Comments on: CS4 Live Preflight Best at Checking for Font Embedding Problems

By: Roland

Roland — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:18:55 +0000

I’m with both Bob and Branislav. If a client wants to use a particular font and I don’t have it, I tell them to either outline the text (if possible, which it often isn’t since a lot of them use MS Office), send the font to me or let me pick a replacement, but I’d rather they pay for good fonts instead of scouring those “free fonts” sites with lousy rip-offs or low quality, unembedable (is that a real word?) fonts.

If fonts are actual freeware for personal use only, I can sort of understand this type of protection, but if a font is meant to be used in a professional manner it’s indeed making the font useless and people should (and hopefully will) look for alternatives. God knows there are plenty of those in most cases.

By: Bob Levine

Bob Levine — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:18:42 +0000

Let’s face it…nobody is going to show up at your door and arrest you for outlining fonts, but I still prefer to honor an EULA or not use the font.

I think if everyone simply stopped using these types of fonts the embedding restrictions would go away, anyhow.

With those restrictions in place those fonts are essentially worthless.

By: Branislav Milic

Branislav Milic — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:35:46 +0000

Hi Bob,

The United States legislation does not protect a typeface as it protects a song or a movie. If a client tells me : “pls use this font”, I will do everything I can to make it printable.

By: Kajorn Bhirakit

Kajorn Bhirakit — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:44:58 +0000

THANKS for your show my Thai Font, Yes this font not allow to embedding.

By: Bob Levine

Bob Levine — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:57:57 +0000

Unfortunately, for the most part those solutions are probably going to be a violation of the font license.

Most fonts that forbid embedding also forbid the use of outlining or rasterizing them and sending the font to an unlicensed party is also going to be a violation of most licenses.

By: Branislav Milic

Branislav Milic — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:33:42 +0000

Three soultions :

- send the font along with the INDD file or the PDF to the service bureau
- vectorize the font manually but ID behaves oddly in some cases
- vectorize fonts on the fly using a specific flattening preset.

The last two solutions should be avoided if you print on a digital press, the resolution of theses printers is still too low and it will bold the vectorized characters.

Thus send along the font with the prepress files.

By: Roland

Roland — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:50:36 +0000

I tend to collect fonts, only deleting them from my system when I find they have problems or have become useless, re-installing them all after getting a new computer or upgrading my OS.
Needless to say I’ve run across unembedable fonts in Illustrator and InDesign a bunch of times.

This tip will be a great time saver in InDesign should I run across another one of those annoying fonts.