This is for the text being placed on a curve.
When a glyph is placed on a curve, locally each glyph is placed on a circular arc (in either inside or outside), so we could register its signed curvature as an OTVar axis.
The value assignment would look like this:
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But it would probably also be very hard to implement, and it's not clear how much it would be used / what the felt need is.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jfsampsonphotos/29175540013
This is the type of thing that would validate the existence of variable fonts, versus the mere repackaging of weight/width/yawn.
It would be great to see Illustrator et alia hand over the curvature of the path to the font, and the font choosing its instance accordingly. Probably too dreamy, although not impossible.
Now I want to make a typeface with a yawn axis.
Then the glyph variations should be mostly linear. Maybe an axis mapping (avar table) would be necessary to make sure the desired angles are applied when the glyphs are spaced very tightly.
Besides cartography and hip logos, such an axis would also be super useful in animation, VR...
And another cool example:
However, using AVAR or whatever new table proposal (like XVAR or my ZVAR) could be used to simplify the working process.
Wikipedia tells me the city of Fargo is no stranger to Art Deco, as it sports a contemporary theatre in that style.