Can't count on Adobe fonts

[MERMIL]

Why use Adobe fonts, when I can't trust that they won't be taken away? 

[Barb Binder]

They are included with your Creative Cloud subscription and available for you to use as long as your subscription is active. That said, you are welcome to whatever fonts you like in InDesign. You don't have to use Adobe fonts.

~Barb

[MERMIL]

I understand this. What frustrates me is that Adobe sometimes discontinues fonts. So, if we use a font for something that needs to be reprinted, but they discontinue it, we're just out of luck--especially if the font is built into an indentity program. 

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com · Accepted solution]

All font foundries are moving to a "subscription model" for delivering fonts. The consequenses to designers are:

• The foundry can remove the font from its library of available fonts for any reason it wants. This can happen when the licensing agreement between the font designer and the foundry expires.
• The foundry can remove the font from YOUR library/access for any reason it wants, such as you didn't keep up payments for the subscription.
• The foundry can track your usage of their fonts (which are copyrighted intellectual property).
• The foundry can limit or regulate how you use their fonts, such as only with websites, only embedded into digital publications, or only for desktop/printing.
• The foundry can charge you more for using their fonts in certain materials, such as when embedded into digital documents (PDFs and EPUBs) that are uploaded to websites for distribution.

Some foundries are very creepy about these controls, but Adobe is (at this time) fairly lenient. They are free (at this time), can be embedded into digital files (at this time), and Adobe doesn't charge extra to use them in one type of file versus another (at this time).

Most likely, your font was removed from your system because the license between the font designer and Adobe expired.

Suggestion: when designing branding items (logos, etc.) that you want to keep around for a while, don't use a subscription font and instead purchase a "desktop" font (a traditional font file you download and install into your operating system). Check the EULA (end user license agreement) so that you have the rights to: embed the font into a file (such as into an AI, EPS, PNG, PDF, etc.); you can convert it to outlines/paths and alter the shapes of the letters; and you can keep the font file for an indefinite period of time.

And keep a copy of your purchased font files somewhere safe off your computer, such as on a CD, file server, external storage device, cloud (but not an Adobe cloud), or flash drive. Everytime we launch a program, software companies are constantly "looking" around our computers for their software and whether you've paid your bill. Keep your purchases safe!

A recent blog talks about these font issues at https://www.pubcom.com/blog/2019_12-06/font-licenses.shtml

[MERMIL]

Thank you, Bevi. This is helpful--and a bit alarming.