In the omnipresent debate concerning new possibilities of variable fonts and other OpenType-based font variations throughout TYPO Labs 2017, Jean
Baptiste Levée discusses the chances and wishes as well as challenges of type designers and additionally presents the perspective of users, i.e. typographers. He begins in raising some basic questions that are actually preconditions for all the new advantages: Are font variations here yet? Is the software ready, how about the clients and – most importantly – are we ready yet?
“Prepare for a new standard again.”
Contrary to other positions that have been presented at this year’s conference, Levée claims that type designers like himself are neither scientists nor researchers and certainly not artists and possibly closest to the approach of industrial designers. Jean Baptiste Levée has designed numerous award-winning typefaces for industry, moving pictures, fashion and publishing – many of which are published through his Paris-based label Production Type. According to his own statement:
In a good moment of laughter Levée emphasises the 64K-standard in axes in type design, only to point out we are still stuck with 20 stylistic sets (not to mention the glyph window that has been added to Photoshop only recently). He sends out a warning: although we are all excited about new technology, the integration of new features can be a slow process.
“We need to worry about the amount of complexity.”
Levée lists some of the possibilities we’ve had with Adobe’s Multiple Masters before presenting areas where variable fonts may come in handy: multiplexity of weights, making headlines text fit the column width, justification hyphenation being just a few of good examples. He still sees much room for improvement on the UI side of variable fonts (keyword “sliders”!). In fact he seems to be grateful for help by engineers on the technical side of the production process, allowing him to focus on the designs.
But why variable fonts?
Levée suggests, the reduction in file size is the “real deal”, while design possibilities may be the “gift wrap”. Again, he feels there are several components of OpenType that many designers never took full advantage of. He closes with the financial aspects of the new font format: What to price for variable fonts? Levée is worried that bundles will remain tough competition for independent type designers like himself, but he reassures everyone that at the end of the day: Quality is the best business plan.
