Re: microsoft.com/en-us/Typography/FontVariationsAnnouncement.aspx

Microsoft: Introducing OpenType Font Variations. To close us out for the night, here’s co-creator of OpenType itself, Microsoft:

Today, we are announcing the biggest enhancement to OpenType since the OpenType specification was first released nineteen years ago: OpenType Font Variations. […]

Variable fonts will also give document creators a broad palette of typographic features without having to manage hundreds of font files. Variable fonts are all about doing more with less. […]

The Windows engineering team at Microsoft is actively engaged in implementing platform support for OpenType Font Variations for release in an update to Windows in 2017. Some very-limited functionality is already present in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and more complete functionality will be visible in Windows Insider preview builds in the coming months.

Nice to see an actual, albeit fuzzy, target date mixed in with all of the other co-announcements today. I also like the “doing more with less” part from above; it succinctly conveys what variable fonts are all about.

As for getting early access to variable fonts — well, that just might be this year’s most compelling argument for installing Windows at all.

Thursday, 15 September 2016