Is there a standard way (a symbol or icon) to indicate that a font is variable?

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michele casanova
michele casanova Posts: 54
in Font Technology
I haven't found any previous discussions on this topic. If there isn't one, I think it would be useful to have an icon to indicate variable fonts
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  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,037
    Answer ✓
    Nope!

    There was a standard icon invented for the OpenType format. We should have done something similar for variable fonts.

    Of course, even the name was hard to agree on. The Microsoft and Apple folks wanted OpenType Font Variations, and in fact that is the official name, with “Variable Fonts” as a sort of nickname/shorthand.

Answers

  • michele casanova
    michele casanova Posts: 54
    @Thomas Phinney Thanks. I was thinking of using something similar to this image, but I was hoping there was already an idea from experts.


  • Floor van Steeg
    Floor van Steeg Posts: 15
    @michele casanova Personally, I wouldn't associate that symbol with variable fonts. It might just indicate light / bold variants — feels more like a comparison symbol to me.

    It depends on the context, and this might not be any better, but I use a simple slider icon in my app to indicate variable fonts. This suggests there is a continuous range of styles, instead of discreet styles.

    @Thomas Phinney Do you know where can I find the standard icon for the OpenType format? Couldn't find an official one in a quick search.

  • mitradranirban
    mitradranirban Posts: 81
    In Windows 98, fonts used to change icon from TT to O after adding dsig table, indicating it is a open type font.
  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,451
    There’s no standard. This is what we use on the Tiro site: the icon for the individual font package with a VF label and a little slider graphic underneath.


  • Thomas Phinney
    Thomas Phinney Posts: 3,037
    edited June 21
    mitradranirban That is indeed the OpenType logo, a half teal (blue-green), half black, italic O.

    General design was by somebody else. I made a font version of the icon, back at the time.
  • Paul Hanslow
    Paul Hanslow Posts: 185
    IMO the 'best' option for a variable font icon is a dynamic solution, probably a GIF, showing characters progressing through the masters (ie light to black etc). However, this solution doesn't work when needing to be shown statically. 

    Every foundry offering variable fonts has their own solution for the VF icon, so nothing is really standardised at the moment...don't even get me started on the vastly different pricing of VF fonts. 
  • Dave Crossland
    Dave Crossland Posts: 1,486
    A bit off topic from an icon, but https://typogram.co/studio has a nice font dropdown UI, using the Weight and if available Width axes to show the design space range using the font family name string.



    TBH I would just expect something like the "TT" icon that Anirban posted, nothing so nice and fancy as John made :) 

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