FAIL: Check variable font instances have correct names

Observed behaviour

I am testing a variable font with four axes. There are combinations of the unregistered and registered axes in the instance naming, for obvious reasons, i.e. Commissioner-Thin, Commissioner-FlairThin, Commissioner-LoudThin, etc.

When fontbaking the vf, I get the following FAIL: `

🔥 FAIL: Check variable font instances have correct names

• com.google.fonts/check/varfont_instance_names

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Thin” is incorrect. It should be “Thin” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair ExtraLight” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraLight” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Light” is incorrect. It should be “Light” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Regular” is incorrect. It should be “Regular” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Medium” is incorrect. It should be “Medium” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair SemiBold” is incorrect. It should be “SemiBold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Bold” is incorrect. It should be “Bold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair ExtraBold” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraBold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Black” is incorrect. It should be “Black” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Thin Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Thin Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair ExtraLight Italic” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraLight Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Light Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Light Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Medium Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Medium Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair SemiBold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “SemiBold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Bold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Bold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair ExtraBold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraBold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Flair Black Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Black Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Thin” is incorrect. It should be “Thin” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud ExtraLight” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraLight” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Light” is incorrect. It should be “Light” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Regular” is incorrect. It should be “Regular” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Medium” is incorrect. It should be “Medium” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud SemiBold” is incorrect. It should be “SemiBold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Bold” is incorrect. It should be “Bold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud ExtraBold” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraBold” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Black” is incorrect. It should be “Black” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Thin Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Thin Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud ExtraLight Italic” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraLight Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Light Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Light Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Medium Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Medium Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud SemiBold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “SemiBold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Bold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Bold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud ExtraBold Italic” is incorrect. It should be “ExtraBold Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL Instance name “Loud Black Italic” is incorrect. It should be “Black Italic” [code: bad-name]

• 🔥 FAIL This will cause problems with some of the Google Fonts systems that look up fonts by their style names. This must be fixed! [code: bad-instance-names]`

Expected behaviour

Is there some clear guidelines for how instances in families with multiple axes should be named?

Resources and exact process needed to replicate

variable file bakery report source file

[kosbarts]

Doesn’t splitting it into 3 families void the whole concept of it being a variable font?

[felipesanches]

But I won’t change my fonts to follow this wght-only fvar limitation, it makes the free software user experience tangibly worse for users of my fonts, including myself. I’m being told to break my font for the users who care enough about software freedom to only use it and won’t do that.

@ctrlcctrlv, I suggest we could get together to collaborate on an issue on the Inkscape issue tracker in which we could plan how to improve the variable fonts support in Inkscape so that we can change the current scenario you described.