Variable Font Support - Kerning Issue

[Bryan Rieger]

I've noticed some issues with some variable fonts, such as Ohno Softie (Adobe Fonts) where the kerning and tracking is way off from the actual settings. Apple Pages renders the font as you would expect, while Affinity squishes everything (and often inconsistently) together.

Example from Apple Pages (above) and the same text in Affinity Designer (below).

[Pauls]

@Bryan Rieger would it be possible to get a sample document and the exact font you are using. I'm not seeing the same issue as you

[Bryan Rieger]

Sure thing @Pauls. I've attached an example file here.

FWIW The Example.png file is what I see in Designer using variable fonts (see Example_static.png for static fonts), but I have no idea what is happening with the exported PDF using variable fonts (attached) as the font is the wrong weight—but at least it's legible.

The font used is Ohno Softie Variable from Adobe Fonts.

Example.afdesign Example.pdf

Edited April 26 by Bryan Rieger
Added Example_static.png showing same content with a static font.

[Pauls]

thanks - was the font used in a previous version of Designer first (e.g. 2.4)? When I open the file the font is coming up as missing ( despite having the Adobe font installed)

[Bryan Rieger]

Yeah, it was originally created in 2.4. Using the static font. Disabling the static font and then enabling the variable font seems to have caused this problem.

I can see folks who have used static versions of fonts in the past wanting to migrate documents to variable versions if possible.

[MikeTO]

Good catch, I hadn't tried this yet.

Affinity can't find the font and report it as missing while Adobe and Microsoft match it to the variable equivalent.