A design variation within a Type Family that optimizes letterforms for a specific rendering size, compensating for the optical effects that occur when type is scaled. At small sizes (caption or footnote), optical-size masters feature heavier hairlines, wider Counter, more open Aperture, and increased X-Height to preserve Legibility; at large sizes (display or poster), masters can afford finer hairlines, tighter spacing, and more delicate detail. In Variable Font, optical size is a registered axis (opsz) that can be adjusted continuously, and modern CSS supports automatic optical sizing via font-optical-sizing.
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