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JackyB37
JackyB37
New Participant
May 9, 2019
Answered

Problems Exporting Docs with Owned Chinese Fonts

  • May 9, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 1316 views

I have the attached problem every time I try to export a multi page document with my company's brand font - which we have purchased. None of the other designers on the team have this issue and even collectively we cannot figure out why I keep getting this error. Because of this I end up exporting the spreads as jpegs and creating a PDF to send for review - but this obviously creates an enormous file as the resolution needs to be quite high to read Chinese characters.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Any help would be appreciated.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

A font can have different licenses. Check whether the font allows embedding in PDF. This may be available for a larger price, but for some far Eastern fonts, no embeddable font is available.

This cannot be solved by Adobe, they are looking at what the font designer has chosen. Contact the font maker.

3 replies

T
Test Screen Name
Brainiac
May 13, 2019

I wonder if you have a different copy of the font, or even two copies of it. Check and compare font files.

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Brainiac
May 9, 2019

To expand on the previous responses, one should always check on licensing and royalty issues before you commit to using one or more fonts in a design whether for print or web. This includes the ability (both in terms of the physical font's protection bits and the EULA - End User License Agreement) to embed the font in a file or to reference and use the font for display on a web page.

The other aspect that most designers don't realize is that many fonts not only have embedding restrictions, but also have royalties associated with their use. For example, a font foundry may allow you to embed a font in a PDF file, but if you distribute the PDF file with that font embedded, you may be restricted only for distribution of that PDF file within your organization and/or obligated to pay a royalty to the font foundry based on the number of PDF files you distribute in which the font is embedded. This can become very costly very quickly! Font foundries may also charge a royalty to use a font in a product design, such as a tee shirt or coffee mug!

The bottom line is that you should always fully check the licensing terms (including potential royalty obligations) prior to falling in love with a particular font or font family and committing to its use.

For the record, all fonts sourced from Adobe (either through our Font Folio product, our Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit) service, or Adobe Original fonts sourced via our partner FontSpring) allow for embedding fonts in PDF and ePub and have no royalties for distribution of said PDF or ePub or for use in product designs.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
JackyB37
JackyB37Author
New Participant
May 9, 2019

This is helpful but it doesnt explain why i am the only one on my team that has this issue (there are 17 of us). Any ideas? On another note, i dont have the issue with Illustrator...only with InDesign.

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Brainiac
May 9, 2019

The others on your team have the same issue with the exact same document and fonts or with different documents using the font.

Just trying to isolate the variables here …

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
T
Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Brainiac
May 9, 2019

A font can have different licenses. Check whether the font allows embedding in PDF. This may be available for a larger price, but for some far Eastern fonts, no embeddable font is available.

This cannot be solved by Adobe, they are looking at what the font designer has chosen. Contact the font maker.

    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Brainiac
    May 9, 2019

    Agree with Test Screen Name​ above.

    This is a problem with the licensing of your font.

    M Sung HKS is sold by the Monotype/Linotype font foundry and they control the licensing of the font. If you can't embed it into a PDF, EPUB, or other file format, then your license for that font doesn't include the rights to embed.

    Note the licenses highlighted on the Linetype website for that M Sung HK font family:

    To resolve the problem:

    1. Locate the EULA (end user license agreement) that came with the font files when your company purchased them.
    2. Read it. Does it allow you to embed the fonts into PDFs?
    3. If not, then contact Linotype/Monotype's customer service and inquire about purchasing the correct license for what you want to do. It would help to have the invoice from when they were purchased as reference when you talk with customer service.

    FYI: Just because you purchase, download, and install a font doesn't automatically give you the right to embed it into a PDF, EPUB, or other file format, nor use it on the web and mobile devices.

    Most of the major font foundries are "monetizing" their font intellectual property and have moved to a licensing model; you purchase the license you need for the different types of projects you'll use the font in. If you'll use the font for both printed and digital versions, then you'll probably need to purchase two licenses to allow that.

    For example, some companies estimate how many views a PDF will have when it's posted to a website and quote you a license price based on that viewership per year. You'd have to pay for the license every year in order to not violate their copyright.

    Alternatives:

    • Use opensource fonts (not the same as OpenType) which are royalty-free. You might have to purchase them, but they won't have any restrictions on how you can use them or embed them. For CJK languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), consider the Noto family from  https://www.google.com/get/noto/
    • Use Adobe Fonts from TypeKit/Adobe Fonts. At this time, Adobe does not restrict a font from being embedded into PDFs. You browse fonts via your Creative Cloud app (the red cloud icon).
    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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