When a font is artificially expanded, all the features are expanded, including the line weight. Although any font can be compressed or expanded by software, the results from a multiple master font are superior. Width allows the character width to be extended or compressed.Weight allows the character weight to be modified, typically from light, through regular, to extra bold.Where available, most MM fonts support one or two (and occasionally three) of the following variables: Nine weights of a serif font, created at the company URW++ using interpolation. Similar to the multiple master concept, this will allow custom styles to be generated from a single font file programatically. In 2016, Adobe, Google, Apple and Microsoft announced a new update to the OpenType specification, allowing variable fonts. 'Multiple master' may therefore often be seen as a generic term describing interpolated font design generally, not necessarily using Adobe technology. However, the multiple master concept remains heavily used at font design studios, allowing designers to generate a range of weights and styles quickly and then optimise them individually. However, multiple master fonts proved unpopular in consumer-facing use due to the difficulty of writing (or rewriting) consumer desktop publishing applications to support them, and because font designers have generally preferred to release fonts in specific weights and styles, as font files that have been individually fine-tuned. This idea was not new, having been used by companies such as URW++, but Adobe hoped to develop the technology to a greater extent.Īdobe's goal in multiple master font technology was to allow end-users of fonts to create the exact font they needed for a situation, by adjusting parameters such as boldness or width. The effect is similar to morphing, as a designer can choose an intermediate between two styles, for example generating a semibold font by compromising between a bold and regular style, or perhaps extend a trend to create an ultra-light or ultra-bold.

The intention was that using multiple master fonts, a designer can generate a style of the exact width, thickness and optical size wanted, without losing the integrity or readability of the character glyphs. Multiple master fonts contain two or more 'masters'-that is, original font styles-and enable a user to interpolate between these masters along a continuous range of 'axes.' With proper application support, these axes could be adjusted on demand. Multiple master fonts (or MM fonts) are an extension to Adobe Systems' Type 1 PostScript fonts, now superseded by the advent of OpenType and, in particular, the introduction of OpenType Font Variations in OpenType 1.8, also called variable fonts.

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