How to add Adobe font to Canva brand kit

[Jane30656132e2my]

Hi!

I am trying to upload my brand fonts to my Canva brand kit. I have installed the fonts via Adobe Creative Cloud, but I cannot find the .ttf files in the Adobe program files at all. I need the files to upload to Canva. Does anyone have any ideas about where to look for these files or alternative ways to get my brand fonts onto Canva?

Thanks!

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop">

[Bobby Henderson]

Fonts that are added/installed via Adobe Fonts are not visible in a computer's file system. The font files can't be uploaded to another online service, such as Canva.

[zoe@tdo]

I am also facing the same issue today trying to upload an Adobe licensed font to Canva for a client. Yet I have purchased the font via a type library (Font Spring) for them and am furious now that it cant be loaded into their Canva account.

Why is this? Surely once a license of the font has been purchased it should be able to be used without restriction by the user for their personal needs? 

This needs to change yet I am unsure how to start this discussion anywhere for Adobe comment. Until you have made a product similar to Canva (and be in direct competition with them) why would not allow your fonts to be used on the platform? 

As a brand designer who works with a plethora of small business owners they will never purchase Adobe software to use in-house as it is too complex to learn how to use and too expensive for one very small part of their business. Canva is the perfect solution for them to help them be incontrol of their documentation. 

I will now not be able to use any fonts created by Adobe for any future brand work, knowing they will not be able to be uploaded to Canva even though your typekit library is part of the reason why I am happy to fork out $70 a month for my Adobe subscription.

This is just like PMS colours no longer being available with Adobe software without the purchase of ANOTHER expensive subscription.

It's super dissapointing and making life even harder for your end users. 

[Bobby Henderson]

As far as I know FontSpring has no partnership with Adobe. FontSpring certainly does not have anything to do at all with the Adobe Fonts service that comes with a Creative Cloud subscription.

What "Adobe licensed" fonts were you trying to upload? If you purchased the fonts from FontSpring did the company provide you with download-able font files? The Adobe Fonts service obviously does not provide font files that can be freely copied, uploaded, shared, etc. Adobe couldn't host thousands of type families from dozens of other type foundries if Adobe wouldn't do anything to protect those font assets.

I'm not going to hide my disdain for Canva. Whenever I have to deal with terrible quality art files from customers the bad art files are now coming from Canva more often than any other source. Canva is the "hold my beer I want to act like I'm a graphic designer" app these days.

The sidebar regarding PMS colors is another grimly laughable thing. Adobe does not own Pantone. The issue of PMS colors being removed from Adobe's applications is 100% all on Pantone. Not Adobe. And the sheer level of hypocrisy on the part of Pantone is just staggering. That company singled out Adobe since the company is "big" and seemingly an easy mark.

Pantone has not forced any other graphics software vendors to remove the PMS color libraries from their applications. You can get current version Pantone libraries in the current versions of CorelDRAW, Affinity Designer and other industry specific graphics applications. Most large format printing RIP applications have Pantone color libraries.

But I'm guessing Pantone hasn't gone after all these other software companies because they probably do not have the in-house manpower and technical know-how to create compatible color palettes for all of these different applications. Pantone has a hard enough time just getting its yearly subscription "connect" software to work properly with Adobe's applications. The reaction from much of the Adobe user base has been to back-up and re-use old Pantone ACB files from previous versions of Adobe's applications. That's the better alternative than paying nearly $200 per year just for some partially updated digital swatch books.

Oh! Let's not leave out the fact you still have to pony up $150-$200 or more for a pair of physical printed Pantone+ Color Formula Guide swatch books. You don't get the coated and uncoated physical swatch books with your "connect" subscription. That's an extra purhcase. That takes the Pantone thing from a nearly $200 per year fee to a nearly $400 per year fee. If anything the Pantone vs Adobe controversy provides an opportunity to rivals such as Toyo and Trumatch gain some market share.

[zoe@tdo]

Hey Bobby - 

I'm just going to focus on the first half of this conversation - the fonts seeing as there is obviously a bigger discussion at play for the PMS Pantone removal from all Adobe products.

The font I have purchased from font spring was this (also available to purchase from My Fonts)

https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/adobe/kepler-std-semicondensed

And yes I received downloadable files which do not work when you upload to Canva. According to Canva - 

https://www.canva.com/en_au/help/font-upload-error/#:~:text=Unsupported%20format%3A%20Make%20sure%20....

From 2024 "Adobe fonts are not allowed to be uploaded due to licensing restrictions". 

Having disdain for Canva or not, most small business owners (not designers) use this program which helps them to efficiently and affordably run their small business. I spend a great amount of my time creating templates for businesses to use in Canva to create proposal documents, workbooks and the like that are needed for use with their clients. Does this make them a designer? No. But does this program allow them to create nice documentation to use? Yes. 

So my hero question here is why are they allowing us to purchase individual license to use these fonts if we cannot use them freely across needed programs? Isnt that the whole point of purchasing a license? 

[Bobby Henderson]

Every type foundry that sells commercial fonts has a EULA with various kinds of legal restrictions included. Many people who buy commercial type routinely disregard those rules, such as sharing the font files with other people. Every font file and type family I've ever purchased has had a stipulated limit on how many computers where the font file could be installed.

Uploading fonts to an online-based graphics app/service like Canva is new territory. Let's also complicate the situation further with Canva embarking on a partnership with Monotype, a private equity owned company that sure seems like it is trying to monopolize the type industry. Just look at all the type companies Monotype owns now. I do not know the EULA details for the style of Kepler you purchased from FontSpring. But I do know Kepler is an Adobe Originals typeface (designed by Robert Slimbach over 30 years ago). So it's something that neither Monotype or Canva owns. It's just as likely that Canva sniffed the Adobe DNA in that font file and rejected it as it is likely Adobe restricted the font file being uploaded to web sites of other organizations.

And I'll stick to my guns regarding Canva. The app might provide small business owners an easy and cheap way to DIY their own graphics projects for designing logos and other materials. But the app does ZERO to guide those users how to do the job right.

Most of what I do for a living requires clean, vector-based artwork. Many people using Canva don't have the first clue regarding the basic, elementary school level difference between pixels and vectors. But they design away anyway. And I get stuck cleaning up their gawd-awful mess. On the other hand, we do not do that clean-up work for free. If a wannabe designer digs himself into a deep hole because he just doens't know what he is doing the life line from real graphics people isn't going to come for free.