Remus Variable is a variable sans-serif typeface derived from TeX Gyre Heros, which is itself based on URW Nimbus Sans L — the free software equivalent of Helvetica. It combines the styles of TeX Gyre Heros (regular, bold, condensed, italic) into a single variable font with three axes: weight, width and italic.
The name Remus references both TeX Gyre Heros and its ancestor Nimbus Sans L, while distinguishing this project from the original.
Status: preview (version 0.200). The design space is deliberately small, see the axes below.
| Format | Use |
|---|---|
| RemusVariableVF.woff2 | Web (recommended) |
| RemusVariableVF.woff | Web (legacy fallback) |
| RemusVariableVF.ttf | Desktop / print |
| Axis | Tag | Range | CSS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight | wght |
400–700 | font-weight |
| Width | wdth |
50–100 | font-stretch (50%–100%) |
| Italic | ital |
0–1 (0 = upright, 1 = italic) | font-variation-settings: 'ital' 1 |
There are eight named instances: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic, each in a normal and a condensed (width 50) version. Weights below 400 or above 700 are not available.
@font-face {
font-family: 'Remus Variable';
src: url('RemusVariableVF.woff2') format('woff2'),
url('RemusVariableVF.woff') format('woff');
font-weight: 400 700;
font-stretch: 50% 100%;
font-style: normal;
}
body {
font-family: 'Remus Variable', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-weight: 400;
}
.condensed { font-stretch: 60%; }
.italic { font-variation-settings: 'ital' 1; }Switch to italics through the ital axis as shown. The @font-face rule declares font-style: normal on purpose: setting font-style: italic on top of it can make browsers synthesise an additional slant.
The source is a Glyphs 3 file at sources/Remus-Variable.glyphs. The released fonts/RemusVariableVF.ttf is exported from Glyphs (variable font export). WOFF and WOFF2 are derived from that TTF:
pip install -r requirements.txt
make webfonts # fonts/*.woff, fonts/*.woff2, copies into docs/assets/fonts
make check # Fontbakery report in build/The fontmake build (make fontmake-test, writes to build/) is for comparison only. It does not reproduce the released font: its width axis spans 75–100 instead of 50–100 and the STAT axis values are missing. Use the Glyphs export for releases.
Demo site CSS — requires Sass:
npm install
npm run buildOr use npm run watch:css during development.
Remus Variable is released under the GUST Font License, version 1.0, which is an instance of the LaTeX Project Public License. You may use, study, modify and redistribute the font, including in commercial work.
Clause 1 of the license asks that derived works change the font names and file names listed in the manifest (this is a request, not a legal requirement). The LPPL itself sets further conditions for modified versions, so please read the license before redistributing a modified font.
This project is not under the SIL Open Font License, because it is derived from a work under the GUST Font License.
Bug reports and glyph requests are welcome, see the issue templates and the contribution guide.
Designer: Jens Schnitzler
Based on: TeX Gyre Heros by GUST e-foundry (B. Jackowski and J.M. Nowacki), which is based on URW Nimbus Sans L released by URW++ Design and Development Inc. The Vietnamese glyphs were added by Han The Thanh.
Part of EPI Type.