Adobe fonts for commercial use? Need license?

[Diane84]

Hi,

I am using Illustrator CS5 and need to design a logo for print.  However, I was wondering if someone could please shed some light on whether or not I am allowed to use one of the Adobe fonts that came with my application for commercial use such as a logo?  Also, what is the difference between the Adobe fonts you can purchase here on this web site versus the fonts that come installed with AI CS5?  Would I necessarily have to purchase a license on Adobe.com to use a specific font for a logo?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

You certainly may use any of the fonts bundled with Adobe applications for a logo or similar static content. You may also embed the font in the resultant PDF file or EPS file that you create for the logo for placement in other content. What you cannot do is give out the font file itself to others. By having the font embedded in the PDF or EPS (PDF is the preferred format, by the way), you avoid any such problems or limitations. Note that this is true for Adobe fonts, but not necessarily fonts from other vendors.

          - Dov

[Diane84]

Thank you so much for your kind assistance Dov.  This is very helpful information. 

Diane

[literallymetoo]

our company wants to use either "myriad pro condensed" or "myriad condensed web" in a windows-application they sell. what kind of licensing do we need? any directions? the endusers would not be able to "see" (use) the font outside the application btw, as it will be "hidden" (packaged) within the app — the font would so to speak be "embedded" in the app

any assistance is greatly appreciated, thanx

[Guest]

The use you're describing would require a special license which allows application font embedding. You can get in touch from https://helpx.adobe.com/contact.html   for more information about that.

Regards,

Christopher

edited to remove retired email address

[korhonito]

Hi,

I have a similar question regarding the commercial license of some fonts contained in my cloud softwares. I'm on a project right now where I'm to create a logotype, among other things.  I'd like to use Gill Sans, Futura or Eurostile, but I'm unsure whether or not the license allows this.

Also, for the future, is there perhaps a directory or any other type of resource where it's easy to see what fonts may be used for commercial purposes?

Thankful for  help!

- Felicia

[Groovecrafter]

Dear Dov,

Does this mean that I can use eg. Adobe Song Std L font for a logo design, and embed it to the file, given to the customer? Or does the customer have to buy the license? The mentioned font is on the Preview & Print list.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Augustina

[Dov Isaacs]

You may embed such a font in a PDF (or an EPS) file created from the logo such that the logo will render properly with high quality when either directly printed or viewed or more likely, placed in another document that supports placement of a PDF (or an EPS) file such as InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, etc. You cannot send a loose font file along with a .AI file that references it unless the recipient also is licensed for the font in question.

          - Dov

[Kar209]

hello:

Dov, or whomever ... as I understand it Adobe and Microsoft have worked together to develop (open type) fonts and so I have been searching for a way to purchase fonts found in Microsoft Word in order to be able to install them into Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, etc.

Do you know if such a package exist? I've searched and searched  via Google to no avail.

I have come across many clients that start designing their logos in (the ubiquitous) Microsoft Word and then want me to improve upon their homemade logos but none of my Adobe products contain the Microsoft fonts they choose. This, of course, creates a problem for those clients that do not wish to supplement their font for a rather similar one.

I'm also wondering if it's possible (considering the Microsoft/Adobe (font) relationship), to make available to Ps., Illy, etc. the fonts from the M.Word already on my laptop ... ?? That would be so awesome But probably too simple to be so, huh?

Thank you in advance for your time and efforts to help me.

Be well.

[Dov Isaacs]

To start with, just one bit of technical nitpicking. You typically don't actually purschase any fonts themselves, but rather, you purchase licenses to use such fonts.

I've read you posting a few times and am somewhat confused by your question. Regardless of whether your “laptop” is running Windows or MacOS, every font that is installed on your system, whether one of the fonts that is bundled with the operating system or installed by one or another software package (such as Microsoft Office) should be visible and available for use in any Adobe application including InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, FrameMaker, etc. without any additional action on your part. Such fonts (including all the styles associated with same such as regular, bold, italic, and bold italic) should appear in the font lists that you see in the Adobe applications and available for you to format text with in those applications. I personally do this on a regular basis. If you are not seeing those fonts in the font lists for the Adobe applications, something must be very wrong with your system's configuration. Are you using some third party font manager? If so, that may be the source of the problem. Please advise.

          - Dov

[Kar209]

Dov,

I am sorry for the confusion. I am very new to all of this and had not touched a computer for over 10 yrs, save for an email account, so I have a very long road of learning ahead.

I will now take a moment to recover from .... being .... totally ... and completely embarassed!!

I did not realize it until your post ... that yes, indeed'ie the fonts in Microsoft Word are available to me in Ps etc.

What stumped me is that last I knew my client also had Windows 7 and so his M.Word had the same fonts but he recently upgraded to 10 and so his font list no longer matches mine. Good thing I am going to upgrade myself this week.

(still feeling )

Well, that was fun. lol ... I swear, I'm not usually like a 5watt bulb

Thank you so much for your time!!

[MiguelSousa]

I have been searching for a way to purchase fonts found in Microsoft Word in order to be able to install them into Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, etc.

You can license Microsoft fonts via Ascender http://www.ascenderfonts.com/foundry/microsoft/

[Kyle_AppsPerance]

Where can I find that acknowledgement? I need to prove that I am permitted to use those fonts for commercial use.

I am using those as parts of my book templets and design.

And there are already many fonts form other vendors added  in my mac, how can i know that it's bundled with Adobe products?

[Dov Isaacs]

For Adobe fonts, you can look at the EULA (End User License Agreement) posted on Adobe's website. It has no restrictions against such commercial use. For Adobe EULAs, see <http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas/> and select the appropriate font product(s).

The list of fonts bundled with CS6 is provided at <http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/fontinstall/cs6installedfonts.html>. For CS5 and CS5.5, see <http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/fontinstall/cs5installedfonts.html>. For CS4, see <http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/fontinstall/cs4installedfonts.html>.

          - Dov

[cc2545]

Dov,

Is it permissible to keep using fonts licensed through our installations through the previous installs of the CS software? And no matter what platform? For example:

I've been upgrading through the years on my PC from CS through CS5. I just bought a MacBook Pro and joined Creative Cloud. Can I copy some of my fonts that were installed with my CS5 (or 4, 3, 2 for that matter) PC version over to my Mac to use with CS6?

[Dov Isaacs]

You are OK!

          - Dov

[Guest]

Hi - I know Dov's response above was ages ago, but with regard to .eps files, does "embedding" a font such a sMyriad Pro, mentioned above, just mean that you didn't make it into an outline?

Main clarification I'm seeking is whether embedding might mean that (for Adobe fonts) that you don't have to convert to outlines before sending the files off to clients.

[kossos007]

Correct. I needed to embed the actual font file into an Adobe Air application so the HTML would be displayed with that typeface. If you create outlines in an eps file you're essentially sending an "image" of the text stuff and you are good to go. Hope that helps.

[Guest]

Cool - thanks for the message. I read through your situation above. I do static graphics and specifically with regard to the logo I just made for a client, I'm just trying to discern whether I should convert the tagline, which is in Myriad Pro, to outlines, or whether I can leave it as live text when I send it.

Is this considered "embedding", and is it better to just convert, in case they don't have the same font on their end and it converts to some other font? These are .eps files.

Sorry for my blind feeling around here - lots to take in regarding proper font handling.

[kossos007]

When I'm doing print stuff I just convert all of the fonts to outlines and send the eps that way. If you're sending a PDF you can embed the fonts.

From Adobe's Licensing page:

Preview & Print: A font with an embedding permission of Preview & Print allows the font, either fully or as a subset, to be embedded in an electronic document solely for the purpose of viewing that document on screen and/or printing that document. While a font with a Preview & Print embedding permission (either through data in the font file or the font’s license agreement) may be embedded in an electronic document, the embedded font may not be used to further edit the document it is contained in or to edit or create other documents. Most fonts in the Adobe Type Library are set for Preview & Print embedding.

Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/type/font-licensing/font-embedding-permissions.html

[Guest]

Great this is helpful. I know Dov has said in the past that creating outlines can degrade the text a bit, which is why I was hoping that for a logo tagline, for optimal quality, the file could be safely (and legally) transferred as an .eps with the tagline remaining in "live" text rather than outlines.

But I need to check that there isn't a further step during the saving of the .eps file to ensure that it's set to "preview and print". I did not change any settings during the save process that I know of.

Thanks!

[Tiki-Monger]

When converting text to outlines, you lose the hinting applied. That might be what Dov was referring to. It will look a little rougher on screen, but will print fine. The hinting is for improved on-screen viewing, so if this logo is for print, converting to outlines should not effect the print quality.

The hinting is very helpful for text in PDFs, web text, Office docs — anything with text that will be viewed on screen. Hinting is lost when converting text to an image in Photoshop. This would be required to save the logo for use on a website, for instance, since the EPS format is not compatible with the web.

Myriad Pro has fairly flexible embedding rights, as shared above by Kossos007.

In Illustrator CS6 (and probably previous versions), just check the box for "Embed fonts" when saving as an EPS. I think that should cover you, and the client should not need the fonts.

I'm not as familiar with the embedding options in Illustrator, however, as I am with Acrobat, where you have a lot more control over things like subsetting. Subsetting isn't required by Adobe's license, however, so that doesn't matter anyway.

Good luck!

Laurie (aka: Tiki-Monger)

[Tiki-Monger]

I always forget something!! Photoshop and Illustrator will apply anti-aliasing to text to make it look better on screen, as well, when you convert a logo (or any text) to an image. That's similar to what hinting does, yet different. You can get even better results if when applying anti-aliasing to hinted, non-outlined text. Here's some decent info and images of how these various settings effect your type on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_rasterization

Not my area of expertise, but I thought it might be relevant for you if your client asks for web ready versions of the logo.

Laurie

[dearmabel76]

Hi Dov,

Does the same apply for using "default" Adobe supplied brushes Strokes included with Illustrator?  As a basic example creating a logo with a square that used the Charcoal - Feather Art Brush stroke applied.  Are we ok to use this commercial use as well?

Would we need to include a copyright Adobe reference somewhere in our works if we used the Adobe fonts that came with Illustrator?

Cheers.

[Dov Isaacs]

There is no restriction on using any of the digital assets included with Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign as part of your design. And there is no requirement to provide attribution.

          - Dov