A presentation at Frontend Conference in in Zürich, Switzerland by Oliver Schöndorfer
Conquer Variable Web Typography Venn by Dalton Maag
86/60 Oliver Schöndorfer ! glyphe
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18 font files 632 KB for web fonts only ! glyphe
1 font file 56 KB overall size ! glyphe
How to get started with variable fonts 1. What are variable fonts? 2. Using variable fonts on the web 3. Good times 4. Hard times 5. Getting started ! glyphe
What are variable fonts? Voto Serif by Google
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Light Regular Medium Bold X-Bold ! glyphe
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Light Regular Medium Bold X-Bold ! glyphe
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Variable font file ! glyphe
A ! glyphe
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Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Interpolation ! glyphe
Named instances Aa Light Aa Regular Aa Medium Aa Bold Aa X-Bold Optional designs in between ! glyphe
Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa weight axis ! glyphe
width axis Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa ! glyphe
width axis Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa weight axis ! glyphe
Using variable fonts on the web Output Sans by DJR
70 % Global support " MacOS 10.13 iOS 11.2 Windows 10 $ % & ' Safari 11 Chrome 62 Edge 17 Firefox 62 ! glyphe
Discover new variable fonts try them out, see where to get them v-fonts.com ! glyphe
@font-face { Will become the standard font-family: 'Venn'; src: url('Venn.woff2') format('woff2-variations'), url('Venn.woff2') format('woff2'); } Fallback for the others ! glyphe
5 wght wdth ital slnt opsz registered axes ! glyphe
Source Serif Variable by Adobe ! glyphe
font-weight: 327; font-variation-settings: "wght" 327; Source Serif Variable by Adobe ! glyphe
font-weight: 327; High-level property will become standard with CSS 4 Font Module font-variation-settings: "wght" 327; Low-level property supported by all participating browsers now ! glyphe
Venn by Dalton Maag ! glyphe
font-stretch: 78%; font-variation-settings: "wdth" 78; Venn by Dalton Maag ! glyphe
Output Sans by David Jonathan Ross ! glyphe
font-style: oblique 10deg; font-variation-settings: "slnt" 10; Output Sans by David Jonathan Ross ! glyphe
Optical Sizing Axis Voto Serif by Google ! glyphe
Low contrast for small sizes 12px Voto Serif by Google High contrast for large sizes 24px 48px 72px ! glyphe
font-optical-sizing: auto; font-variation-settings: "opsz" 72; Voto Serif by Google ! glyphe
Decovar by FontBureau ! glyphe
font-variation-settings: "TRMC" 1000, "SKLA" 400, Decovar by FontBureau "SKLB" 800, … ! glyphe
Golden times Lab DJR by DJR
sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de ! glyphe
sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de 23 KB PT Serif Regular 23 KB PT Serif Bold 24 KB PT Serif Italic 36 KB Work Sans Regular 39 KB Work Sans Medium 39 KB Work Sans SemiBold 52 KB Work Sans Bold 166 KB ! glyphe
Work Sans Regular Work Sans Medium Work Sans SemiBold 166 KB Work Sans Bold Work Sans Variabel? sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de ~80 KB ! glyphe
dstype.com/variable-fonts ! glyphe
dstype.com/variable-fonts ! glyphe
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On narrow screens condensed font to fit more characters into one line ! glyphe
On wide screens expanded font ! glyphe
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% Chrome h1 { font-size: 20vmax; } h2 { font-size: 11vmax; } h3 { font-size: 5vmax; } Output Sans Hairline by DJR ! glyphe
Output Sans Hairline by DJR ! glyphe
$ Safari font-optical-sizing: auto; supported by default Output Sans Hairline by DJR ! glyphe
Output Sans Hairline by DJR ! glyphe
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Hard times Amstelvar by David Berlow
Overchoice Many options make it harder and require much more knowledge ! glyphe
90 named instances for Acumin Variable in Photoshop ! glyphe
Static Fonts Variable Font Aa Aa Aa Aa 90 KB 110 KB Regular 30 KB Italic 30 KB Bold 30 KB Roman 110 KB ! glyphe
Static Fonts Variable Font Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa 90 KB 220 KB Regular 30 KB Italic 30 KB Bold 30 KB Roman 110 KB Italic 110 KB ! glyphe
Single font Aa € 30–60 Font family Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa € 300–700 ! glyphe
Single font Aa € 30–60 Variable font Aa Roman 110 KB € ? Font family Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa € 300–700 ! glyphe
Get Started Cheee by OHNO
Open Source github.com/LettError/mutatorSans ! glyphe
Add on black-foundry.com/vesterbro ! glyphe
Retail cjtype.com/dunbar/variablefonts/info.html ! glyphe
Subscription Model? blog.typekit.com/variable-font-technology-from-adobe ! glyphe
Font Playground at Type Detail play.typedetail.com ! glyphe
Font Playground at Type Detail play.typedetail.com ! glyphe
Firefox Nightly DevTools ! glyphe
Summing up • One font file with many possible styles • Fine graded influence for better typography – when you know what you’re doing • Improvements by default with optical-sizing • Performance gain under certain conditions ! glyphe
Resources • • • • • • • For new releases v-fonts.com & twitter.com/variablefonts Testing variable fonts axis-praxis.org & play.typedetail.com List of available variable Fonts by Indra Kupferschmid: bit.ly/2MC8QV9 How to start with variable fonts on the web by me: bit.ly/2NgHQId Getting started with variable fonts by Richard Rutter: bit.ly/2BwVViT Use variable fonts in the real world by Richard Rutter: bit.ly/2FLvtRc TYPO Labs 2018 various talks: typotalks.com/labs ! glyphe
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Slides on noti.st/glyphe Oliver Schöndorfer Gingham by Christoph Koeberlin ! glyphe 8660.at
Variable fonts will shape the future of web typography. They can bring great variety and new opportunities at a low file size. But with many possibilities you can also choose wrong. This practical talk guides you through the first steps with variable web typography, accompanied by several use cases and examples. What are variable fonts, what can you do with them, when do they make sense, and what should you be aware of? Be ready for the next technology shift in your browser.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Rough transscript of the talk as a blog post
Demo page I created using as many font styles as I could vs only tree styles
Sound sensitive variable font by kontrapunkt and Nippon Design Center
Test and try out variable fonts and export the code to CodePen
by Indra Kupferschmid
by Richard Rutter
by Richard Rutter
Various talks about variable fonts
New releases of variable fonts
Test variable fonts
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