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Question

Adobe fonts and Accessible PDFs

Forum|Forum|8 months ago
June 27, 2025
4 replies
1851 views

Are we able to use Adobe fonts to create accessible PDFs using InDesign and Acrobat?

If so, then why are they corrupting with a protected error?

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Just to rule things out: Duplicate fonts installed:

You don't also have that font installed in font book?

You don't also have a Document fonts subfolder with that same font in there?

You don't also have the fonts in any other place?

Mike Witherell

ErinEvergreenAuthor

Known Participant

It's a logical step for sure and I can confirm - no duplicate fonts installed

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

What version of InDesign are you running?

(The latest is 20.4.1) Did you patch up to this latest version?

What OS version are you using?

Mike Witherell

ErinEvergreenAuthor

Known Participant

Mac Sequoia 15.5. Apple M4 Max. 128 GB memory.

InDesign 2025 20.4.1 (also tried in InDesign 2024 with an idml file)

The only thing that has worked is to replace Adobe fonts with user fonts that have no version whatsoever available on Adobe.

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @ErinEvergreen , The name of the font would help.

Adobe Fonts have Normal Restrictions—they get embedded in a PDF:

ErinEvergreenAuthor

Known Participant

Does "normal" mean not usable in an interactive accessible PDF? They render fine in InDesign, print PDFs, interactive PDFs - it is just when we make it accessible using Acrobat's functions that they corrupt. Acumin Pro Condensed plus every other Adobe font (tested many).

Joel Cherney

Community Expert

@ErinEvergreen wrote:

They render fine in InDesign, print PDFs, interactive PDFs - it is just when we make it accessible using Acrobat's functions that they corrupt.

So, usually when we talk about making accessible PDFs with InDesign, we are doing the work in InDesign. Generating a standard interactive PDF with no accessibility work done in InDesign, and then trying to do remediation on it in Acrobat, is bound to cause problems.

So: what exactly are you doing in Acrobat?

What accessibility work are you doing in InDesign before export? Hopefully lots, so much that you don't want to describe it all. if you are e.g exporting PDFs with no threading and no use of the Articles pane and no ordering on objects in the Layers pane, and then you are trying to fix reading order in Acrobat afterwards, then you may experience Significant Frustration.

BobLevine

Community Expert

We're going to need more detail on what's happening because the fonts should not be a problem.

ErinEvergreenAuthor

Known Participant

Adobe support says it should be working, too. I've spent a few hours with them, letting them remote control my computer to try and solve this and they can't figure it out.

Name of the font - every single Adobe font is an issue. We'll use Acumin Pro Condensed Light as an example. I've got some screenshots to better help explain / demo the issue:

1. Screenshot of InDesign document with the FInd Font window open (all looks OK!)

2. Screenshot of the preflight that shows an issue with the font being protected. Note - every single Adobe font comes up as protected and a preflight error. I don't know if this is just to warn to embed or nto edit a PDF, but maybe a clue.

3. and 4. Screenshots of the tagged PDF showing the font not reading correctly in the accessible tag. (I've tried every variation of making the PDF - fonts are definitely embedded. Note these are intereactive PDFs, so this is where my general question comes in about the use of Adobe fonts in accessible PDFs. At this point I'm wondering if it is a bug because surely they didn't mean to restrict access for this particular usage?)

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