Variable Font Support

[R C-R]

15 minutes ago, Wayne Burrows said:

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?

No. Variable Fonts are a special type of font that combines different styles into a single file.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Hangman said:

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.

I was curious because there does not seem to be a font named simply Source Serif Variable Italic on Google Fonts. I wanted to test using the font you used in your video.

[Hangman]

17 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I was curious because there does not seem to be a font named simply Source Serif Variable Italic on Google Fonts. I wanted to test using the font you used in your video.

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Serif+4?query=source+serif

Its official name appears to be 'Source Serif 4' but searching for Search Source Serif brings it up as per the URL =source+serif

[Hangman]

22 minutes ago, R C-R said:

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?

I opened your file, duplicated your text and then applied the version of Roboto Flex installed on my system to the duplicated versions (shown at the bottom of the screen recording)...

This is the file... so curious as to what you see with the bottom set on the page...

R-C-R Roboto Flex.afpub

24 minutes ago, R C-R said:

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?

That was my question and why I wanted to test the version you are using... I'll report back once I've tested with the version you've uploaded...

[walt.farrell]

16 minutes ago, Hangman said:

That was my question and why I wanted to test the version you are using... I'll report back once I've tested with the version you've uploaded...

For what it's worth, this is what FontCreator shows for the Roboto Flex I just downloaded from Google Fonts:

And I only see the first 5 axes listed (and with the readable names) in Publisher 2.5.0.2415, which seems correct.

Edit:  And I see the same for the font that @R C-R uploaded.

[Hangman]

34 minutes ago, R C-R said:

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

I tried the version you uploaded and it's still restricted to the five registered axes so I'm at a loss other than the OS version, maybe someone in the moderation/dev team can shed some light on what is going on here...

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

For what it's worth, this is what FontCreator shows for the Roboto Flex I just downloaded from Google Fonts:

Something is amiss me thinks but I'm out of ideas...

[Hangman]

23 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I was curious because there does not seem to be a font named simply Source Serif Variable Italic on Google Fonts. I wanted to test using the font you used in your video.

What do you see when testing the variable italic versions shown in the screen recording on Windows, do you see the same issue?

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Hangman said:

What do you see when testing the variable italic versions shown in the screen recording on Windows, do you see the same issue?

Looked OK to me on Windows (Source Serif 4 Italic, run from the bottom to the top of the Weight axis):

 

[Hangman]

18 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Looked OK to me on Windows (Source Serif 4 Italic, run from the bottom to the top of the Weight axis):

Many thanks for testing... so this would initially appear to be a macOS-specific issue in that case...

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

1 hour ago, Hangman said:

I tried the version you uploaded and it's still restricted to the five registered axes so I'm at a loss other than the OS version, maybe someone in the moderation/dev team can shed some light on what is going on here...

This Roboto Flex 5 respective 12 axes is a mystery!

I downloaded @R C-R test doc with this font, and when open it I’ve got 12 axes, but it can disappear all of a sudden…

But, I’ve found a way that works flawless - open the testdoc from R-CS, copy the textbox, close that doc, open a new pub doc, paste the textbox and hide that.

As long as I keep that textbox in the document Roboto Flex have 12 axes, but, as soon I delete that textbox from R-CS testdoc, everything is back to just 5 axes…?

Strange!

I’m on MacOS 14.3 beta 3 - iPadOS 17.5 beta 3.

This is R-CS document:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=318581&key=f4007e7d9ded31aaf823d62514a1b75a

[MikeTO]

Minor bug: Open the Variable font popup and drag a slider. Press Cmd+U to undo - Affinity will undo the change but not adjust the slider. You have to close and re-open the popup.

[Alfred]

6 minutes ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

5 respective 12 axes

Do you mean ‘5 or 12 axes, respectively’, or something else?

[MikeTO]

Bug: I can't find if this has been reported yet, but opening a PSD saved from Photoshop will not recognize a variable font such as Roboto Flex.

[walt.farrell]

28 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

Minor bug: Open the Variable font popup and drag a slider. Press Cmd+U to undo - Affinity will undo the change but not adjust the slider. You have to close and re-open the popup.

I've noticed that, but thought it was perhaps part of "AF-2845 - Variable fonts - Axes values not updating".

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

This is the file... so curious as to what you see with the bottom set on the page...

I see the same thing you do -- 5 axes for that set ... & 13 for the top set. Weirder still, when I copy the top set to the clipboard & use File > New from Clipboard (in the Designer Persona of APub if that matters) I get 13. When I do the same for the bottom set I get 5.

However, if I select any of the lower ones & use the Font Style popup on the context toolbar to set the style to any of the preset ones, then I get all 13 again!!!

So I assume this is somehow triggered by the Flex version you used for the lower set because unlike the top set (where the Font Style popup shows the indicated preset), as I select each of them in turn, the Font Style popup is empty.

Which version(s) do you have installed? Does Font Book show any duplicates?

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, AffinityMakesMeWonder said:

This Roboto Flex 5 respective 12 axes is a mystery!

I downloaded @R C-R test doc with this font, and when open it I’ve got 12 axes, but it can disappear all of a sudden…

Note that I get 13, not 12, axes. This is the same number as shown in @Hangman's earlier video for the top set.

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

Do you mean ‘5 or 12 axes, respectively’, or something else?

Yeah, excuse my bad english 😢🤥

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Note that I get 13, not 12, axes. This is the same number as shown in @Hangman's earlier video for the top set.

Hmmm… Bad english, bad math… Not a good day for communicate…

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

And I only see the first 5 axes listed (and with the readable names) in Publisher 2.5.0.2415, which seems correct.

Edit:  And I see the same for the font that @R C-R uploaded.

So am I the only one seeing all 13 axes consistently with that version?

Walt, what version number do you see for the font copy I uploaded? For me in Font Book it is version Version 3.200;gftools[0.9.32].

[kenmcd]

19 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

For what it's worth, this is what FontCreator shows for the Roboto Flex I just downloaded from Google Fonts:

And I only see the first 5 axes listed (and with the readable names) in Publisher 2.5.0.2415, which seems correct.

Edit:  And I see the same for the font that @R C-R uploaded.

In FontCreator you need to open the panel below what you see above.
Open Axis Properties - see image below where I have highlighted the setting.

 

That setting sets a flag in the fvar table.
So you could change that setting there using FontCreator.

Or you can dump the font to XML using fonttools ttx and edit the fvar table.
You just have to change a 1 to a 0 in the flag for each of those hidden axes.
And then use ttx to turn the XML back into a TTF font.

Then the axes would always show.

Note: If Affinity does not give users the option to enable all the axes, a simple python script could set the flags.
Having to do that would be ridiculous, but pretty easy.

 

[Affinity-Inspiration]

Mac OS. 

I'm not seeing the same controls as shown in the notification email? Just wondering. This is an Apple Developer font.

[Hangman]

Hi @Affinity-Inspiration,

That's simply because the New York font only includes the two axes seen in the dropdown. Different variable fonts will include differing numbers of axes based on those the font designer has:

a) included in the font design
b) wishes to make accessible to the user

[Affinity-Inspiration]

Thanks, that's all clear now. 

[AffinityMakesMeWonder]

7 hours ago, kenmcd said:

In FontCreator you need to open the panel below what you see above.
Open Axis Properties - see image below where I have highlighted the setting.

 

That setting sets a flag in the fvar table.
So you could change that setting there using FontCreator.

Or you can dump the font to XML using fonttools ttx and just edit the fvar table.
You just have to change a 1 to a 0 in the flag for each of those hidden axes.
And then use ttx to turn the XML back into a TTF font.

Then the axes would always show.

Note: If Affinity does not give users the option to enable all the axes, a simple python script could set the flags.
Having to do that would be ridiculous, but pretty easy.

 

If I understand you correct here, we could buy FontCreator, load our Variable Fonts there, “unlock” the hidden axes and then resave the fontfiles - then we freely could reveal whatever axes we want.

Is that correct?

FontCreator is 200 bucks, and only Windows… Wonder if FontCreator work in CrossOver Mac edition?