Using RoboFont Skateboard to design Variable Fonts
A workshop for the Typographics 2022 TypeLab (https://2022.typographics.com/typelab), explaining how and why I like to use RoboFont Skateboard when I design and draw variable fonts.
Contents:
0:00 Intro
2:32 Foundational Concepts
8:32 Skateboard demos!
8:48 Setting up a new designspace file
12:00 Basic overview of Skateboard’s UI
13:18 Making two sources compatible for sans-to-serif interpolation
17:00 Finding and fixing a bug in my designspace
18:04 Previewing a variable axis in Skateboard
18:44 Adjusting drawings to adjust intermediate styles
21:29 A more complex example: making a sans-to-serif capital S
23:00 Kinks! What they are and how to fix them
27:44 Changing the sans S to achieve simple interpolation
30:34 Experiment 1: failure! Let’s try again…
31:37 Experiment 2: semi-serif success!
32:16 Avoiding kinks on a complex, rotating S spine
33:49 Non-obvious but awesome feature: “Track Selection”
38:07 Extrapolation: exploring new territory in a designspace
40:27 One more experiment: angled sans to serif terminals
41:52 Navigating a multidimensional designspace
46:48 Conclusion. Thanks for watching! Like and subscribe plz :)