variable

Inspect variable font axes and named instances.

Quick Reference

fontisan variable <font> [options]

Options

Option	Description
--format FORMAT	Output format (text, yaml, json)
--instances	Show named instances
--axes	Show axes only

Output

Shows:

• Variation axes with ranges and defaults
• Named instances (presets)
• Axis flags (hidden, etc.)

Examples

# Full variable font info
fontisan variable VariableFont.ttf

# Show only axes
fontisan variable VariableFont.ttf --axes

# Show named instances
fontisan variable VariableFont.ttf --instances

# JSON output for processing
fontisan variable VariableFont.ttf --format json

Sample Output

Variable Font: VariableFont.ttf
================================

Axes (2)
--------
Tag     Name          Min      Default  Max      Flags
------  -----------   -----    -------  -----    -----
wght    Weight        100      400      900      -
wdth    Width         75%      100%     125%     -

Named Instances (6)
-------------------
Name                  Coordinates
------------------    --------------------
Thin                  wght:100
Light                 wght:300
Regular               wght:400
Medium                wght:500
Bold                  wght:700
Black                 wght:900

Understanding Axes

Standard Axes

Tag	Name	Typical Range	Description
wght	Weight	1-999	Font weight (thin to black)
wdth	Width	50-200	Width percentage
slnt	Slant	-90 to +90	Slant angle in degrees
ital	Italic	0-1	Italic toggle
opsz	Optical Size	8-144	Point size for optical sizing

Registered Axes

Tag	Name	Description
GRAD	Grade	Weight change without width change
XTRA	X-tra	X-height adjustment
XOPQ	X-opaque	Horizontal stroke adjustment
YOPQ	Y-opaque	Vertical stroke adjustment
YTRA	Y-tra	Y-height adjustment
YTLC	Y-lowercase	Lowercase height
YTUC	Y-uppercase	Uppercase height
YTAS	Y-ascender	Ascender height
YTDE	Y-descender	Descender depth
YTFI	Y-figure	Figure height

Use Cases

Discover Available Instances

fontisan variable font.ttf --instances

Get Axis Range for Instance Generation

# Get weight range
fontisan variable font.ttf --format json | jq '.axes[] | select(.tag=="wght")'

Check if Font is Variable

if fontisan variable font.ttf 2>/dev/null; then
  echo "Variable font"
else
  echo "Static font"
fi

Related Commands

• instance — Generate static instances
• info — Get font information