Adobe Ending Support For Type 1 Fonts...

[prepressdork]

Hi all,

I thought this was worth mentioning (forgive me if this has already been posted on here).

PostScript Type 1 fonts end of support

Adobe will disable support for authoring with Type 1 fonts in January 2023

helpx.adobe.com

Best regards,
pd

 

[DYP]

There is software out there to easily convert them to Opentype or TrueType.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

Some Further Information With Regards to Deprecation of Type 1 Fonts:​

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 previously announced deprecation of 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.
   
   
7. The amount of work to replace a Type 1 font with an OpenType font may be considerable, even if the “replacement font” has the same exact name (most don't, by the way) due to the OpenType fonts using Unicode encoding which affects the mapping of symbolic characters. Also note that for Type 1 fonts, small caps, old style figures, swash characters, non-Western Latin characters, etc. were often in different typefaces than the “regular” typeface. In OpenType, all the characters are in one big honk'in typeface.

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.

- Dov Isaacs, Principal Scientist, Adobe

 

[michaelejahn]

Thanks Dov !

 

[kdw75]

We have a few hundred Linotype Type 1 fonts. After doing some Google searches, I can't find any info on them offering any type of free or paid upgrade options.

I had read that simply converting, wasn't optimal and could cause undesirable results.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

For better or worse, virtually no font foundry currently offers “free or paid upgrade options” for Type 1 fonts that they licensed in the somewhat distant past. (Remember that OpenType CFF and OpenType TTF fonts were introduced at the start of the current century, over 20 years ago! It has been quite a few years since any major font foundry has offered fonts in Type 1 format!)

The good news is that at least in terms of what one may call “classic” Linotype Type 1 fonts, there are newer versions of such fonts that can be licensed through various Monotype-controlled vendors either in OpenType CFF or OpenType TTF format (OpenType CFF is effectively a Type 1 font, Bezier outlines, in an OpenType wrapper. OpenType TTF is effectively a TrueType font, quadratic outlines, in an OpenType wrapper). The good news is that such newer versions typically have major improvements such as Unicode encoding, improved metrics, built-in ligature and alternate character support (small caps, multiple figure types, etc.) that can be automatically used by modern layout programs and word processors, as well as often dramatically extended character sets supporting multilingual documents. In some cases, the actual design of some glyphs within a font have been updated or “improved.”

On the other hand, with such changes, depending upon the existing content you have, you may find either minor or major layout changes and possible character encoding issues when migrating from an a Type 1 to an OpenType version of what purports to be the same font. (This is the primary reason that most font foundries gave an updated name to the OpenType version of the same design!) In general, at least in terms of font metrics compatibility, if you migrate from a Type 1 font, you should license an equivalent font in OpenType CFF format.

In terms of “simply converting” you should be aware that many if not most font EULAs (End User License Agreements), especially for fonts from Linotype or any of the foundries owned by Monotype, specifically prohibit such conversions by licensees, (Note that I am not a lawyer!) In terms of such conversions, you can expect some possible text relayout due to differences in interpretation of metrics. You certainly won't have access to OpenType features that weren't available in the original Type 1 font format.

For better or worse, I would personally advise that you bite the bullet and license current equivalent versions of your old Type 1 fonts, understanding that you will need to carefully review any text formatted with the new fonts.

- Dov Isaacs