Working with variable fonts in Layout by Zaweba

Variable fonts hold a whole range of styles in one file. Instead of separate files for light, regular, bold and everything in between, a variable font has axes such as weight and width that can be set to any value along a range. Layout by Zaweba supports them through its own panel and handles the technical side when you export.

The Variable font panel

Window > Variable font opens the panel. It shows the font's named styles, the points along its axes that the designer has given names to, and a slider for each axis the font offers. Common axes are weight, width, slant and optical size.

Named styles are the simple route: pick Semibold or Condensed as you would pick a style from an ordinary family. The sliders are for when you want something in between, such as a weight a touch heavier than regular for a subhead, or a slightly narrower width so a headline fits on one line without squeezing the letters.

Optical size is the subtle one. Type designed for small sizes usually has sturdier strokes and more open spacing, while display sizes can be finer. A font with an optical size axis lets you set that to suit the size you're using.

What Layout does behind the scenes

Layout makes a static instance of the font at the values you've chosen and uses it everywhere: on screen, in exported pictures and in PDFs. PDFs embed that instance. So what you set on the sliders is exactly what appears in print, and the printer doesn't need anything special to handle the file.

CFF2 variable fonts, a particular kind of variable font format, use their default style.

Good uses for variable fonts

Fine tuning headings is the most immediate. A headline that is slightly too long can be narrowed on the width axis instead of being made smaller, keeping its impact.

A consistent hierarchy is another. Choose weights for headings, subheads and body text that step evenly, rather than being limited to the weights a family happens to include.

Small text benefits from optical size where the font has it, and captions or footnotes can become easier to read.

Variable font pitfalls

Using too many in between values makes a document look inconsistent. Settle on a few and use them through paragraph and character styles, so every heading of a kind uses the same values.

Not every font has every axis. If a slider you expect is missing, the font doesn't offer that axis.

CFF2 variable fonts use their default style, so if the sliders don't seem to change one, that may be why; another version of the font may give you the control you want.

Keep the variable font installed on any computer that will edit the document, just as you would any other font. Live preflight points out missing fonts, so if a colleague opens the file without it, they'll be told.

And check proofs. The instance that's embedded is exactly what you set, so a weight that looked fine at a large zoom on screen should still be checked at actual size.

Variable fonts in Layout by Zaweba give you typographic control that used to take a large family of separate files, with the export side taken care of.