Type 1 to Open Type: Adobe policy?

[wadcorp]

As a (somewhat) older designer, I have quite a number of fonts puchased from Adobe that are all Type 1 Postscript fonts.

Now we have Apple sending out notices that these fonts will no longer be supported as of 1 January 2023.

Does Adobe have an upgrade policy? I have copies of many of my receipts. A concern is that I'm not seeing anything listed in my current Adobe account as to having previously purchased them. More concerning, Helvetica Neue is nowhere to be found. That was not an inexpensive package to purchase.

Any information would be welcome. 

[Dov Isaacs]

Although we have heard rumors for years, we haven't seen any announcement or press release from Apple with regards to discontinuance of support for Type 1 fonts. Do you have a pointer to such an announcement? Or can you provide us with whatever “notice” Apple may have sent you?

With regards to the ramification of Adobe's discontinuance of Type 1 support for editing or adding text in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Framemaker, see https://community.adobe.com/t5/type-typography/announcement-adobe-ends-support-for-type-1-fonts-for-... and more specifically https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/postscript-type-1-fonts-end-of-support.html where issues of upgrades, etc. are discussed.

Font license purchases other than the Adobe Font Folio (a fairly expensive compendium of all fonts licensed by Adobe up until about 9 years ago) were never listed under your Adobe account since there were no serial numbers associated with same. Upgrades for the Type 1 font versions of Adobe Font Folio were available years back; I don't know if such upgrades are available now. You would need to call Adobe to get such information.

Most of the Type 1 fonts licensed by Adobe years ago that were actually created and owned by Adobe under the category of “Adobe Originals” are available in OpenType CFF format via the Adobe Fonts service. You can't download the fonts, but the service does allow you to access such fonts on your desktop and mobile devices and to embed within PDF files. The other individual fonts in that library (such as Helvetica Neue) were licensed by Adobe from other type foundries who may offer discounts. See the URLs above for some specific information.

You should also look at the article (and responses to same) at https://creativepro.com/how-to-convert-postscript-fonts-to-opentype-with-transtype/ with regards to methods of converting Type 1 to OpenType CFF under circumstances in which the fonts' EULAs permit such conversions.

[wadcorp]

My mistake. I typed “Apple” when I meant to type “Adobe”.  Here is the article in question:

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

While I understand that many of these fonts in question I purchased in the 1990s, I would think Adobe would be tracking my purchases. As I mentioned, I do have copies of many of the invoices from when I bought them. Just surprised there isn’t an upgrade option. I’ve approached other Foundries, some who have sent me updated copies of the fonts, others who have said, “Too bad. You have to purchase them all over again.”

Will take a look at the Creative Pro article you listed above. 

I’m just trying to keep everything legit.

.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the correction. We do try to keep up on things and hadn't heard anything about Apple announcements (although we and others have been hearing rumors for years).

No, Adobe didn't track purchases of font licenses since the fonts were not serialized in any way and many were licensed via third party vendors; there was nothing to register. (Only Font Folio was serialized and products registered!)

And we really do appreciate you “trying to keep everything legit.”

You should find the creativepro article (and my two responses to that article) very useful, perhaps providing a low-cost solution to your needs.