Jost
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indestructible-type
[Feature Request] Add Variable Widths
If you added a width option (ie. condensed/extended), this variable font would be killer. For 10 bucks, I'd buy it myself and add it to one of our Futura-based websites.
An X-height control would be really nice too.
Oh man,
a width control option would be really sweet, but the amount of time and energy it would take to develop something like that is truly boggling. I don't even really want to think about redesigning every letter in at least three weights twice!
That being said, if this is something that the community wants and can support than I would cherish the opportunity to do so, but it's going to take a lot more than your $10 contribution alone. :/
It's also something that I can't really work on right now as I'm spending a lot of that kind of time and energy on designing Bodoni*, which I hope to release sometime in the near future.
I don't want that to be discouraging, though, as ultimately it is something I'd really like to see happen. I just don't see it happening any time soon.
I also really like the idea of variable widths, but I completely understand how complex it would be.
By the way, I really like your font! I'm considering using it in a project. I've looked at the variable fonts that are available from the big foundries, and yours seems better in the "variable font" aspect than many of them. I just can't get myself to pay $650+ for a variable font family that doesn't even have italics. The other font that I am considering is also from an independent designer. It's not all about the price, but it is great to see the active development of the font and the open communication from the designers as it progresses. So many fonts seem like they are trapped insode a black box---you don't know who really creates and maintains it, and if you have an issue with the font, there is no way to reach out for help or to report a bug.
I think the future of variable fonts is going to lie with smaller designers, like yourself, who will take the time to really get to know and take advantage of what possibilities new font features can do. Keep up the good work!
Does this issue need to be marked as resolved, seeing as Jost* has variability now?
Does this issue need to be marked as resolved, seeing as Jost* has variability now?
It has variability in slant and weight, but not in width. I see the difficulties that variable width would pose (though it would be quite cool indeed). "Heavy condensed" can easily lead to very small inner spaces that tend to disappear at small sizes, so there are a lot of issues to address for a lot of characters.
I (relatively) recently added cyrillic support to Jost* and there's been issues with that. It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to start work on a project like this when there are some issues with what's currently there. They would needlessly multiply work down the road.
I do like this idea, but it's not like adding old style numbers or increasing language support. It's closer to the scope of making an entirely new font from scratch.