css

Variable Fonts

[Implementers’ doc] [WIP]

With the advent of variable fonts, the font-weight user setting has become a staple in terms of Reader Experience in various ecosystems, and version 2 of ReadiumCSS ships with custom properties specific to these fonts i.e. --USER__fontWeight, --USER__fontWidth, and --USER__fontOpticalSizing.

The custom properties were chosen as they are part of the registered, or most common axes (see MDN’s Variable fonts guide for more). But that doesn’t mean all variable fonts support these axes.

By very far, the most common axis is font-weight, which might explain why reading apps and devices limit user settings to it. And why you actually might want too, as handling the font variation settings on a font basis might not fit your User Experience.

In addition, availability of bundled/system fonts in OSes makes it even more challenging, which is why we are providing a list of variable fonts you can embed/bundle/import in your Reading System or app.

Challenges

Font-weight and font-width ranges can vary

The ranges a variable font offers can vary quite a lot, with some fonts offering weights from thin (hairline) (100) to extra-black (1000) while others may only offer from normal (400) to bold (700). Same for width (font-stretch).

This means the weight user setting of your Reading System/app may end up being relative to the variable font that is currently used.

And this is the reason why these ranges are mentionned for each variation the font supports.

Font-stacks and fallbacks

Take the following font-stack:

font-family: Athelas, Constantia, Georgia, serif;

A fallback is a font face that is used when the primary font face is not available, or is missing glyphs (characters) necessary to render page content. In other words, if the first font (Athelas) is not available on the system, the rendering engine will fall back on the next ones (Constantia, Georgia), until it finds a match. serif is the generic family that makes sure it will at least pick a font in the same family (sans-serif, serif, cursive, fantasy, or monospace).

Usually, you will end up with font faces that are commonly bundled in OSes (system fonts) like Segoe, Helvetica, or Georgia, etc. to get a better-looking alternative than the default for the generic family.

Unfortunately, the challenge with variable fonts is that few of the system fonts actually are variable. Which makes it very challenging to create font-stacks with extensive fallbacks.

To date, it seems that you can only cover MacOS and iOS reliably, thanks to San Francisco (SF Pro for sans-serif, SF Mono for monospace) and New York (serif).

This means your variable font stacks will look something like this.

/** Sans-serif **/
font-family: "Name of your variable font", ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, sans-serif;

/** Serif **/
font-family: "Name of your variable font", ui-serif, serif;

/** Monospace **/
font-family: "Name of your variable font", ui-monospace, monospace;

If anything it shows how important it is at the moment to:

make sure the variable fonts you’ll pick can be loaded reliably;
cover the languages you’re targeting.

System Fonts

It is important to note OSes may bundle fonts in a wide variety of weights, but that are not variable fonts per se e.g. True Type Collection (.ttc).

This is the case for Helvetica Neue or Seravek, but this means their weight can not be arbitrarily set on a range, they only offers predefined values (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 700).

You may however find that acceptable as pseudo-variable fonts to expose to users since the --USER__fontWeight setting will mostly work as expected, or at least fallback fonts.

MacOS/iOS

San Francisco Pro (sans-serif)

San Francisco Pro compared to Helvetica. It has a smaller x-height but is no less legible. If feels like a little bit more rounded in body copy as well.

CSS Mapping: ui-sans-serif

OpenType Features: small caps, numeric spacing values.

Variations: weight (1–1000), width (30–150), optical sizing.

New York (serif)

New York compared to Times. It has a larger x-height and feels more sharp, with greater contrast in strokes and simpler serifs. It’s a lot more readable and balanced in small body copy.

CSS Mapping: ui-serif

OpenType Features: small caps, numeric figure values, numeric spacing values.

Variations: weight (400–1000), optical sizing.

San Francisco Mono (monospace)

SF Mono compared to Courier. It’s a lot more modern and has a larger x-height. With a simpler design, it’s also a lot more neutral and readable.

CSS Mapping: ui-monospace

OpenType Features: small caps.

Variations: weight (300–900).

Windows 11

Segoe UI Variable (sans-serif)

Segoe UI Variable compared to Arial. It’s more readable with a smaller x-height but larger ascenders and descenders. It’s also more condensed, which makes some glyphs more legible.

CSS Mapping: Segoe UI Variable

OpenType Features: small caps, numeric figure values.

Variations: weight (200–700), optical sizing.

Sitka (serif)

Sitka compared to Times New Roman. It’s a lot thicker and sharper, which helps on all types of screens. It’s far more readable as body copy, with a larger x-height.

CSS Mapping: Sitka

OpenType Features: small caps, numeric figure values.

Variations: weight (400–700), optical sizing.

Others

TBD

How were these fonts picked

The overarching goal was to provide variable fonts mapped to the default stacks listed in Typefaces and font-stacks e.g. in Latin, Old Style, Modern, Neutral, Humanist, and monospace.

Then, each of the fonts has been undergoing tests in real rendering situations.

They were rendered on the Android, iOS, MacOS, and Windows platforms, using SD and HD displays when possible, in multiple browsers (Edge, Safari, Chrome, Firefox), and in different reading modes (default, sepia, and night).

Then each font was:

compared to its closest reference (system font);
tested against the latin, cyrillic and greek alphabets and languages;
tested against the small capitals and numeric OpenType features;
tested against the font-width, font-weight, and optical-sizing variations.

Latin

Old Style (serif)

Newsreader

Newsreader compared to Palatino. Its x-height is slightly smaller but it’s also thicker. This is particularly noticeable at smaller font-sizes.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/productiontype/Newsreader
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Production Type
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Palatino
Classification: Old Style

Supported Languages: Albanian, Bosnian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (200–800), optical sizing.

EB Garamond

EB Garamond compared to Iowan Old Style. Its x-height is significantly smaller, and it doesn’t feel specifically designed for lower-definition screens. Its main benefit is offering some familiarity as lots of books are using Adobe Garamond.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/georgd/EB-Garamond
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Georg Duffner, Octavio Pardo
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Iowan Old Style
Classification: Old Style

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (400–800)

Crimson Pro

Crimson Pro compared to Charter. A lot smaller, a lot thicker. It works in body copy, although some readers may increase the font-size due to its x-height.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/Fonthausen/CrimsonPro
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Jacques Le Bailly
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Charter
Classification: Old Style

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (200–900)

Modern (serif)

From Open source and libre fonts we already recommended

Roboto Serif

Roboto Serif compared to Georgia. It is remarkably larger and simpler in its design, so much so that it feels like a slab serif. There’s very little contrast in strokes, but it looks readable in body copy, although the user might want to increase line-height.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/CommercialType/RobotoSerif
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Commercial Type, Greg Gazdowicz
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Georgia
Classification: Modern

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (100–900), width (50–150), optical sizing

Source Serif Pro

Source Serif Pro compared to Georgia. It has a similar x-height but slightly less contrast in strokes. It is quite a good replacement and is as readable as its reference.

Global info:

Source: http://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-serif-pro/releases/latest
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Frank Grießhammer
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Georgia
Classification: Modern

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (200–900), optical sizing

Neutral (sans-serif)

From Open source and libre fonts we already recommended

Roboto Flex

Roboto Flex compared to San Francisco Pro. It’s difficult to tell at first sight because it’s thicker, but its x-height is slightly smaller. Both look very similar though, and could help offer a consistent user experience across platforms.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/googlefonts/roboto-flex
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Font Bureau, David Berlow, Santiago Orozco, Irene Vlachou, Ilya Ruderman, Yury Ostromentsky, Mikhail Strukov
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: San Francisco (SF Pro)
Classification: Sans serif

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (100–1000), width (25–151), optical sizing

Public Sans

Public Sans compared to San Francisco Pro. It’s a little bit thicker and larger, with more complex shapes. This is quite noticeable in body copy, with a less neutral look that can work well in the reading context.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/uswds/public-sans
Google Fonts: YES
Design: USWDS, Dan Williams, Pablo Impallari, Rodrigo Fuenzalida
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: San Francisco (SF Pro)
Classification: Sans serif

OpenType Features: numeric spacing values.

Variations: weight (100–900)

Humanist (sans-serif)

From Open source and libre fonts we already recommended

Source Sans Pro

Cabin

Cabin compared to Gill Sans. It’s quite a reasonable match, but with a larger x-height that makes it easier to use on screens. It’s a lot more readable in body copy as a consequence, and also because it doesn’t borrow the design quirks of its reference.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/impallari/Cabin
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Impallari Type, Rodrigo Fuenzalida
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: Gill Sans
Classification: Humanist

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (400–700), width (75–100)

Monospace

Source Code Pro

Source Code Pro compared to San Francisco Mono. Its design is less squarish and condensed, and it looks less mechanical as a consequence. It doesn’t necessarily make it more readable though, just different, especially as its x-height is smaller.

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro/releases/latest
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Paul D. Hunt
License: SIL-OFL

Technical details:

Reference: San Francisco Mono
Classification: monospace

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (200–900)

Accessibility

A variable version of Atkinson Hyperlegible Next and Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono are available, with support for over 150 languages.

These 2 fonts are also available on Google Fonts.

Global info:

Source: https://www.brailleinstitute.org/freefont
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Braille Institute, Applied Design Works, Elliott Scott, Megan Eiswerth, Letters from Sweden
License: SIL-OFL

OpenType Features: numeric figure values.

Variations: weight (200–800)

Arabic (ar) and Persian (fa)

Estedad

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/aminabedi68/Estedad
Google Fonts: NO
Design: Amin Abedi
License: SIL-OFL

OpenType Features: small capitals, numeric figure values, numeric spacing values.

Variations: weight (100–900)

Markazi Text

Global info:

Source: https://github.com/BornaIz/markazitext
Google Fonts: YES
Design: Borna Izadpanah, Florian Runge, Fiona Ross
License: SIL-OFL

OpenType Features: none.

Variations: weight (400–700)

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