Variable Fonts Now Available to Sync at Adobe Fonts

[Bobby H]

Adobe just added 122 OTF Variable Font families to the Adobe Fonts service. This is a pretty decent collection of variable families. Most of them have multiple variable axes (including some unusual ones like "style" or "bounce"). The Adobe Fonts web page has been updated to add a search filter for variable fonts. Pages for each variable family feature a pretty nice "type tester" where you can play around with the axes. They offer multiple controls; numerical sliders off to the right and some manual handles around the sample type object. The live previews work very smoothly (Google Fonts' variable type tester also works pretty well).

I had been wondering for some time if/when Adobe would ever add variable fonts to the Adobe Fonts service. Some of the "static" type families they've hosted for a long time have had variable versions available. Adobe has added the companion variable versions in a decent number of cases. One example is Obviously by the Oh No Type Foundry. It has something like 96 static styles, but 1 Variable font file can duplicate all those styles (plus any subtle in-between levels). I'm kind of happy to see variable versions of Acumin and Myriad added, which means they'll be able to be used outside of Adobe Illustrator. Kepler is another "Adobe Original" added, which seems like a call-back to when Kepler was available as a Type 1 Multiple Master font. Hopefully they'll add some other defunct Type 1 MM fonts as updated OTF Variable versions (Penumbra, Nueva, etc).

 

[Johnny Best]

Good information, thanks.

 

[Bobby H]

They added a few more variable families today, upping the total from 122 to 130. We'll see how the total grows over time.

 

[Johnny Best]

So I am assuming you need a Creative Cloud subscription to use these fonts.

 

[Bobby H]

Yes. The Adobe Fonts service is one of the better perks that come with the subscription.

 

[Evan Gillette]

Thanks for the heads up, time to go play around with them!

 

[mfatty500]

Yes. The Adobe Fonts service is one of the better perks that come with the subscription.

Do you kknow if you download fonts from Adobe, can you use them on a different computer that does not have any Adobe products on it? I have a laptop that has Ps on it, but I can't find the file in the download folders. To use on my desktop computer.

 

[Bobby H]

Do you kknow if you download fonts from Adobe, can you use them on a different computer that does not have any Adobe products on it? I have a laptop that has Ps on it, but I can't find the file in the download folders. To use on my desktop computer.

In order to use the Adobe Fonts service you need a Creative Cloud subscription. If your copy of Photoshop is a CC-based version then you're in luck. One CC account can be used on up to two computers. I use it on my desktop PC at work and my notebook at home. Plus I have some of the CC apps loaded on my iPad Pro.

Fonts synced via the Adobe Fonts service should be available to any creative applications, not just those from Adobe. I use fonts synced from Adobe Fonts all the time in CorelDRAW. There are some exceptions. Not all creative applications support Variable Fonts. Most industry specific sign design/production applications are shockingly still pretty limited in their type handling (limited support of OpenType features, next to nothing in support for Variable Fonts or SVG/Color fonts). CorelDRAW at least supports Variable fonts now (no support yet for SVG/Color fonts).

 

[mfatty500]

Thanks for the reply, that's sounds good, but my desktop computer is using Windows 8.1, and my laptop is using Windows 10. Ps does not work on my 8.1 computer, so I guess I'm SOL.

 

[Bobby H]

What version of Photoshop are you using?

Another bad issue: activation. Over the past several years Adobe has been steadily turning off the activation servers for various Creative Suite releases. From what I've heard they're going to be shutting down the servers that support the CS5 and CS6 products very soon. In the past they allowed registered users to download installers that didn't require activation. I definitely remember them doing that for the CS2 generation of applications. There might be some legal issue they're having to comply with; I don't know for certain. I have a CS5.5 Master Collection box I'd like to reinstall on an old retired Dell notebook (along with Win 7 Ultimate and an older copy of CorelDRAW). I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that though.