Variable Font Support

[Hangman]

1 minute ago, Pauls said:

for reference amstelvar defines the readable names the same as the tags - so thats an issue for the font creator

I figured that was likely the issue as it was really a test font for the concept of variable fonts so it doesn't surprise me but many thanks for clarifying...

 

[R C-R]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

BTW, I can reliably crash all three desktop 2.4.2 versions by opening the Character panel & selecting from the Font Collection popup the "Variable Fonts" collection I made in Font Book. It contains the 5 variable fonts I have installed for testing:
{...}
Selecting this collection in the APub 2.5 beta does not crash that app.

Well, now APub 2.5 also crashes when I select my "Variable Fonts" collection. I'm not sure what caused that change.

Also, I now see all 13 axes for Roboto Flex, which I guess is expected?

[MichelleB]

the V is on my toolbar but is greyed out and not usable I have done the update.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

6 minutes ago, MichelleB said:

the V is on my toolbar but is greyed out and not usable I have done the update.

Are the text highlighted?

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

Are the text highlighted?

The text doesn't need to be selected, simply selecting the text frame should be sufficient... If the 'V' is greyed out then it suggests a variable font hasn't been selected...

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

As been mentioned several times in this thread, not all V-fonts shows all available Axes for the user, like Robot Flex, But, several of the eight axes hidden there is pretty usable when you dealing with artistic fonts.

So my question is, why would Roboto Flex author like to hide so many axes?

Many other V-fonts has both seven or ten, even 15 axes we can use I Affinity Publisher v.2.50b2, why do they leave so many axes available?

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

1 minute ago, Hangman said:

The text doesn't need to be selected, simply selecting the text frame should be sufficient... If the 'V' is greyed out then it suggests a variable font hasn't been selected...

Ooops, I reference to Artistic Textbox - haven't still had the time to test this on big textblocks...

[Hangman]

17 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Well, now APub 2.5 also crashes when I select my "Variable Fonts" collection. I'm not sure what caused that change.

Nothing's changed for me... when I tested this yesterday it crashed in v2.4.2 and v2.5.0 but not in v1.1.10...

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Also, I now see all 13 axes for Roboto Flex, which I guess is expected?

Really?

[jeanyates]

Yowsa. I've wanted this for years, hoping it will stop my having to re-design for a dang low hanging descender. It has a bit of a lag and it would be great if a file could be edited by both the beta and release versions. 

And that dang black bar still shows up sometimes when I change the size of a file after editing. 

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

29 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Nothing's changed for me... when I tested this yesterday it crashed in v2.4.2 and v2.5.0 but not in v1.1.10...

Really?

Yeah, REALLY mr. R-CR??

[Hangman]

Adjusting the weight slider of an italic variable font only displays the italicised version at the minimum and maximum slider values, it doesn't display the italicised form anywhere between the two...

Note: Roboto Flex will give the appearance that this works but that is because Roboto Flex includes a slant axes...

Font Designers' Website

 

Affinity Apps

[kenmcd]

2 hours ago, Pauls said:

for reference amstelvar defines the readable names the same as the tags - so thats an issue for the font creator

Amstelvar is not a good test font. It is barely in beta format. And has known issues.

They have been talking about cleaning it up, finishing it, and releasing it for over a year. Recently, because of all the work required to have it in an actual release quality state, they have been discussing just removing the parametric axes and releasing it without them (far less work). Not likely to happen any time soon.

The developer is working on a more advanced version - Amstelvar-avar2. With a new advanced avar2 table. He is going to be tied-up for a long time.

Roboto Flex is a released and fully maintained parametric font. Use that for testing instead of Amstelvar.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Also, I now see all 13 axes for Roboto Flex, which I guess is expected?

Really?

Yes, really:

Roboto Flex test.afpub

 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

Yeah, REALLY mr. R-CR??

I'm not sure which thing you are asking about but yesterday the beta did not crash when I selected my Variable Fonts collection in the Character panel but today it does. I did not test V1.x but in V2.4.x it crashes, so that much has not changed.

And as shown above, I do get 13 axes for Roboto Flex now.

The only thing I can think of that has changed for me is I have had to restart all the 2.5 betas several times due to crashes, but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

[R C-R]

I don't know if this is intended or what but since nobody seems to have mentioned it I just noticed that at least for Roboto Flex (the only one I tested with so far) when "Show Snapping candidates" is enabled, there are various places within the text shown as candidates. For example, in this More Roboto Flex.afdesignMore Roboto Flex.afdesign file, select any Roboto Flex art text layer with that option enabled, zoom in, & look at the R, x, t, e, or k.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

Yes, really:

Roboto Flex test.afpub

 

Thanks for that test document.

When I open it on my Mac there's 13 axes visible, but as soon as I close the axes menu and reopen, it's back to just five axes...

Strange...

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

Adjusting the weight slider of an italic variable font only displays the italicised version at the minimum and maximum slider values, it doesn't display the italicised form anywhere between the two...

What is the complete font name, and where did you get it?

[Lecho]

HI,
With M1 2.4.2 and 2.5 Beta version has disabled the above option in all Affinity desktop apps. I tried to re-instal with no positive result.
See below screenshot.

Cheers,

Lech

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

When I open it on my Mac there's 13 axes visible, but as soon as I close the axes menu and reopen, it's back to just five axes...

Strange...

Strange, indeed. It continues to show 13 for me no matter how many times I click on the V button in the context toolbar to open & close that menu.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Lecho said:

With M1 2.4.2 and 2.5 Beta version has enables the above option in all Affinity desktop apps. I tried to re-instal with no positive result.
See below screenshot.

I'm not sure what you mean about no positive result. What were you expecting to happen in the new (only in the 2.5 betas!) variable font support that does not happen? What variable font are you testing with?

[Hangman]

I don't think the snapping candidates are causing the difference...

The only difference I see is the version of the OS as we discussed yesterday... we are both using Version 3.200;gftools[0.9.32] downloaded from Google. I even installed Versions 3.000 and 3.1000 but those are still restricted to the five registered axes...

Applying the version I have installed to your text also restricts the text to the five registered axes so all very odd...

Daft though it sounds would you mind uploading your version of Roboto Flex so I can test it? As it falls under the SIL Open Font License it's free to distribute.

[Wayne Burrows]

22 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What is the complete font name, and where did you get it?

I'm just dropping myself into this string here, hoping you or somebody can help me figure this out.

I am experiencing the exact same thing as some others. The Variations option is greyed out for me as well. The way I am understanding things is... All I should have to do is just simply choose any of my fonts that are 'Variable' aka 'OpenType' (not TrueType I am assuming) and be able to use the variations option. It's just as simple as that, correct? I have an endless amount of OpenType fonts installed and I continue to get the greyed out 'V'. What am I missing here? ((FYI- I'm on a Windows desktop - just in case that makes any difference))

[R C-R]

26 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Applying the version I have installed to your text also restricts the text to the five registered axes so all very odd...

I'm lost. When you say "your text" what text & file are you using? Your video shows you are working with an untitled document, so could you please save the file & upload it to the discussion?

Anyway, you seem to have 2 sets of the Roboto Flex text samples, & the first set shows 13 axes while the second set shows just 5, so are they using different versions or what?

26 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Daft though it sounds would you mind uploading your version of Roboto Flex so I can test it?

RobotoFlex-VariableFont_GRAD,XOPQ,XTRA,YOPQ,YTAS,YTDE,YTFI,YTLC,YTUC,opsz,slnt,wdth,wght.ttf

EDIT: This is very odd. I copied the above variable font to the desktop from where I had it saved in a backup folder. But when I double-clicked on it Font Book opened with a small window with a "not installed" notice & an "Install Font" button. This suprised me because it is already installed. I went ahead & clicked the button, it installed (again?) but no duplicates were shown & validate shows no problems with it.

I repeated this a second time & once again I got the "not installed" notice, even though in Font Book's main window it shows up as installed. So maybe this is in some weird way connected to the macOS version?

But nothing changed for me -- I still see 13 axes in all 3 beta 2.5 apps.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

All I should have to do is just simply choose any of my fonts that are 'Variable' aka 'OpenType' (not TrueType I am assuming) and be able to use the variations option.

OpenType and Variable are not synonymous. You can have Static or Variable OpenType fonts, so you do need to make sure which you have installed.

[Hangman]

40 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What is the complete font name, and where did you get it?

Hi @walt.farrell,

While I've not tested it exhaustively it appears to affect numerous fonts, all available on 'Ye Olde Google Fonts'... though Montserrat seems to be ok so unsure whether this is a Font Design issue or an Affinity issue.