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NIV: Neural Axis Variations for Variable Font Generation

Summary

A new method called NIV automatically converts static fonts into variable fonts by predicting per-point displacements using neural networks, enabling continuous variation along design axes like weight and width. The model generalizes to unseen styles and complex glyphs, including CJK characters, and outputs standard variable font files.

SourcearXiv Computer VisionAuthor: Nadav Benedek, Ariel Shamir, Ohad Fried
NIV: Neural Axis Variations for Variable Font Generation
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[2606.05261] NIV: Neural Axis Variations for Variable Font Generation

[Submitted on 3 Jun 2026]

Title:NIV: Neural Axis Variations for Variable Font Generation

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Abstract:Variable fonts enable continuous variation of glyph geometry along semantic design axes such as weight, width, slant, and optical size. However, constructing a variable font from a static font remains a labor-intensive process requiring expert typographic design and manual specification of glyph variation data. We introduce NIV (Neural Axis Variations), a method that automatically converts a static font into a fully functional variable font. Given glyph outlines and a set of desired design axes, NIV predicts per-point displacements. The model operates directly on vector glyph geometry and employs a novel Property Embedding mechanism that captures interactions between multiple axes, enabling consistent multi-axis variation within a unified framework. We train NIV on a newly constructed dataset derived from variable Google Fonts, comprising over one million variation tuples. The resulting model generalizes across unseen code points, unseen font styles, high-complexity CJK glyphs, and even out-of-distribution handwriting inputs. The generated outputs are standard variable font files supporting continuous interpolation via existing rendering engines. To facilitate research, we release the dataset, the complete training and inference implementation, and trained models at this https URL. Beyond typography, our approach demonstrates how structured geometric objects with continuous parametric variation can be synthesized using neural deformations.

Subjects:

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Machine Learning (cs.LG)

Cite as: arXiv:2606.05261 [cs.CV]

(or arXiv:2606.05261v1 [cs.CV] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.05261

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history

From: Nadav Benedek [view email] [v1] Wed, 3 Jun 2026 16:17:43 UTC (6,382 KB)

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Key points and analysis

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Key points

  • NIV automates the conversion of static fonts to variable fonts, reducing labor-intensive manual design.
  • The model uses a Property Embedding mechanism to handle multi-axis variations consistently.
  • Trained on over one million variation tuples from Google Fonts, it generalizes to unseen fonts and handwriting.

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