Do you get full Adobe Typekit with Creative Cloud subscription?

[CSmith1620]

Well, as the question suggests, I am trying to figure out if you get a full version of Typekit with your CC subscription (monthly) or the trial version and have to purchase a separate subscription (yearly) for Typekit. Nowhere that I can find is this specifically answered at Adobe.com. And no one at Adobe seems to be sure (talked to 6 people today and got a variety of answers and transfers to other departments).

While I have you, I also wanted to know if the fonts through Typekit are imbedded in your web project and upload with the project to your webspace or does the website have to draw the font from Adobe.com? If anyone has a link to a thorogh explanation of Typekit (not the Adobe one), I would love to read more about it. Review article?

In our situation we are using an outside vendor to create a website. We will host it but want to remain completely legal regarding type. Does the vendor have to have a Typekit subscription (or included in their CC subscription depending on the answer to my first question)?

Thanks in advance.

[liz, Adobe Type]

Hello,

Thanks for your interest in Typekit!  Your complete Creative Cloud subscription includes a Typekit Portfolio plan, which gives you access to all of the fonts in the Typekit library.  This plan allows for up to 500,000 pageviews/month, and you can use the fonts on an unlimited number of websites. 

The fonts are not uploaded to your web server; they are added to your page via the JavaScript embed code that we provide.  When a user visits a web page using Typekit fonts, the browser runs the embed code which loads the font files and CSS from the font network.  This screencast gives an overview of how to use Typekit, and you can read more technical details on the Typekit JavaScript in this blog post.

And, yes, you may also use the Typekit  fonts on a site that is your own content but hosted by an outside vendor.  In this case, you will just need to add the URL where the site is hosted to the domain listing on your kit.

I hope that this helps; let me know if you have any other questions!  You can also get in touch with Typekit Support directly at support@typekit.com.

Best,

-- liz

[Amos Keppler]

Can you download just a few of the fonts to your computer and install them "the old way" as part of your CC subscription to desktop publishing or web and stuff?

If we want to use the font ofr magazines/books and such, can we still use the fonts there if we should discontinue the cc subscription. A book doesn't go out of print these days.

[Dov Isaacs]

The Typekit fonts are available for use within not only the Adobe Creative Cloud applications, but also within other applications running on your computer while you are subscribed to the Adobe Creative Cloud. These fonts are also available for printing and creation of PDF files (the fonts so-embedded are available to anyone viewing or printing the resultant PDF files).

However, none of the Typekit fonts are installable “the old way” to to speak. You do not have access to the font files themselves and you cannot move them around, install them whenever you want, etc.

          – Dov

[CSmith1620]

Expanding on what Amos said, I think we understand that the fonts are available for applications on the computer. However, books can last for years and pdfs can circulate for a while as well. What happens if our subscription is stopped? How do we "use" the fonts if that happens? Or are we tethered to having to have a CC subscription in perpetuity?

[Dov Isaacs]

The use of the fonts embedded in PDF files (as well as any legacy format EPS) you generate from the documents while you have the subscription is preserved, regardless of whether you have a subscription going forward. There are no licensing issues at all for this usage.

However, if you don't maintain your subscription, you obviously would no longer have access to the Typekit fonts for these other applications and for that matter, you wouldn't be able to further edit InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop files, regardless of which fonts you use.

          – Dov

[CSmith1620]

I hate to put it bluntly, but this model does now tie any designer/company to having to have a CC subscription for life. I would assume that the model of actually owning fonts and software (InDesign, Photoshop, etc) is dead, unless you keep CS6 and your pre-TypeKit fonts, the former of which will eventually cease to work.

[Dov Isaacs]

Please understand that you never “owned” the fonts or software. You “owned” licenses for the fonts and software. Up until now, all these licenses were “perpetual licenses” which meant that your license had no fixed term, albeit given new, incompatible operating system releases and new hardware, the word “perpetual” was somewhat misleading. Given the cycles of new OS releases and availability of new hardware for which older software was not equipped to handle, “perpetual” tended to be something less than five years or so, especially on the Apple Macintosh platform.

That having been said, Typekit doesn't replace Adobe's Type Library which continues to be available for perpetual licensing. There are no plans to change that. If you need maximum flexibility in terms of font usage, Typekit might not be for you!

          – Dov