Font Licensing Restriction Issue

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Level 1

5 points

Font Licensing Restriction Issue

I recently transferred a lot of ttf and otf fonts (originally purchased for and used on a Windows NT machine) to Mac Book Pro. When I try to use the fonts in Abode CS5.5 (In illustrator) I'm told I need a license. Won't let me embed the fonts, for example, when saving to a PDF. (1) Is this a Mac issue or an Adobe issue? (2) How do I resolve?

The Illustrator message reads: "The font [name] could not be embedded in the PDF document because of licensing restrictions. Stroked text will not be visible."

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Feb 1, 2012 5:26 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 1, 2012 7:34 PM in response to tomfromaz

Basically, the creator of the font disallowed font embedding. This is generally something you find in cheap-o free fonts but others that are paid-for can have the same restriction.

One way around it is to simply outline the font in Illustrator Shift+Command+o (or Type menu at the top then choose "Create Outlines"). This will make the text non-editable but will no longer have that bit of text reliant on a font file and thus embedding restrictions. Doing this does increase the file size a bit but at the same time doesn't require separate font files.

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Answer 2

tomfromaz Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 1, 2012 7:52 PM in response to DeanFlory

Thanks for the response. Regarding embedding, I didn't have that issue at all when working on a Windows NT machine. Is it a situation where Mac and/or Adobe are now enforcing that restriction? If so, why wasn't it enforced on the Windows side (where I was using an older version of Adobe Illustrator)?

Unfortunately, outlines are not an option.

I'm willing to repurchase the fonts if necessary, but certainly there must be a workaround since the fonts in question have been used on the Windows side for a long time without difficulty.

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Answer 3

Feb 2, 2012 1:17 AM in response to tomfromaz

It may be the Mac is more up-to-date with font restriction enforcement, dunno, you may have to Google it. I've run into this for years, generally with free fonts, so before I am ready to produce the final PDF I just outline the font which works fine for print pieces of all sizes but not for online documents with many pages due to file size as the outline shapes are certainly larger in file size than font references based on shapes in fonts that can be embedded.

You may want to consider asking the font developer first before purchasing again as just repurchasing may not get rid of a "non-embed" setting in a file if that is what the font developer wants there.

So your options are: use your old Windows workflow, outline fonts, or contact the font developer. Nothing else anyone on discussion boards can do for you. 😎

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