Looking for someone who has experience with subsetting

[Martin Silvertant]

Hello. I’m trying to optimize the fonts on my website by subsetting, but the Font Squirrel Generator doesn’t seem to offer the control I need. I tried to follow this article, but I already get stuck at the installation process of Python. I’m thinking even if I manage to follow this article, since I don’t have experience with this, I will probably end up breaking kerning pairs, and the article doesn’t explain how to go about variable fonts.

Is there anyone here who has experience with subsetting and optimizing fonts for a (soon to be) multilingual website? I’m using Work Sans 300–700, and Work Sans 400 Italic. Currently we’re using static fonts only, but it makes sense to use the variable font for the roman.

[Ralf Herrmann]

10 hours ago, Martin Silvertant said:

but the Font Squirrel Generator doesn’t seem to offer the control I need.

Out of curiosity, what do you need that isn’t possible with Font Squirrel?

[Martin Silvertant]

I didn't see an option to exclude weights of a variable font, or an option to exclude particular characters.

[Ralf Herrmann]

8 hours ago, Martin Silvertant said:

I didn't see an option to exclude weights of a variable font …

Well, technically, a variable font doesn’t contain weights, so I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. 

8 hours ago, Martin Silvertant said:

 or an option to exclude particular characters.

True. It works the other way around. You set which characters to include, but that should work just as well. 

[Martin Silvertant]

12 hours ago, Ralf Herrmann said:

Well, technically, a variable font doesn’t contain weights, so I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. 

How does a variable font work then in regard to weights? I figured the variable font of Work Sans includes the whole weight range, but since I only use 300–800, I figured I could exclude some fonts.

Quote

True. It works the other way around. You set which characters to include, but that should work just as well. 

I guess it does, but it’s so much more work, and a greater potential to miss something.

[Ralf Herrmann]

10 hours ago, Martin Silvertant said:

How does a variable font work then in regard to weights? 

It’s on-the-fly interpolation. That’s why the variable fonts can be much smaller. But you always need the full “design space”—the designs between which the interpolation is calculated. So there usually nothing you can strip to save even more bandhwidth. 

 

[Martin Silvertant]

Oh that’s good to know. In that case I only have to remove characters I have no need for. Apparently I can still cut down the file size considerably that way.

Strange that I don’t detect the master weights or instances when I open the Work Sans variable in glyphs though.