Variable Fonts: Sort order of Font Style popup is not obvious.

[Daniel Höpfl]

The Font Style popup for variable fonts seems to be sorted by italic, then by alphabet.

Sorting by all variables seems more natural, I’d expect it to be (variables shown to illustrate sorting):

• Regular (ital 0, wght 400)
• Medium (ital 0, wght 500)
• SemiBold (ital 0, wght 600)
• Bold (ital 0, wght 700)
• ExtraBold (ital 0, wght 800)
• Black (ital 0, wght 900)
• Regular Italic (ital 1, wght 400)
• Medium Italic (ital 1, wght 500)
• SemiBold Italic (ital 1, wght 600)
• Bold Italic (ital 1, wght 700)
• ExtraBold Italic (ital 1, wght 800)
• Black Italic (ital 1, wght 900)

I think sorting by switches, then by ranges results in a natural order.

Having the label build in the order of sorting applied (Italic Bold vs. Bold Italic) seems useful since this builds blocks in the menu, with the value that does not change aligned.

Font used in this example is Vollkorn.

Second screenshot is for Merienda which has only one variable but shows Light right after ExtraBold but before Medium – obviously the menu is partially (exception is Regular) in alphabetical order.

The third image is Open Sans which has three variables: ital, wdth, wght. I’d expect that to sort in that groups and build labels as “(Italic) (Width) (Weight)”.

(Using Publisher 2.5.3.2516)

 

[MikeTO]

Hi, this isn't a new issue in the beta or specific to variable fonts. In the suggestion below I detailed how Adobe and Apple sort font styles, too. I suggest replying to that post to bump it up.

Cheers

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

An issue raised in this thread ("inconsistent font trait display order") has now been reported to the developers by the testing team (Ref: AF-3654). Thank you very much for reporting this issue to us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "inconsistent font trait display order" (REF: AF-3654) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2805). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.