Setting fonts infos

This tutorial is an extension of Making a simple font family. The following tables provide a detailed example on how to set font infos for a project diverging from the typographic quartett Regular/Italic/Bold/BoldItalic.

The example presents a project organized over a two-axes design space: width and weight. It also presents a monospaced variant (last table), technically sitting in a separate design space and with a smaller amount of weights.

The following tables only concern the generation of static instances, not variable fonts. In the case of variable fonts, the font info is specified in the .designspace document, not into the ufo files.

Practically, the following method suggests to split the project into sub-families organized per width. So, the “Family Name” menu of the user application will show MyFont Condensed, MyFont, MyFont Extended, MyFont Wide, MyFont Mono. The “Style Name” menu for each of those will instead show the weight. This approach is desirable for two reasons:

  • it is quite conventional, so users will probably be used to this kind of organization
  • it avoids to group everything into a single family. In such case, every style would fit into a single dropdown “Style Name” menu, causing a very long list of styles (66!) to choose from
familyName styleName styleMapStyle usWeightClass usWidthClass italicAngle
MyFont Condensed Thin - 100 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Thin Cursive - 100 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Light - 300 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Light Cursive - 300 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Roman Regular 400 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Roman Cursive Italic 400 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Book - 450 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Book Cursive - 450 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Medium - 500 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Medium Cursive - 500 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Bold Bold 700 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Bold Cursive Bold Italic 700 Condensed 7
MyFont Condensed Black - 900 Condensed -
MyFont Condensed Black Cursive - 900 Condensed 7


familyName styleName styleMapStyle usWeightClass usWidthClass italicAngle
MyFont Thin - 100 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Thin Cursive - 100 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Light - 300 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Light Cursive - 300 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Roman Regular 400 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Roman Cursive Italic 400 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Book - 450 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Book Cursive - 450 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Medium - 500 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Medium Cursive - 500 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Bold Bold 700 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Bold Cursive Bold Italic 700 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Black - 900 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Black Cursive - 900 Medium (normal) 7


familyName styleName styleMapStyle usWeightClass usWidthClass italicAngle
MyFont Extended Thin - 100 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Thin Cursive - 100 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Light - 300 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Light Cursive - 300 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Roman Regular 400 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Roman Cursive Italic 400 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Book - 450 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Book Cursive - 450 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Medium - 500 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Medium Cursive - 500 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Bold Bold 700 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Bold Cursive Bold Italic 700 Expanded 7
MyFont Extended Black - 900 Expanded -
MyFont Extended Black Cursive - 900 Expanded 7


familyName styleName styleMapStyle usWeightClass usWidthClass italicAngle
MyFont Wide Thin - 100 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Thin Cursive - 100 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Light - 300 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Light Cursive - 300 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Roman Regular 400 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Roman Cursive Italic 400 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Book - 450 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Book Cursive - 450 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Medium - 500 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Medium Cursive - 500 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Bold Bold 700 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Bold Cursive Bold Italic 700 Extra-Expanded 7
MyFont Wide Black - 900 Extra-Expanded -
MyFont Wide Black Cursive - 900 Extra-Expanded 7


familyName styleName styleMapStyle usWeightClass usWidthClass italicAngle
MyFont Mono Light - 300 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Mono Light Cursive - 300 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Mono Roman Regular 400 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Mono Roman Cursive Italic 400 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Mono Book - 450 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Mono Book Cursive - 450 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Mono Medium - 500 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Mono Medium Cursive - 500 Medium (normal) 7
MyFont Mono Bold Bold 700 Medium (normal) -
MyFont Mono Bold Cursive Bold Italic 700 Medium (normal) 7
Last edited on 01/09/2021