Back in the olden days of typesetting and letterpress operations, never could type designers have imagined what the future of typography would hold. They certainly wouldn’t have predicted the rise of computer-generated type design or the incredible progress that would arise as a result.
Sounding like something straight out of science fiction, variable fonts have opened up an entirely new world of design possibilities. Developed through a joint effort by Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe, variable fonts are an OpenType extension that has totally changed the face of fonts – literally and figuratively.
A variable font has a lot more data attached to it than a typical OpenType font, but it’s also a lot like having an entire grab-bag of fonts zipped up into a single font. Without getting ridiculously technical, a variable font enables you to have an entire and almost unlimited font family in one letter set. Variable fonts give designers impeccable control over a font’s appearance, including its height, width, weight, and/or slant, all accessible through slider options.
Variable fonts are a type of “responsive typography” that provides designers with a much more dynamic design experience. Whether you have to stretch a font’s height to fill some vertical space, make the lettering just a wee bit bolder, or you’d like to essentially craft bespoke italics for a single project, variable fonts can make those adjustments happen in a snap.
While some designers feel a genuine sense of accomplishment after spending hours manually tweaking their lettering (as well they should), time-strapped designers have embraced the workflow enhancements offered through the use of variable fonts.
Variable fonts can actually be used outside of the design workspace, too. If you’ve ever sat down with a client who wanted to see what a logo looks like with slightly wider lettering, or with letters that slant just a little bit more than they already do, variable fonts enable you to make those tweaks live on screen, in seconds. It benefits the client because they can see it in action, and to be honest, it makes you look like a state-of-the-art designer in the eyes of your client.
Variable fonts can be used all over the place, including in animations. As webfonts, they are designed to be highly responsive on websites and mobile apps, and they are supported by major browsers that include Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, among others.
If you’ve never used a variable font before, they can seem a little daunting at first. In Illustrator, for instance, once you have either your text frame selected or type highlighted and a variable font is selected, click on the double-T symbol to the right of your font weight menu; hovering over that symbol will make “Variable Font appear next to your cursor. Whatever values are variable for that font (height, weight, slant, etc.) will show up as sliders you can drag and move to your heart’s content.
It’s just that simple. And just that awesome.
YouWorkForThem is excited to release our first variable font, YWFT Fluctuant. This contemporary sans serif carries itself with a retro posture that makes it ideal for any design project that needs contemporary versatility and a warm, vintage aesthetic. There’s not a whole lot you can’t do with YWFT Fluctuant, and part of the fun can be found in tweaking it to your heart’s content! Whether you need lettering that’s whisper-thin or the boldest of the bold, this new variable font has got you covered.
What’s that? You love it but can’t work with a variable font? No problem! In addition to the variable font, YWFT Fluctuant is available in Light Small, Light, Bold Small, and Bold, with corresponding italics for each.
YWFT Fluctuant extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Vietnamese, Pan African Latin, Pinyin, and Igbo Onwu for fantastic global accessibility in international design projects.
YouWorkForThem is the Original Creative Marketplace, established by designers for designers. As designers ourselves, we love crafting our own type designs and graphic design assets! We currently offer 115 products through our own portfolio and we’re developing new things all the time so check back often for our latest releases!
