan1ell
forgot the word 'be'.

[Komatös]

1 hour ago, Dan1ell said:

Hi Lovely Person,
...
What I would like is for Readex Pro and Lexend to be 'italiceable' in the Affinity suite of products on the mac.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Lexend and Readex Pro are presumably variable fonts; however, variable fonts are not supported by Affinity programs.
If you want to use these fonts, you need the static versions, if they exist.

[kenmcd]

The Lexend and Readex Pro font families do not have italic fonts available.

So what you are seeing in Word is fake italics.
Affinity applications do not have a fake italics feature.

 

[Dan1ell]

@kenmcdThanks! So where do I upvote the feature request for fake italics that no doubt already exists?

Edited May 6, 2023 by Dan1ell
added usertag

[Dan1ell]

2 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Lexend and Readex Pro are presumably variable fonts; however, variable fonts are not supported by Affinity programs.
If you want to use these fonts, you need the static versions, if they exist.

Both the ttf and the variable variants where detected by Affinity just fine. It's just that neither have italics.

[kenmcd]

2 hours ago, Dan1ell said:

@kenmcdThanks! So where do I upvote the feature request for fake italics that no doubt already exists?

May be better to ping Google Fonts (GF) to get the slanted fonts done. Over a year ago they commissioned someone to add the italics/slanted fonts. Progress was made, but it stalled for some reason. A GF person has continued the project with additional fixes and updates. And some new fonts were generated about four months ago.

Download a ZIP of the current repository here: https://github.com/emmamarichal/lexend/tree/main

The fonts folder has both Roman and Slanted fonts. So give those a try.

The GF status tracker is here: https://github.com/google/fonts/issues/4237

Only install the static fonts. The macOS font picker shows variable font named instances, but you cannot actually use them all. The only thing you will get in PDF output is the default master font. Use the static fonts only and do not install the variable fonts as there will be name conflicts if you do.

I do not remember if there is a similar in-progress repo for the Readex Pro. Will take a look tomorrow. May be.