Switching font style of variable fonts is very slow

[Daniel Höpfl]

Since 2.6 Beta 2, switching between the font styles of a variable font became very slow. This is more worse for fonts with more styles, e.g. “SF Pro” but I also see it for e.g. “Yanone Kaffeesatz”.

I’ll attach two videos, one what it looks like on the release version (bright interface), one what it looks like on Beta 2 (dark mode). In both cases I started the app, created a new document, added a text frame, typed “Test”, set the size, and selected “SF Pro” before the video starts. In the Beta 2 version, the mouse cursor is the spinning beach ball, most of the time.

2.5:

 

2.6 Beta 2:

 

After the font has been selected once (or hovered over as shown in the video), subsequently it works as fast as expected until I close the document. Saving and re-opening does not help. It’s only fast until I close it.

I am using a Intel MacBook Pro 16" (2019), running the latest release version of macOS. For fonts with only a few styles (such as named Yanone), this might hardly noticeable on fast devices.

[Hangman]

Hi @Daniel Höpfl,

I can confirm I'm seeing the same behaviour with the v2.6.0 (2831) Beta... This will get picked up and logged by someone in the Moderation Team.

[HCl]

.

[Hangman]

Just now, Return said:

Isn't this related to that malfunctioning SF Pro font?

I think it's specific to OpenType fonts with expanded character sets as it's impacting other OpenType fonts in the 2.6 Beta as well which are all working without issue in the 2.5.5 Retail version...

[HCl]

.

[Daniel Höpfl]

11 minutes ago, Return said:

Isn't this related to that malfunctioning SF Pro font?
 

No. As I mentioned, it happens with other fonts, too. I used SF Pro for the video because it is the variable font with the highest number of styles (45) I have.

[Daniel Höpfl]

5 minutes ago, Return said:

Perhaps a mac only issue as I don't see much difference on windows.

Might be. I cannot test on Windows right now.

[Daniel Höpfl]

29 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Daniel Höpfl,

I can confirm I'm seeing the same behaviour with the v2.6.0 (2831) Beta... This will get picked up and logged by someone in the Moderation Team.

Thanks for the confirmation.

[Hangman]

Hi @Daniel Höpfl,

Is it only affecting Variable Fonts?

[HCl]

.

[Daniel Höpfl]

25 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @Daniel Höpfl,

Is it only affecting Variable Fonts?

Just tested it:

• TrueType fonts are fast.
• OpenType fonts are slow when selecting the font but fast when switching styles.
• OpenType (variable) are as slow as selecting one (1) style when selecting the font and slow when switching styles.

I just did not notice it for OpenType (non-variable) fonts because moving the mouse over the font selection popup entry does not trigger the lock-up immediately but moving over the styles entry blocks the UI.

[Hangman]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Höpfl said:

Just tested it:

• TrueType fonts are fast.
• OpenType fonts are slow when selecting the font but fast when switching styles.
• OpenType (variable) are as slow as selecting one (1) style when selecting the font and slow when switching styles.

I just did not notice it for OpenType (non-variable) fonts because moving the mouse over the font selection popup entry does not trigger the lock-up immediately but moving over the styles entry blocks the UI.

Perfect, thanks for confirming...

I don't see the slow selection with OpenType fonts, only with OpenType (Variable) font selection and switching styles but the two may be directly related...

[Affinity Info Bot]

An issue raised in this thread ("Selecting OpenType Variable Fonts with Extended Character Sets Causes Font Selection Performance Issues") has now been reported to the developers by the testing team (Ref: AF-4948). Thank you very much for reporting this issue to us.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Selecting OpenType Variable Fonts with Extended Character Sets Causes Font Selection Performance Issues" (REF: AF-4948) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2900). 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.