A presentation at WordCamp Vienna 2019 in in Vienna, Austria by Oliver Schöndorfer
Conquer Variable Web Typography Venn by Dalton Maag
Oliver Schöndorfer Designer ! glyphe ” zeichenschatz
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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
84 % Global support 95 % Mobile support in Austria ” # $ % Safari 11 Chrome 62 Edge 17 Firefox 62 ” # iOS Safari 11 caniuse.com/#feat=variable-fonts Chrome 67 for Android ! 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 older browser versions ! glyphe
Select font or drop font file 2. See available axes and ranges axis-praxis.org ! 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
Intermission Hela by Jan Charvát
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transform: scaleX(1.25); ! glyphe
transform: scaleX(1.25); ! glyphe
font-stretch: 125%; ! glyphe
font-stretch: 125%; ! glyphe
transform: scaleX(1.25); font-stretch: 125%; ! glyphe
FF Meta Variable by Monotype ! glyphe
font-style: italic; font-variation-settings: “ital” 1; FF Meta Variable by Monotype ! glyphe
Output Sans by David Jonathan Ross ! glyphe
font-style: oblique 8deg; font-variation-settings: “slnt” 8; 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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” 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
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 Variable font Aa Aa € 30–60 Roman 110 KB € ? Font family Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa Aa € 300–700 ! glyphe
Open Source github.com/LettError/mutatorSans ! glyphe
Hosting and Renting fontstand.com ! glyphe
Retail Add on black-foundry.com/vesterbro ! glyphe
Get Started Cheee by OHNO
Aa Aa Aa Variable Web Font Static Web Fonts Default System Fonts First Choice 1st Fallback Fallback Venn Variable Venn Regular Venn Bold Aa Aa Helvetica Regular Helvetica Bold ! glyphe
Variable fonts with fallback web fonts cdpn.io/XxZzYV ! glyphe
Variable fonts with fallback web fonts cdpn.io/XxZzYV ! glyphe
Not supporting browsers will ignore this h1 { font-size: 2.5rem; font-variation-settings: “wdth” 75; } ! glyphe
h1 { font-size: 2.5rem; font-variation-settings: “wdth” 75; } @supports (font-variation-settings: normal) { h1 { font-size: 4rem; Only when variable fonts work } } ! glyphe
Firefox 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 • Use web fonts as first fallback option ! glyphe
Resources • • • • • • • • How to start with variable fonts on the web by me: bit.ly/2NgHQId Use a variable font with fallback web fonts by me: bit.ly/2Dk22qY 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 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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Oliver Schöndorfer ! glyphe Gingham by Christoph Koeberlin zeichenschatz.net ” zeichenschatz
Variable Fonts sind im Browser angekommen und eröffnen für uns Web Designer zahlreiche Möglichkeiten. Sie bieten große gestalterische Vielfalt und sind dabei kleiner als statische Web Fonts, was sich positiv auf Page-Performance auswirkt.
Dieser praxisbezogene Vortrag zeigt dir, wie du deine ersten Schritte mit Variable Fonts machen kannst. Anschauliche Beispiele mit verständlichem CSS illustrieren was möglich ist und worauf du achten musst. Du wirst lernen, wie du die Vorteile dieser neuen Technologie nutzen kannst, ohne dich in der Vielzahl von Möglichkeiten zu verlieren oder typografische Todsünden zu begehen.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
Rough transscript of the talk as a blog post
My guide how to use a variable font and web fonts as a fallback
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
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
for free. You
can too.