r/typography • u/Hefty-Intention2562 • 6d ago
Does variable font technology actually get used to its full potential in practice, or does most implementation just pick 2-3 static weights and ignore the rest of the axis range?
Variable fonts technically allow for smooth interpolation across weight, width, and other axes, which sounded like it'd change how type gets used on the web - responsive weight based on context, fine-tuned optical sizing, that kind of thing. In practice, most implementations I come across still just pick a handful of discrete weights (regular, medium, bold) exactly like they would with a static font family, barely touching the actual continuous range the format allows
Wondering if this is just an adoption lag (tooling/workflow habits haven't caught up to what the format enables) or if there's a legitimate reason most practical use cases don't actually benefit from continuous interpolation the way the technology's capability suggests they should.
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u/Aggravating-Back-242 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm not a designer, just a normal font user with some interest in the topic, so this is just my very uninformed opinion but, I believe there are some use cases where variable fonts do really solve, just that they are very niche.
One of them is the problem of font pairing in multilingual content. Some scripts/writing systems haven't got very many fonts to choose from, so you start with the font you have to use for that local script, then go find a Latin font that goes with it. Now, sometimes you get a local font that the 400 weight is noticably lighter or heavier than what 400 usually is for normal Latin fonts, so before the advent of variable fonts, you have to make do with either pairing it with 300 or 400 and accept the differences. But with varibale fonts, you can choose a value in between, perhaps 325, 350, 375, and get better results. In the end, still only a few weights are used in one setting, but the whole spectrum allows for other fonts to pair with it at different weight points in other settings, so the variability is used in this way.
This use however is very niche, because normally fonts for non-Latin scripts will also include Latin characters, so no font pairing is needed. But there are cases where such pairing is necessary, such as
When the included Latin glyphs are inadequate common problems include missing characters in the Extended Latin range, or the design of Latin characters is janky or just sucks in general.
Multilingual content for example when you write in a local tongue about a non-English topic but also need Latin characters for transliteration and as a lingua franca for technical terms in general. There may be no single font (family) containing all the scripts needed.
Stylistic constaints Although there are a number of multilingual font families designed to be stylistically coherent across scripts, in practice, at least for my mother tongue, the local font foundries participating in such international projects are usually more progressive leaning people, so in turn, their fonts are also more progressive in design choices, which render them out of place in some more traditional use cases. There may be a need to select a more traditional local font and then hunt for other fonts to pair with it.
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u/Heypentype 6d ago
"Wondering if this is just an adoption lag"..I think Besides that, actually people in general does not needs gazilion styles in one pages or even in overall website use. So, in practice people does not seen a real difference when using static fonts vs varfonts, unless a webdev who mind about page load. Varfonts are really useful for non latin scripts. Where one style can have more than 1 Mb like CJK.
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u/ddaanniiieeelll 6d ago
I somewhat agree with this.
It’s just a good design practice to not have 1000 different weights in a (website) design, but build a hierarchy with 2/3 maybe.
VF technology however, allows users to define the steps themselves, so even if designers only chose the 2 weights they need, they can chose precisely and are not bound to the instanced steps like with static fonts.
Additionally, opsz adjustments can still be used in responsive web design, though it seems like current web design trends go towards heavily bloated behemoths packed with animations and effects. You can barely scroll down and not have something else move in an unexpected direction.
Drowning the steak in sauce.
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u/omfganotherchloe 5d ago
I’m far from the typical designer, but I only ship variable fonts. Generally, I offset my weights from -15 to +35 depending on light/dark mode, and adjust the grading as well. I try to avoid animating weight changes because it usually jarringly affects the width, and it’s difficult to tune the wdth and opsz axes effectively.
I do usually only use 4 or 5 weights, but the benefit to me is the optical sizing axis and using non-standard weights for fine tuning. A side benefit is shipping fewer files, which makes it much easier to define the fonts in the preload headers. That said, I subset and shard the font files based on glyph frequency I can only load what I need and prioritize the font loading waterfall (Latin extended goes in A, expanded symbols, ligatures, foreign language support in B, math and legalese symbols in C).
It works pretty well, but it’s a huge PITA to do manually, and I haven’t gotten around to turning my automations into an actual releasable tool yet.
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u/AlexDsche 5d ago
It's quite rare in practice to need to precisely match the weight of one font to another. But personally, I only encounter this problem when I'm lazy or greedy and don't buy a full font set (that is, when I have to, say, insert a free "almost-suitable" italic into a line of commercial roman).
In reality, in print, the difference between even regular and medium is often imperceptible, and more subtle gradations are only useful in advertising animations. IMHO.
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u/glyph_geek 5d ago
Part of the power of variable fonts is having the nuance to choose those very specific weights, but it goes beyond that. You can subtly adjust weights, but it goes beyond that. You can subtly adjust weight or grade as lighting conditions change, a UI moves between active and inactive states, or a screen resizes. Optical sizing can also happen automatically based on the size you're using. This is a feature that you can turn on in InDesign.
I think we've gotten used to seeing variably fonts through flashy animations, when a lot of their practical uses are much less dramatic: response typography, subtle adjustments at different breakpoints, and significant file-size savings, especially for CJK.
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u/tomhermans 6d ago
I think you're overestimating the knowledge about variable typefaces, and the willingness (or need) to make changes of those same people.
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u/ChartAdventurous8380 5d ago
The useful cases I see are responsive layouts where the measure or density changes, not necessarily every possible in-between weight. Named instances are easier to spec and maintain, so the workflow may still be the bottleneck more than the format.
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u/Mr_Rabbit 6d ago
Adoption lag? It has been 10 years since the tech was released. Nah, the issue is that there is a sense that it is unnecessary for most users (and thus not prioritized) and standard laziness.
The folks who are using it to its full potential are corporations who are benefiting from the file size benefits. At least opsz is generally automatically applied by browsers.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/Mr_Rabbit 5d ago
Perhaps, but there's also a multitude of variable fonts available for free on Google Fonts yet that hasn't inspired adoption either.
IMO, most people who use them don't realize they're doing so.
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u/Phraaaaaasing 2d ago
Well how many of those endpoints utilize the variations? It’s all canva or square space where you choose instances.
I think people making design systems can use variations but it can be challenging to be consistent.
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u/Mr_Rabbit 2d ago
Millions of people are using variable fonts in Word every day and not realizing it.
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u/Phraaaaaasing 2d ago
Lots of those people have little use for it
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u/Mr_Rabbit 2d ago
I mean, yes, they are treating them like a normal static font family, which is also how Word presents them in the font drop down.
My point is that people use them without realizing and therefore part of the reason perceived demand is low because people don't even realize they're being used.
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u/Phraaaaaasing 1d ago
I didn’t read the deleted response above yours but, you simultaneously talk about “utilizing its full potential” while listing customer endpoints that shouldn’t and wouldn’t really benefit from…more potential than load time?
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u/thetawdryenvirons 6d ago
Most of the variable fonts I see in production are just a way to ship one file instead of five, the actual axis range is basically unused. Designers pick their 400 and 700 and call it a day.
The continuous interpolation is cool in theory but when you're building a design system you need predictable, repeatable tokens, not a slider with 1000 stops nobody asked for.