IBM PLEX SANS VAR
Demo website for the variable font version of IBM Plex Sans
Variable fonts
Variable fonts are an extension to the OpenType specification, allowing a single font file to store a continuous range of design variants. Because this technology uses interpolation and extrapolation mechanisms, it offers the user with built-in variability. With those mechanisms exposed to the user, they can be built into operating systems and browsers or other applications, allowing for responsive web and app design.
But what does that mean? Simply put, instead of sixteen separate files to cover the range of weights and widths in Plex Sans and Plex Sans Condensed, you get one file containing all of those plus everything that exists inbetween. And, last but not least, this decreases the combined size of font data, resulting in faster page loading times (equals money).
Bold Monday
As part of the Bold Monday team, I was largely involved in development and engineering of Plex Sans Variable. This included providing the font with TrueType hints (instructions for the rasterizer) in Microsoft VTT as well as building a demo website (for internal use) to test and showcase the font. The demo was built to work cross platform in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.
Special thanks: Mick Duggan and Max Peeperkorn.
IBM Plex has been released as open source under a SIL OFL 1.1 license and can be downloaded from the IBM GitHub page and is also available through Google Fonts. The project is big — for a closer look at the whole project and concept have a look at the IBM Plex website.
Fonts used
https://fonts.google.com/featured/Plex