variable version with at least one adjustable axis

[mkarmona]

@fabrizioschiavi is it worth exploring a variable version of the font with one or two axes to adjust so users can meet their particular requirements? As an example, Cascadia offers a variable version with a weight axis for upright and italic so the user can adjust the weight axis in each variable font. Whether italic can become another adjustable axis (see Recursive font case) I made use of the application SliceGUI to generate my customised versions of the font in the past. Thus, I can have the right weight of the font as DPIs change between monitors whether the resolution is 4k.
As an example, here is how the variable Cascadia looks with the weight customised on my computer (185 DPI) using a weight of 360 for regular and 560 for the bold-variant.

and here is the default version of the font (which is rather heavy for my taste)

You could argue that the default variable version already contains the versions of the segmented weight but not all software allows it or has the option to customise other than the regular/bold option.

[fabrizioschiavi]

This is exactly the goal in the near future: to create a variable font version of PragmataPro.
It's one of the most ambitious goal of all times. 10,000 glyphs with TrueType hinting as variable font?!
Probably the first font designed with this characteristics.

[mkarmona]

@fabrizioschiavi, is there any estimated date for the release 0.830? There are 16 items piled up in the ToDo column. I would like to know if a variable version of the font will come for the next release. Thanks.

[fabrizioschiavi]

You've right @mkarmona it passed time from 0.829 and I feel the need to update PragmataPro as soon as possible but I can't find time because I'm working at big projects in these years. I hope to come back to PragmataPro asap

[mkarmona]

Hi @fabrizioschiavi. It could be great if you could prioritise a variable version of Pragmata Pro and a way to configure it, like Input from DJR.

[fabrizioschiavi]

I’m at a good point with the Variable Font version.

02.mov

I still need of a good programmer to make the configurator. Can you help me?

[mkarmona]

@fabrizioschiavi, I am afraid I am busy right now. Although, it will be great if we could draft the task.

• Does the configurator need to run on the user's side (client side)?
• What font features do we want to configure?
• What set of tools do we need to configure the font?
• is there any tool on GitHub that can be used for this purpose?
• multiplatform?
• ...

[fabrizioschiavi]

The configurator I have in mind is very similar to the existing Iosevka or Input configurators:
based on web browser (no standalone softwares) where only the PragmataPro license owners can access, choose weights of the font, choose the OT features and download the font files.
I suppose this web page needs to interact with the existing database at fsd.it
The OpenType features are the ones presents in this handbook.
I don't know specific tools on GitHub but I suppose fonttools can be useful for this project.
Thank you!

[mfocko]

Just a note; you could probably reach out to Berkeley Graphics, since they've been tackling similar issue with configurator for their own font. They've also made some tweets about it (@berkeleygfx)

[fabrizioschiavi]

Thanks @mfocko for your suggestion but yesterday I was contacted by @svipas and much probably he will made this configurator 🙌

[svipas]

@fabrizioschiavi Not made it 😅 but I will be working on it 🙂