Android Wear needs a "skinny" version of Roboto VF

[marekjez86]

Android Wear needs a "skinny" version of Roboto.
Currently they use only four instances (no condensed):
Roboto-Regular.ttf
Roboto-Bold.ttf
Roboto-Italic.ttf
Roboto-BoldItalic.ttf

Could you come up with a Roboto VF without condensed, with weight from 400 through 700, and full italics? I wanted to see if it is possible to be below or close to about 1.3MB in the "skinny" Roboto size.

If not could we try Roboto VF Upright without condensed, with weight from 400 through 700 and Roboto VF Italic without condensed, with weight from 400 through 700?

If this doesn't come out the right size, could we just make 4 instances just like the one they want...

The requirements:

• the full variable Roboto font is the MASTER font for making any of the above (that's what we would deliver -- we would NOT deliver a "skinny" version; a "skinny" version would be made during the Android Wear build process)
• a publicly available tools are used to make a "skinny" version

Please advise what's doable.

I tried but it failed (maybe I have older fonttools, but if fonttools need fixing please help to fix them):
marekj-macbookpro5% fonttools varLib.instancer -o out.ttf Roboto[ital,wdth,wght].ttf wdth=drop wght=400:700
Restricting axes: {'wdth': None, 'wght': AxisRange(400, 700)}
Loading variable font
Normalized limits: {'wght': NormalizedAxisRange(0, 0.677551), 'wdth': 0.0}
Instantiating glyf/gvar tables
Instantiating HVAR table
Instantiating GDEF and GPOS tables
Instantiating avar table
Instantiating STAT table
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/fonttools", line 10, in
sys.exit(main())
File "/Users/marekj/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/fontTools/main.py", line 28, in main
runpy.run_module(mod, run_name='main')
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.7/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/runpy.py", line 208, in run_module
return _run_code(code, {}, init_globals, run_name, mod_spec)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/3.7.7/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "/Users/marekj/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/fontTools/varLib/instancer.py", line 1414, in
sys.exit(main())
File "/Users/marekj/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/fontTools/varLib/instancer.py", line 1393, in main
overlap=options.overlap,
File "/Users/marekj/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/fontTools/varLib/instancer.py", line 1243, in instantiateVariableFont
instantiateSTAT(varfont, axisLimits)
File "/Users/marekj/Library/Python/3.7/lib/python/site-packages/fontTools/varLib/instancer.py", line 1024, in instantiateSTAT
axisTag = designAxes[axisValueTable.AxisIndex].AxisTag
IndexError: list index out of range

[davelab6]

I would prefer to do this as a fonttools varLib.instancer post processing step, than a 2nd build path from source.

@m4rc1e do you have a preference?

[dberlow]

Awaiting any instructions that we might execute to help.

…

On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 3:55 PM Dave Crossland ***@***.***> wrote: I would prefer to do this as a fonttools varLib.instancer post processing step, than a 2nd build path from source. @m4rc1e <https://github.com/m4rc1e> do you have a preference? — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#72 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAO5VDXSIBCRUUUOH7KHASLRWKBZXANCNFSM4N4TARSA> .

[marekjez86]

Initially I'd like to get to examine all three variants:

1. Roboto VF without condensed, with weight from 400 through 700, and italics (full range)
2. two Roboto VFs without condensed, with weight from 400 through 700 - one ital=0 and one ital=1
3. 4 instances Roboto-Regular.ttf, Roboto-Bold.ttf, Roboto-Italic.ttf and Roboto-BoldItalic.ttf

with 1. being the most desirable font to give Wear and choice 3. only as a last resort

[davelab6]

@marekjez86 were you able to use fonttools varLib.instancer to create these comparisons? :)

[marekjez86]

I haven't compared anything ... I'm not sure what you want to get but here are two commands I use Note that Noto variable fonts have either both width, wght axis or only wght $i is the name of the variable font file -o is the output path (slim-no-wdth and slim-drop are two names of my directories, but you can pick whatever you want -- I have both because I ran it through all of my variable fonts and I don't know in my script the axis of each font) fonttools varLib.instancer -o slim-drop/$i $i wdth=drop wght=400:700 # the above will drop wdth axis AND reduce wght axis to 400 (Regular) through 700 (Bold) OR fonttools varLib.instancer -o slim-no-wdth/$i $i wght=400:700 # the above will reduce wght axis to 400 (Regular) through 700 (Bold) my whole script I use is at https://github.com/googlefonts/noto-source/blob/master/misc_scripts/slimmer-vfs.sh (it's Noto specific) let me know if you need help or give me your font and tell me what axis do you want to get out of your VF font

…

On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 9:15 PM Dave Crossland ***@***.***> wrote: @marekjez86 <https://github.com/marekjez86> were you able to use fonttools varLib.instancer to create these comparisons? :) — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#72 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADFUS7YAN7LIHT67MW3XAYTSPIMW5ANCNFSM4N4TARSA> .