Announcement – Adobe Ends Support for Type 1 Fonts for Content Editing & Creation

[Dov Isaacs]

Adobe has announced its intention to end support for Type 1 fonts in January 2023. The full announcement may be found at Type 1 Font Announcement. We strongly recommend that any user of Adobe Creative Cloud applications as well as Adobe FrameMaker read this announcement and plan accordingly.

While you can continue using Type 1 fonts until January 2023, we encourage you to explore alternative fonts in the interim so that you can make a smooth transition when support for these fonts is removed.

Some further considerations and clarifications:

(1)    Adobe has already deprecated support for Type 1 fonts in Photoshop in 2021. Microsoft totally eliminated support for Type 1 fonts in Microsoft Office on Windows a number of years ago.

(2)    Type 1 fonts are an integral part of the PostScript and PDF specifications . Neither PostScript nor PDF are affected by this announcement. PostScript, Adobe PDF Print Engine, and Adobe Embedded Print Engine-based RIPs/DFEs and printers will by definition continue to support Type 1 fonts.

(3)    Adobe PDF-based products including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat Standard, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and the Adobe Mobile Readers (iOS and Android) will continue to support the display, printing, and text editing of PDF files using Type 1 fonts. This is required by the ISO PDF specification.

(4)    Even with the deprecation of Type 1 font support in applications such as InDesign, Illustrator, and FrameMaker in January 2023, you will still be able to place EPS and PDF content with embedded Type 1 fonts into these application documents and subsequently be able to display, print, and export PDF content from same.

(5)    The Adobe Fonts service never has supported Type 1 fonts in any manner whatsoever. Thus, if you are using fonts from Adobe Fonts, you are not affected at all by this announcement!

(6)    The announcement applies strictly to new releases beginning in January 2023. It does not affect support for Type 1 fonts in earlier releases. Thus, you can continue to use Type 1 fonts for editing legacy documents after January 2023. Of course, given the continual incompatible operating system updates by Apple for MacOS and increasingly by Microsoft for Windows, the ability to run these older versions may be limited as time goes on. Furthermore, it is possible that Apple and Microsoft may also discontinue support for Type 1 fonts in the future.

The  bottom line is that we are encouraging users of Adobe products to examine existing source documents (i.e., not PDF or EPS with embedded fonts) for use of Type 1 fonts and make appropriate formatting updates as soon as possible to minimize problems beginning in January 2023.

[Met1]

If enough people complain Adobe might offer a discounted route to 11...

[JoBo]

It's almost like they dont want to help the customers with this problem...or maybe they dont want to have anything to do with this kind of complex issues. I think they just will ignore us and letting us do whatever we feel is the most convenient thing to do. 

[Met1]

Well, you didn't hear this from me, but there's this thing called the interWebs where everything is available... allegedly...  ;-}

[Carol F Metzger]

Is it breaking a EULA to convert a font format? Show me that part of the fine print.

[Met1]

I'm not going to read something I'm not going to uphold!

I said "if you're not averse to breaking EULAs..." - it may or may not apply to you, like speed signs... but people do get caught speeding..

[Abambo]

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@Carol F Metzger wrote:
Is it breaking a EULA to convert a font format? Show me that part of the fine print.

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Read the Eula. It's depending on the Eula that came with your font product. And there may be laws allowing you to convert in certain cases, even when the Eula prohibits it. But you won't find the answer here.

[JoBo]

We buy everything we use..if the companys be buy from want us to buy. In this case they wont. 

[Abambo]

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@JoBo wrote:

We buy everything we use..if the companys be buy from want us to buy. In this case they wont. 

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I'm using tha Adobe fonts service. If a company wants a special font, either they buy it for us or we buy it and charge it either in the totals, if it is a big job or as an add on if it is a smaller job.

[Jonas Bohlin]

The big job in this case, is the impossible task to get Adobe to make it easy to supply us with OTF fonts instead of the Type1 Font Folio 7 font that we have allready bought. The CC font area is another way of getting fonts, and we use it as we should. 
I suspect that the type1 problem would be too much work for Adobe if the make it easy for the costumers to buy and convert to OTF. If it's a big job for us, it's going to be a big job for Adobe.

[Abambo]

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@Carol F Metzger wrote:

No kidding. Another $3K for fonts you already own? Yes, one does upgrade software from time to time. But that's a lot all at once.

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If you have Type1 fonts, they will be soon obsolete. 

[Met1]

TransType... if you're not averse to breaking EULAs...

[adamtwar]

My understanding is that the you are legally allowed to use an app such as TransType to convert the Type 1 fonts from the Adobe Font Folio package into OpenType, provided that you then use the resulting OTF fonts according to the terms of the original EULA. From the Adobe Font Folio 11 EULA:

»14.7.4 You may convert and install the font software into another format for use in other environments, subject to the following conditions: A computer on which the converted font software is used or installed will be considered as one of your Permitted Number of Computers. Use of the font software you have converted will be pursuant to all the terms and conditions of this agreement. Such converted font software may be used only for your own customary internal business or personal use and may not be distributed or transferred for any purpose, except in accordance with Section 4.4 of this agreement.«

[Jonas Bohlin]

How about Font Folio 7?

[adamtwar]

Jonas, 

if you have FontFolio 7 (I don’t), please kindly check its EULA and share your findings. 🙂 

[Carol F Metzger]

Well, I removed all the Type 1 fonts from Suitcase and stored a backup, to see how well I could get along without them. 
But I am not actively serving multiple clients. 

[Jonas Bohlin]

Lucky you 🙂

[Ignatius Fay]

Is there a relatively easy way to identify which of my typefaces are type 1 without examining each individually? Then I could get on with replacing them.

Thanks in advance.

Ignatius

[Abambo]

Is there a relatively easy way to identify which of my typefaces are type 1 without examining each individually? Then I could get on with replacing them.

Thanks in advance.

Ignatius

By @Ignatius Fay

Windows: Open type fonts have the extension .OTF, True Type fonts .TTF.

Type 1 fonts have a triplet of .AFM/.PFB/.PFM extensions. .PFM is the Type 1 font file, the other 2 are helper files.

Applications like InDesign tell you about the problematic fonts. You will need to be careful with upgrading, the 2023 version will not support Type 1 any more. I suggest that you check all current files for Type 1 use and to replace those files with their respective OTF counterpart. Font names will probably change slightly.

https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/postscript-type-1-fonts-end-of-support.html

[Joan24767899qssl]

I hate to be the only person who is a bit upset by all this...I've been using Macs for over 20 years. Fonts migrated from computer to computer with little or no problem. I actually have clients from a decade ago that will need something done to an old file before reprinting. If the font will not be called out with the name of what is missing like it does now (am I wrong??) this is going to be very difficult. After 20 years I don't even know what I actually own or where I would have kept that information. Any suggestions for people that are 'vintage' users??

[Abambo]

Sorry about that, but Adobe did support the depreciated Type 1 fonts for now about a quarter-century, after the successor technology was available. My only counsel I can give you is to keep an old version (the now current) of InDesign and Illustrator on your machine(s), just in case it will be needed.

[JoBo]

Ok, but how long do you think that older versions (todays versions) of Indesign will be able to log in to CC?

[Abambo]

Ok, but how long do you think that older versions (todays versions) of Indesign will be able to log in to CC?

By @JoBo

A macOS computer will drop the support to the programs probably earlier than Adobe. You just should not delete the installation, as Adobe supports only installing the 2 latest major versions and any minor version of the current version.

[Joan24767899qssl]

Thank you, my new computer will only load the current iCloud Adobe products which is so unfortunate on it's own. This had all gotten really frustrating. No longer have the old computer hardware...they had to break it open to get the drive out...long story.

[Abambo]

The now current versions of Adobe software, except for Photoshop, still support Type 1 fonts.

[Joan24767899qssl]

Well then I'm totally confused because when I open them (to place in a project) I get a message that they will not be supported as of 2023...and have read that when a file is opened the Missing Font window will not show anything at all, which I think is pretty awful. Some of my job pdfs go back some years and I have to update them very periodically. I don't have record of 20 years of what was purchased from who and when to go back and get some kind of update. Over decades I've had several computers that the fonts have migrated through. Not a happy customer at all.