Adobe is Ending Support for Type 1 Fonts

[Steve Werner]

Adobe announced in a Help document published January 27, 2021 that they would discontinue support in their software for PostScript Type 1 fonts for authoring (including creating new content or editing existing content) in January 2023. (Adobe Photoshop will end support for Type 1 fonts in 2021, as announced in 2019.)

For more information, see this article at CreativePro.com:

https://creativepro.com/adobe-is-ending-support-for-type-1-fonts/

[chrisw90863506]

I cannot save anything today with InDesign. it will give a message I need to save before proceeding, then close on me. Here's is a message.  btw, I have deinstalled and reinstalled.

I just want to keep working. Is it because I still have Type 1 fonts?  HELP!  thank you, Chris

[Steve Werner]

It's not Type 1 fonts likely (they workable to 2023). It's more likely that you have a corrupted document.

Try saving the InDesign file as IDML (File > Save As > InDesign CS4 or Later [IDML]). Then reopen the IDML file you create.

[Steve Werner]

And do click the Repair button in the dialog. Adobe has some software that will try to repair the file. I'd do that first. (New feature in InDesign 2021.)

[Matthew Lamoureux]

SO SO not cool

[Dov Isaacs]

Note however, that application versions of InDesign and Illustrator released prior to January 2023 will still continue to support Type 1 fonts. This can buy you some additional time to transition.

However, as we all know (from experience), operating system changes and hardware architecture changes, especially with MacOS and increasingly with Windows (unfortunately), you can’t count on those older versions of applications to continue to work into the indefinite future.

Thus it is exceptionally prudent to begin the migration from Type 1 to OpenType NOW. (Note that there is also the chance the Apple and/or Microsoft may pull Type 1 font support from their operating systems!)

[stonepier]

Really terrible news. So upset by this. Adobe continues to turn its heals on the designers who built them to where they are now and how now turned their back on . How am I supposed to re-create a font library that has taken 20+ years to build. Do they really think I've got invoices from foundries over that time, if the foundries still even exist, to possibly create an upgrade path that will no doubt cost me money to take or might not work at all.

Adobe is the new Quark in its attitude towards their loyal customers.

[rob day]

There are font converters that will convert Type 1 to .OTF.

https://fontgear.com/products/fontxchange-for-macintosh

[stonepier]

Thanks Rob, while this isn't an ideal situation from Adobe, this may work even though it is another $99 out of pocket.

[BobLevine]

Did you not bother to read Dov's response? This really isn't on Adobe, it's on Microsoft and Apple, both of whom aren't really supporting those ancient fonts anymore (they're a disaster on Windows, IME). And if you've been buying them for the last 20 years, I'm not too sure what you could have been thinking.

That format has pretty much been replaced by Opentype 20 years ago. Fonts are really just small pieces of software. Do you have any other software you've got 20 years of use out of? Nothing is forever.

[stonepier]

Thanks for the constructive reply, bet you're fun at parties.

[Steve Werner]

@stonepier,

Here's a nice tutorial about converting Type 1 fonts to OpenType with TransType by FontLab Ltd, Inc., the purveyors of, FontLab, Fontographer, and other high-quality font-related software. $97, according to the article.

https://creativepro.com/how-to-convert-postscript-fonts-to-opentype-with-transtype/

[BobLevine]

As a matter of fact, yeah, I know how to have fun when it's appropriate. You know what else I like? Facts!

And the facts have been spelled out pretty clearly here. Type 1 is a zombie format much like Flash had been for the last ten years until it was finally, and mercifully put out of its misery.

I have my own share of beefs with Adobe, but this one is on anyone that hasn't been paying attention for two decades, not them.

[Dov Isaacs]

@stonepier,

The fact is that during that during at least 17 out of the last 20+ years that you have been building a font library, neither Adobe nor any major font foundry have been releasing any new or even actively marketing any existing fonts in the old Type 1 font format. Thus, unless you've been buying font licenses from a “second hand market” or otherwise acquiring Type 1 fonts (wink, wink, wink), you really are dealing with fonts released and marketed no later than 2004 or so.

Adobe effectively provided at least 17 years notice that Type 1 fonts were EOL and two full years notice about end of support for Type 1 fonts in InDesign, Illustrator, and FrameMaker. (Since Type 1 fonts are part of both the PDF and PostScript specifications, there will be no end-of-life for Type 1 fonts in PDF and PostScript. Thus Acrobat will continue to support Type 1 fonts and you will continue to be able to place existing EPS and PDF files with embedded Type 1 fonts into InDesign, Illustrator, and FrameMaker documents!)

Please contrast this with Microsoft's discontinuance of support for Type 1 fonts in Office 2013 with no notice whatsoever to its customers!

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

As a graphic designer, I can't understand why anyone would want to continue with 21+ year old technology, PostScript Type 1 fonts.

They don't work in any form of digital design work I do...EPUB, HTML, animations, accessible PDF all require OpenType (aka, Unicode) fonts. Today, PS T1 fonts are usable only for print-destined documents. What designer today only does print design?

Plus an OpenType font has so many cool glyphs and alternates that never could fit on a PS Type 1 font. T1 fonts are limited to a maxomum of 200+ usable glyphs on a font, while an OpenType font could, in theory, have the entire 64,000 Unicode glyph set (but most average 3,000-5,000 glyphs).

My PS T1 fonts have been archived for 10+ years and I can't remember the last time I needed one. I don't even back up that part of the studio's server. If we lose them, meh! Don't need to spend the time and money on off-line storage of them.

[Dov Isaacs]

Actually, Type 1 fonts date back to 1983, the very beginning of Adobe PostScript. Thus, it is really 37+ year old technology!  🙂

It is one thing if one is talking about content created in PageMaker, QuarkXPress, or even very old versions of Illustrator. But the fact is that InDesign's layout capabilities including support for text including multiple languages/character sets (including CJK and right-to-left languages) via Unicode-encoded fonts were designed around and optimized for OpenType font technology. In fact, when InDesign 1.0 was released in 1999, it was bundled with a selection of Adobe's first OpenType CFF fonts and not the Type 1 versions of those fonts. Adobe's message about the advantage of OpenType font technology in InDesign (and later Illustrator) has been totally consistent since that time.

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

37 years. Has it been THAT long?

I stand corrected, Dov, re: the time line. But gosh, was trying to forget those long-ago memories...became an Adobe dealer in 1985 so that I could satisfy my font habit. Still haven't accomplished that!

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

This is what I would like to see, and it probably wouldn't be too much of a coding thing... maybe even as an optional plug-in:

Since most Adobe Type 1 fonts exist in the newer OTF format through our CC susbscriptions (or newer Font Folios) anyway, is have a plug-in that, when you open a legacy document, it scans the documents fonts and cross-references and allows you to swap in and sync the OTF version automatically. This, of course, wouldn't do any good with fonts from other foundries, but at least you can narrow down what you would need to upgrade.

A guy can dream!

[Dov Isaacs]

Not so easy since the character encodings can vary wildly between the Type 1 and OpenTypc CFF equivalent. This is true for non-ASCII characters, ligatures, old style figures, small caps, etc., etc., etc.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Understood. Yet, indeed, if we're going to have to do this manually anyway, we would still face those same inconsistencies, so this would help speed things along. Just a random wishful thought!

[Dov Isaacs]

Actually, only a small subset of the fonts offered by Adobe as Type 1 fonts (such as those in the Font Folio product) are offered at all by the Adobe Fonts service. From those fonts, only the fonts known as “Adobe Originals” fonts made it to the Adobe Fonts service.