Responsibly Loading Variable Fonts

[zachleat]

Initially these seem to be shipping as system fonts but we should start to see more variable font implementations. Improvements over segmented styles:

• File size questions?
• Grouped repaint
• Will likely make preload less effective
• Probably result in an increased need for 2-stage loading approaches

[zachleat]

There are a bunch of demos here: http://www.axis-praxis.org/

More great variable fonts:
http://koe.berlin/variablefont/
https://djr.com/lab-variable/

Related blog posts:
https://webkit.org/blog/7051/variable-fonts-on-the-web/
https://alistapart.com/blog/post/variable-fonts-for-responsive-design
https://viljamis.com/2016/the-future-of-web-fonts/

[zachleat]

Questions:
All of the demos on AxisPraxis are TTF, will there ever be a compressed container format of these, a la WOFF or WOFF2?

[davatron5000]

One more question: Can we subset/sub-weight variable fonts (e..g can I use 3 weights of a 9 weight font?)

[BBBerning]

@davatron5000 A variable font contains only one set of outline data (default instance) + deltas to access all other variations within the design space. Subsetting the design space of a single axis variable font won't result in a smaller file size if that's what you're after. If the variable font has more than one axis it might be beneficial to limit the design space to the axis/axes you'd like to use. There are very few variable fonts commercially available at the moment, so pricing and EULA conventions are still very much up in the air but I would be very surprised if foundries would allow tempering with their fonts, including subsetting of variable fonts.