
Introducing OpenType Font Variations - cpeterso
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Typography/FontVariationsAnnouncement.aspx
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mark-r
Adobe had this years ago with their Multiple Master fonts [1]. Good to see the
tech making a comeback, although it's a _lot_ of work to do properly - I don't
think we'll see many implementations.

I'd like to know how this will make web pages faster, since I don't think it
results in less downloaded data in total. Is it just because there are fewer
separate font requests?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_master_fonts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_master_fonts)

~~~
sjwright
Correct, Adobe finished the MM specification in 1991 and released the first
fonts in 1992[0].

Apple in 1995 released QuickDraw GX, which included a new font architecture
called TrueType GX, a complete reworking of font architecture. As well as
including MM-style font variations, it also decoupled _glyphs_ from
_characters,_ such that multiple characters could use the same glyph, or
multiple glyphs could be available for the same character.[1] While GX was a
market failure, many of these technologies resurfaced in OpenType, though
variations specifically did not.

Microsoft acknowledge that OpenType Font Variations is directly based off
Apple's work in QuickDraw GX font variations.

[0] [http://blog.typekit.com/2014/07/30/the-adobe-originals-
silve...](http://blog.typekit.com/2014/07/30/the-adobe-originals-silver-
anniversary-story-how-the-originals-endured-in-an-ever-changing-industry/)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickDraw_GX#Typography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickDraw_GX#Typography)

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mozumder
Much needed tech. This will cut down on all the various font files on my site.

From the other linked article, this is different from Multiple Master fonts in
that Multiple Masters needed multiple sets of glyphs and was an interpolation
between them, while this is fully parameterized.

[https://medium.com/@tiro/https-medium-com-tiro-
introducing-o...](https://medium.com/@tiro/https-medium-com-tiro-introducing-
opentype-variable-fonts-12ba6cd2369)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_master_fonts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_master_fonts)

~~~
mark-r
Thanks for the link, there's a lot more detail there that answers a few of my
questions.

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amelius
Would it be possible to train a neural network to automatically derive
(aesthetically pleasing) font variations?

Also, given a small set of glyphs, would a NN be able to "design" the
remainder of the glyphs?

At least there is plenty of training data available :)

~~~
euyyn
> Also, given a small set of glyphs, would a NN be able to "design" the
> remainder of the glyphs?

It should be easy enough to train N neural nets, each of which would output
one of the glyphs by inputting the rest of them: So a NN for "a", another for
"b", etc.

Then a consistent font would be one that outputs itself when fed to the N
nets. And a way to create consistent fonts would be to start from anything and
iterate until input and outputs converge.

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transfire
Yes!!! This idea is way overdue. Lets hope it takes off like a bat out of hell
and finds its way into everything.

