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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?
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We're going to need more detail on what's happening because the fonts should not be a problem.
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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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Hi @ErinEvergreen , The name of the font would help.
Adobe Fonts have Normal Restrictions—they get embedded in a PDF:
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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).
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@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.
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Regardless of where the accessibility work is done, the fonts corrupt in Acrobat. Just Adobe fonts, not user fonts.
But are you saying the Accessibility set of tools in Acrobat are designed to fail?
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But are you saying the Accessibility set of tools in Acrobat are designed to fail?
When I look at Adobe's help page regarding creation of accessible PDFs from InDesign, I see that it suggests that the majority of the accessibility work should be done in InDesign, not Acrobat. And the small number of things it tells you to do in Acrobat? You can do 'em all from InDesign, except "run PDF accessibility checker." So that's why I was asking you "what are you doing in Acrobat?" Because the fast way to get around the problem of "my fonts unembed when I save my remediated PDF in Acrobat" is "don't remediate in Acrobat."
Doing remediation in Acrobat is a form of PDF editing, right? At many times over the years, there have been occasional weird consequences that come from trying to edit PDFs. That's why we usually say, around here in the InDesign forum, that it's best to treat the PDF as a final container format, not something easily editable. To be direct, I suspect you've uncovered a bug in Acrobat where font embedding of Adobe fonts is damaged by remediation. Having encountered numerous bugs with Acrobat's accessibility remediation tools myself, I'm not terribly surprised. Those bugs, when reported to the Acrobat team, usually get fixed. That's the opposite of "designed to fail" - the Acrobat devs are clearly trying to make it work.
But why would you need to do accesibility remediation in Acrobat? It does matter, a lot, where that work happens. If you build your InDesign documents to be accessible, then you most likely don't need to remediate afterwards. You just export your tagged Interactive PDF, drop it in your CommonLook or your PAC 2024 or whatever. It tells you if it finds any issues. If it does, then you hop back into InDesign and fix it there. If that's your workflow, then you never need to remediate and resave in Acrobat, and you never trigger this font-unembedding bug you've found in Acrobat.
On the other hand, maybe you have some regulatory need to remediate in Acrobat. Or you don't have any say in your employer's workflow, so there's no point in your saying "But doing post-export remediation in Acrobat is deprecated!" to your manager, because no one will lisen, or something along those lines. If so, consider posting your question in the Acrobat forum, and pursuing a bug report for Acrobat. If typical print and interactive PDFs exported from InDesign have successfully embedded fonts, and the fonts only drop when you're trying to remediate in Acrobat, then the problem is clearly to be found with how Acrobat reads fonts embedded from Adobe Fonts when resaving.
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Thanks for the detailed response. The document is a 264 page interactive book with every text and image format you can think of and making it accessible in InDesign doesn't work according to the Director of Accessibility at a university (the one reviewing the doucments, he isn't just saying that we have tried different approaches).
The Adobe fonts corrupt when a screenreader tries to read it without any editing in Acrobat, so ... I think you pointing out that I uncovered a bug is spot on, this is the answer. Adobe has inserted some code on my system that overrode my user fonts so even restoring my user version doesn't fix the issue. I will report to Adobe using the link you provided. Thank you!
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The Adobe fonts corrupt when a screenreader tries to read it without any editing in Acrobat
This sounds like you are exporting interactive PDF from InDesign and taking it straight to a screenreader., where it doesn't work, if the fonts embedded in your PDF are "Activated from Adobe Fonts" according to the Find/Replace Font dialog in InDesign. Is that the case? If that isn't working, then reporting a bug to the Acrobat team wouldn't be of any use. If there is something wrong with how Adobe Fonts are being embedded into interactive PDF by InDesign, then it should be reported to the InDesign Uservoice.
Adobe has inserted some code on my system that overrode my user fonts so even restoring my user version doesn't fix the issue.
I suspect it's more likely to do with font caching either by the Adobe apps or by your host OS. You can activate & deactivate Adobe fonts installed through fonts.adobe.com, and you can uninstall & reinstall fonts via you host OS, but either method can leave stuff behind in various locations that can interfere with your workflow. If you are telling me that you a) deactivated an Adobe font through fonts.adobe.com, and then b) reinstalled font files of your own, but c) your InDesign files and/or PDFs are still using fonts activated through Adobe Fonts, then there are troubleshooting steps you can take to clear your font caches that might resolve that part of your issue.
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Adobe Fonts are activated and embedded and still not working. I'll report to InDesign Uservoice.
Font caching - the customer reps thought this, too, and two of them tried to fix the issue going that route. No luck.
I sure do appreciate your helping here, this has been a mindboggling task you know the kind where you feel you are surely missing something because it is supposed to work and you tried all the troubleshooting. Phew!
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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?
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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.
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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?
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It's a logical step for sure and I can confirm - no duplicate fonts installed
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