Variable font
One font file containing a continuous range of a design rather than a fixed instance, so weight, width or optical size can be set to any value along an axis.
Near it
Optical size
SuperfamilyWhat it is made of
| axis | a named range with a tag, four lowercase letters | wght, wdth, opsz, slnt, ital are registered; anything else is custom |
| instance | a named point on the axes | Regular and Bold become coordinates rather than separate files |
Where it came from
OpenType 1.8, announced jointly by Adobe, Apple, Google and Microsoft at the ATypI conference in Warsaw in September 2016.
Sources
- OpenType specification, font variations, Microsoft not read