Variable fonts and OpenType features

A variable font holds a whole range of styles in one file: any weight between its lightest and boldest, and sometimes a width, an optical size or a slant. OpenType features switch on extra forms a font has, such as small caps. These are reaching workspaces in stages, so you may not see them yet.

Use a variable font

Upload the font as you would any font (see "Keep colours and fonts in Assets"). When the file is a variable font, Xeek Sites reads its axes and their ranges as it processes the upload.

Then select a text that uses the font. In the Typography section, each axis has its own row, with a value you can set anywhere within the font's range:

• Weight axis, the thickness of the strokes, such as 350 or 620 instead of the usual steps;
• Width, Optical size, Slant and Italic axis, when the font has them;
• any other axis the font defines, under its four-letter name.

A family you add from the Google library comes with its axes too, when Google makes it as a variable font, such as Inter or Fraunces. A Google font your site had before keeps its fixed weights.

OpenType features

In the Typography section, choose Add style, then OpenType features, and turn on what you need:

• Ligatures: letters joined where the font designs them so, such as "fi". On unless you turn it off.
• Discretionary ligatures: rarer, more decorative ones.
• Tabular numbers: digits of the same width, so figures line up in columns and prices.
• Small caps: lowercase letters drawn as small capitals.
• Stylistic set 1: the font's first set of alternative letter shapes.

A feature only changes the text when the font has it. Your published site keeps the axes and features you use, from your own copy of the font.