Using appropriate Junicode weights at different sizes #92
Replies: 11 comments 13 replies
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Thanks, Andrew! I look forward to taking these for a spin, and I'll let you know if any thoughts occur to me. I don't suppose support for variable fonts is anywhere on the horizon? |
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I like both sets of sizes, though I suppose it's inevitable that I find the optical sizes of Elstob more satisfying than the pseudo-optical sizes of Junicode. I've got to confess that I'm not a big fan of the expanded widths in the italic, and so I made the cutoff for using it lower: if I could I'd make the cutoff about a third of the way from SemiExpanded down to Regular. For some reason I also had trouble locating the fonts (I was using XeLaTeX) and had to insert some space in the style names to make it work. So here's my attempt:
Reading that LuaTeX now supports variable fonts, I tried out the variable version:
Unfortunately whatever renderer LuaTeX is using seems very buggy: This kind of effect on certain characters at certain weights and widths affects fonts other than Junicode, though not all. I haven't been able to find any discussions of it, so I don't know what might be causing it or how to work around it. It affects the roman face but apparently not the italic. |
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I've put a new folder, variable-cff2, in the fonts folder. It contains JunicodeTwoBeta-VF.otf. I'll test this later with luaTeX, but for right now some notes:
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A much better cff2-flavored variable font now in fonts/variable-cff2. I haven't tested with luaTeX yet. |
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Added the italic (reminder: very rough and incomplete!) and tested with these settings (suggestions/adjustments invited):
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Rendering of otf variable fonts in PDF viewers is still a little buggy, but perfectly legible, and they seem to print well. You've probably gotten the notice from the luaotfload issue thread that the bugs in ttf rendering have been fixed. I suppose the fixed version will be in the next TeXLive release (this spring?), and then the ttf version of the variable font will probably be the one to go with. Meanwhile I hope you'll post any improvements here. |
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I've been messing around with this for my use, but came across an issue, and a possible improvement. Firstly, for whatever reason fontspec throws unit errors when I specify base font size in the document class |
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Okay, thanks for this info, @eclecticfluff. LuaTeX isn't quite ready for variable fonts yet. They've fixed the TTF outline problem in luaotfload, but you now get errors when certain positions along the axes are requested, and you've run afoul of that bug. There is a fix in the luaotfload dev branch, but I don't know when this will be available via an update to the current TeX distros. What you're looking for is not the Enlarge axis but a true Optical Size axis. I'd supply one for Junicode if life were infinitely long, but alas, the job is too big (it would involve supplying at least one new master for each of more than 1000 glyphs). My Elstob font has an Optical Size axis, and it is drawn from the same broad Fell family as Junicode (if you like that style). The TTF version of the variable font should work under TeXLive 2022, though it will throw some errors, as mentioned. The development version (I'm probably a couple of weeks away from a beta release) will also have a slant axis for the italic, since the slant of the original italic is rather extreme: |
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I have been using Junicode's new weights as 'optical' sizes to achieve even type colour, avoiding the typical problem in digital typography of text that becomes lighter rather than darker at smaller sizes. In LaTeX, I've created the following definition, based on Adobe's Caption/Small Text/Text/Subhead/Display weights (cf. the Arno Pro specimen book). These numbers need to be adjusted to fit the medium and viewing conditions, but I've found this works fairly well with my printer. I would be interested in any suggestions to optimize this further or integrate any other weights:
\setmainfont{Junicode Two Beta}[ UprightFont = {*-Regular}, ItalicFont = {*-Italic}, BoldFont = {*-Semibold}, BoldItalicFont = {*-BoldItalic}, Numbers={Lowercase,Proportional}, UprightFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-SemiExpandedMedium}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-Medium}, {Size={11-21.59}, Font=*-Regular}, {Size={21.6-}, Font=*-Light} }, }, ItalicFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-SemiExpandedMediumItalic}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-MediumItalic}, {Size={11-21.59}, Font=*-Italic}, {Size={21.6-}, Font=*-LightItalic} }, }, ]
Compare a LaTeX configuration for Elstob's optical weights:
\setmainfont{ElstobD}[ UprightFont = {*-Regular}, ItalicFont = {*-Italic}, BoldFont = {*-SemiBold}, BoldItalicFont = {*-SemiBoldItalic}, Numbers={Lowercase,Proportional}, UprightFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-8pt}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-10pt}, {Size={11-14.5}, Font=*-14pt}, {Size={14.6-21.59},Font=*-18pt}, {Size={21.6-35.99},Font=*-Light}, {Size={36-}, Font=*-ExtraLight} }, }, ItalicFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-8ptItalic}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-10ptItalic}, {Size={11-14.5}, Font=*-14ptItalic}, {Size={14.6-21.59},Font=*-18ptItalic}, {Size={21.6-35.99},Font=*-LightItalic}, {Size={36-}, Font=*-ExtraLightItalic} }, }, BoldFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-8ptSemiBold}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-10ptSemiBold}, {Size={11-14.5}, Font=*-14ptSemiBold}, {Size={14.6-}, Font=*-18ptSemiBold} }, }, BoldItalicFeatures={ SizeFeatures={ {Size={-8.5}, Font=*-8ptSemiBoldItalic}, {Size={8.6-10.99}, Font=*-10ptSemiBoldItalic}, {Size={11-14.5}, Font=*-14ptSemiBoldItalic}, {Size={14.6-}, Font=*-18ptSemiBoldItalic} }, } ]
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