I’ve been learning more about how styles appear in font dropdown menus. With non-variable fonts, I’ve had success influencing the display order by adjusting the weight class in the font properties - higher weight class values push styles further down the list.
Now that I’m working with a variable font that includes multiple axes (Weight, Slant, and a custom Contrast axis for grouping Standard, Median, and Fine styles), I’m not sure what actually determines the order of styles in these menus as the styles don’t appear in the order I’d expect, even after trying a few different strategies.
So I’m just wondering what controls the order of styles within a variable font’s dropdown list? I’d love to understand how to approach this when working with multiple subfamilies (like Condensed, Expanded, etc.), as I’ve seen fonts that group and order these cleanly and I’d like to learn how that’s achieved.
Any insight or guidance would be really appreciated!
Great question—and you’re right, things get a bit more complex with variable fonts.
With static fonts, adjusting the weight class can help influence the style order. But for variable fonts, the order of styles in dropdown menus is determined by the application, and unfortunately, there’s no universal behavior.
Here’s what you should know:
Each app handles it differently. For example, Adobe Illustrator places the default master (the default axis values) at the top. Other apps may sort by Weight, Width, Optical Size, or even alphabetically by style name. Italics often get a separate position too.
In FontCreator, you can influence the axis order by modifying the order index in the Axes panel. This tells software how to prioritize the axes (e.g., Weight before Width). While not all apps respect this, it can help improve organization in those that do.
Using clear and consistent naming for your named instances (like “Condensed Median” or “Expanded Fine”) and ensuring your axis ranges and default values are logically structured also helps with how styles are grouped and displayed.
So while full control isn’t possible due to app differences, FontCreator gives you a good amount of influence if you know where to look.