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."

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.

Similar Messages

Safe cs4 ai file with txt as pdf or at least with pdf compatibility. font licensing restrictions...

HI I have been trying to save PDF and ai file with PDF compatibility. I used the ai font brand new era outline G98 , and it shows me message that the font could not be embeded, and safe with PDF because of licensing restrictions....??? What do I do? I am not an expert in illustrator.

Radana,
This may be one for the Typography forum;
http://forums.adobe.com/community/design_development/typography?view=discussions&start=0
you may get the best possible answer from Dov there.

Myriad Roman/Italic - font licensing issue?

Dear all,
I'm asking your help regarding a small issue with the Myriad Roman and Myriad Italic font.
Today I opened an "old" document I created in a previous Illustrator version (CS 6). But when I wanted to save it into a pdf file, a bad message told me some parts of the file can't be saved due to font restriction: The font Myriad-Roman could not be embedded in the PDF document because of licensing restrictions. Stroke text will not be visible.
How can I manage this? I have a lot of documents with Myriad Roman or Italic in it, so this is very disturbing for me right now... :-/
Thanks in advance fo your help

The fact that you freely “downloaded” these fonts makes this all very suspicious.
Yes, you can replace these Myriad typefaces with the equivalent Myriad Pro OpenType typefaces, some of which were bundled with CS6 and earlier software. The investment in terms of modifying your content is relatively low if you have used styles appropriately and even if not, Illustrator will prompt you if a font is missing and let you globally replace (you would of course, remove those crufty, possibly hacked old Myriad typefaces first). If you don't have access to those previously bundled, the cost of getting a license for them in both $ and time is quite low compared to other alternatives.
- Dov

Font Licensing Issue

I've just been handed an InDesign file that has lots of text set in Futura Medium. This font was provided to me, and I installed it in Font Book. InDesign opens the file OK, but my first attempt at exporting a PDF (for the printer) results in an error message:
"1 problem was found with a background task:
Futura Medium: This font coudl not be embedded due to licensing restrictions in the font. As substitute font will be used if it supports the glyphs used in the restricted font. The PDF will nto be created if the glyphs cannot be represented."
So apparently I can't use their font, which is no surprise, eh? I went online and bought Futura Medium BT from MyFonts.com and installed it.
But how can I force InDesign to use the newly installed Futura Medium BT, without having to select every text instance using (the old, licensed) Futura Medium?
I would have thought removing the client's Futura Medium, restarting InDesign and opening the file again would force me to choose the NEW font I just installed, but it doesn't. YIKES!!! Now what do I do? If I can't export out a PDF that works, I'm stuck. (The resulting exported PDF has garbled text due to a substitute font being used. And the color fills are all black, too.)
Any suggestions? It would take forever to select each text block (on many different layers and pages) and change it to the newly installed Futura Medium BT.
Thanks!

Thank you, Steve.
I haven't changed any preferences or PDF settings since I recieved these project files.
This is the ink manager dialogue box:
I've never had to change anything in Ink Manager in my life, to be honest with you.
The default PDF export setting on my machine (Mac OSX 10.8, Adobe CS6) result in Pantone 1905C being represented as solid black.
Thanks again.

I get this message "Cannot save the file as the font "ArmenianLSU-italic" could not be embedded because of licensing restrictions. Turn off the pdf compatibility option and try again. I have this file from when I had CS4. It worked then. I trying to make

I get this message when I am trying to save a file that was done in CS4, now using CS6 "Cannot save the file as the font "ArmenianLSU-italic" could not be embedded because of licensing restrictions. Turn off the pdf compatibility option and try again." Even if I start a new file I unable to save it with this font. I need to use this font.

Then you need to outline all text before savng the PDF.
Make sure you do this on a copy of the file.

Won't embed font due to licensing restrictions

Trying to work with the Chinese font provided on a MAC called HeitiStd, however when I try to make a PDF I get the error message: won't embed font due to licensing restrictions.
Any idea how to work around this?
Cynthia

Thanks for the help. How do I get the font to re-install? It came with the computer. Is it on the original disks? Should I contact Apple? (I'm on a MAC).
Thanks for not treating me like an idiot and telling me to "use another font". That's pretty obvious and of course I tried that first, but the "other fonts" didn't show all the characters! I knew about the outline too, but needed to be able to edit the PDFs.

Can't use my own font due to license restriction?

I created my own font ("GoudyMusic") using fontlab.com | TypeTool3. When I try to 'print' to a pdf using Adobe PDF, I get:
%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[ Error: GoudyMusic cannot be embedded because of licensing restrictions. ]%%
%%[ Font vendor (Macromedia) does not permit this font to be embedded in PDF. ]%%
[Warning] The font GoudyMusic could not be embedded because of licensing restrictions.
Text may display incorrectly on platforms that do not have this font installed.
%%[ Error: invalidfont; OffendingCommand: show; ErrorInfo: CharOffsets º %%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Help help!
THANX!
william zeitler

Apparently fontlab.com's TypeTool3 does not allow you to set licensing, and it defaults to 'not-embeddable'.
You have to upgrade to Fontographer (another $300) to be able to set the licensing. Now that I've done that, it works.

Myriad Roman licensing restrictions on someone else's template:

Hello!
To elaborate - I'm working on a CD artwork, and I'd like to upload all the designs as PDFs. This is the first time I've done work on these documents on the computer I'm on now, and when I went to save my Illustrator file to a PDF after some new edits, I got a message that the font Myriad-Roman would not embed because of licensing restrictions. Where there used to be some text in the template, there is now just a bunch of gibberish.
I'm at a loss, because the font is not something I've placed in the document, it's a font that was part of the template I'm working with from disc makers. I don't know how to fix the issue, or how to get around it. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks.

Hi Dov,
While I'm not specifically sure about the font's origins, I am positive it is not part of the Myriad Pro family, as that has been a part of my font library since purchasing the Adobe CS6 package a couple of years ago, and has worked fine the whole time. From what I could tell in other searches and forum answers here, Myriad Roman is part of an older font package distributed by Adobe. With that being said, I may still be able to find something off if I check the file access privileges, so I will try that.
The reason I'm not sure how to resolve the issue is because the template is still vital as part of the files that I need to send off. I'm not familiar enough with their workflow to know whether or not changing something like that in the template could accidentally affect their ability to use the data to print the images. I think the chances of causing a problem by just changing the font in the template to Myriad Pro are small/negligible, but until I can contact the company tomorrow I won't know for sure.
My hope was that there was some kind of fix for the licenses/authorization, or that there was some original files I could buy/download to have the proper rights to use the font in the template and just not worry about it.
If you've got any other useful information that could help in those regards, I would be extremely grateful!
- Josh

Font licensing and EULA: Adobe Type Basics OpenType Edition

Hi all,
I'm not necesarilly working with graphic design daily. However, I may have to replicate a design for a publication that uses Adobe Garamond Pro, which is why I got interested in Adobe - Fonts : Adobe Type Basics OpenType Edition.
However, before I shell out the cash, I'd like to ask a few questions about related EULA's and font licensing issues - as the last thing I want to do is buy something, and then end up sued/financially destroyed/imprisoned anyways. (which is why I prefer with open fonts & software - at least no worries about prison, in case of misunderstanding the legalese)
So, here are the questions:
I am a Linux user, and I primarily intent to use the fonts with xelatex. On the download page, there are two options: "Win" and "Mac". Which one should I choose? Related question: Adobe Forums: Install a Mac font on a PC:Windows can use OpenType, Windows Type1 and Windows TrueType fonts. Windows cannot directly read Mac TrueType or Mac Type1 fonts.
Macintosh can use OpenType, Mac Type1, Mac TrueType, and Win TrueType. Adobe products can read some Windows Type 1 fonts if installed in the correct folder.
Versions - possibly unrelated, but I've found this old comment from 2003 for 'Adobe Type Basics 5.0 Mlp (CD-ROM)':Unfortunately, this product includes fonts in the older PostScript "Type 1" font format instead of the newer OpenType format. Adobe sells an OpenType edition of Adobe Type Basics, but this is a download-only product. I wish Adobe would sell the OpenType Edition on CD.... so just to make sure: I would definitely download the OpenType if I buy from the above Adobe - Fonts : Adobe Type Basics OpenType Edition link, right?
Re-download - the Adobe Type Basics page doesn't mention the file format of the download, nor its size. With bought fonts, I'd consider installing whatever I need for as long as project lasts, then deleting everything from my computer, since I don't like proprietary stuff sitting on it. Thus, I'd be interested in re-donwloading the Adobe Type Basics package. So is this package a zip file or similar, if so - how big is it? Can I download the file multiple times after purchase? Is the number of times I can redownload limited?
I may have to do (in a role of page layouter for an academic institution) a document for a relatively big academic publisher (Springer); and I have little idea about how font licensing works there. Let's say I prepare a PDF which uses Adobe Garamond Pro, and embeds that font. Is it legal for me to just send that document to the publisher for printing, if I had purchased the Basics OpenType edition? I'm worried because I found in Adobe Forums: Install a Mac font on a PC:As I understand it, print service providers are required by the font EULA to own the font even though the customer provides it.
I suggest you ask your customer to purchase the modern OpenType versions of the fonts. ... but then, Springer are "publishers", not "printers"? How worried should I be about this? Should I ask for confirmation in writing from them, that they own the particular embedded font? Then again, since in this case I'd be working for an academic institution as page layouter, should the academic institution also buy the font? If the academic institution already owns the font, am I legally obliged to own it as a page layouter (even if I'd use that font on the institutions computers with licensed fonts on them)? I'm pretty sure I'd be legally obliged to own it if I intend to prepare the layout on my own computer, is that correct?
The download page mentions for "End User License": 5 computers. Say I install one Adobe Garamond Pro on one computer, use it there for the duration of a project, and then delete it from the computer. Is this computer then still counted towards the number of seats?
Occasionally, I have my personal notes and such typeset in Latex, and here I send them to a printer (as in, "print service provider") to print 2-3 copies in softcover for personal use. As far as I understand it, this does not represent a "published" book (and so there isn't a "publisher" institution as in the Springer example above). So, in this case, again the same situation: let's say I prepare a PDF which uses Adobe Garamond Pro, and embeds that font. Is it legal for me to just send that document to the print house for printing, if I had purchased the Basics OpenType edition? How worried should I be about this?
Other neat related links I found:
Adobe Forums: Font EULA Question Re: Selling Logos;
Adobe Forums: font liscensing: upgrading from print to digital ...
Well, I believe this is all I have for asking (for now) - thanks in advance for any answers!

I am a Linux user, and I primarily intent to use the fonts with xelatex. On the download page, there are two options: "Win" and "Mac". Which one should I choose?
Related question: Adobe Forums: Install a Mac font on a PC:Windows can use OpenType, Windows Type1 and Windows TrueType fonts. Windows cannot directly read Mac TrueType or Mac Type1 fonts.
Macintosh can use OpenType, Mac Type1, Mac TrueType, and Win TrueType. Adobe products can read some Windows Type 1 fonts if installed in the correct folder.
If you want Adobe Type Basics OpenType edition, then the fonts support multiple platforms. OpenType fonts work on Mac, Win and Linux systems.
Versions - possibly unrelated, but I've found this old comment from 2003 for 'Adobe Type Basics 5.0 Mlp (CD-ROM)':Unfortunately, this product includes fonts in the older PostScript "Type 1" font format instead of the newer OpenType format. Adobe sells an OpenType edition of Adobe Type Basics, but this is a download-only product. I wish Adobe would sell the OpenType Edition on CD.... so just to make sure: I would definitely download the OpenType if I buy from the above Adobe - Fonts : Adobe Type Basics OpenType Edition link, right?
Yes, the Adobe Type Basics Open Type Edition would provide you with OpenType versions of the fonts. Sorry that we don’t offer all the different fonts, font families and variations on CD-ROM, but it would be cost-prohibitive to make all those versions, and font software is relatively small compared to application software. That said, Our font EULA (End User License Agreement) which can be found at: http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/legal/pdfs/wf_EULA071111/EULA5seat_USEnglish07.11.11.htm l states: “2.5 Backup Copy. You may make a reasonable number of backup copies of the Software, provided your backup copies are not installed or used for other than archival purposes.” So you can make your own CD-ROM.
Re-download - the Adobe Type Basics page doesn't mention the file format of the download, nor its size. With bought fonts, I'd consider installing whatever I need for as long as project lasts, then deleting everything from my computer, since I don't like proprietary stuff sitting on it. Thus, I'd be interested in re-donwloading the Adobe Type Basics package. So is this package a zip file or similar, if so - how big is it? Can I download the file multiple times after purchase? Is the number of times I can redownload limited?
The file format is OpenType (CFF). I would recommend making a backup copy of these fonts if you don’t want to keep them on your system. Our Electronic Software Download service is not meant to be used for storage.
I may have to do (in a role of page layouter for an academic institution) a document for a relatively big academic publisher (Springer); and I have little idea about how font licensing works there. Let's say I prepare a PDF which uses Adobe Garamond Pro, and embeds that font. Is it legal for me to just send that document to the publisher for printing, if I had purchased the Basics OpenType edition? I'm worried because I found in Adobe Forums: Install a Mac font on a PC:As I understand it, print service providers are required by the font EULA to own the font even though the customer provides it.
I suggest you ask your customer to purchase the modern OpenType versions of the fonts. ... but then, Springer are "publishers", not "printers"? How worried should I be about this? Should I ask for confirmation in writing from them, that they own the particular embedded font? Then again, since in this case I'd be working for an academic institution as page layouter, should the academic institution also buy the font? If the academic institution already owns the font, am I legally obliged to own it as a page layouter (even if I'd use that font on the institutions computers with licensed fonts on them)? I'm pretty sure I'd be legally obliged to own it if I intend to prepare the layout on my own computer, is that correct?
Wow! Lots of questions here. First of all, publishers publish. Printing is just one form of publishing. Embedding information for Adobe fonts can be found at the following:
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/legal/additional_licenses.html
http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/info/embedding.html
If you send a file to a print service provider and send a copy of the font along as well, then the printer needs to own a valid copy themselves. If you send the print service provider a PDF version of the file, then you can embed the font in the PDF (but you would not send the a raw version of the font). In this case, the printer doesn’t need the font, because it is embedded in the document.
The download page mentions for "End User License": 5 computers. Say I install one Adobe Garamond Pro on one computer, use it there for the duration of a project, and then delete it from the computer. Is this computer then still counted towards the number of seats?
If you buy a license for Adobe Garamond Pro, you have up to 5 seats. So, it can be installed on a maximum of five computers at your company. It is that simple to be in compliance. If you were to obtain Adobe Garamond Pro by purchasing Adobe Type Basics OpenType Edition, then you can install the entire set on up to five computers at your company. You are licensing the set, and the fonts cannot be split up and used across multiple users at your company.
Occasionally, I have my personal notes and such typeset in Latex, and here I send them to a printer (as in, "print service provider") to print 2-3 copies in softcover for personal use. As far as I understand it, this does not represent a "published" book (and so there isn't a "publisher" institution as in the Springer example above). So, in this case, again the same situation: let's say I prepare a PDF which uses Adobe Garamond Pro, and embeds that font. Is it legal for me to just send that document to the print house for printing, if I had purchased the Basics OpenType edition? How worried should I be about this?
Yes. It is legal to send the document to a print service provider with the font embedded in PDF. You are printing a document, and your interpretation of what it means to “publish” or be a “publisher” is not relevant. The words don’t even appear in our EULA.

Dolby Audio Decode Licensing Restriction

I have used the same video camera Canon which shoots AVCHD for 2 years now and had Adobe CS 5 Production Premium for Windows, CS 5.5 for Mac and now Creative Cloud on both a Mac and Windows 7 64 bit computer. No problems inputting the same footage week after week until about 2 months ago. Now on the Windows PC the audio in my video does not get conformed when videos are imported. Instead I get a "Dolby Audio Decode Licensing Restriction for <my path to .MTS file> This installation does not have a license to decode Dolby Digital audio.". Did Adobe put out a Creative Cloud update that broke something? I do not have this problem on the Mac. But the Windows PC is my video production machine and needs to be working again. Please help.

I unsintalled and reinstalled PP CS 6. When I imported the files again, 2 of them no longer gave the error and conformed the audio, but 2 other files gave a new error (forget what that one was) and did not conform. I got the camera back today as these were videos copied from the camera memory to SD card, then onto hard drive. Connecting the camera directly I was able to copy directly from the camera to my computer and when I import that file into PP, it can conform the audio no problem.
Also, one of the videos was supposedly corrupted and could not load at all that was copied from the SD card and was the same when reading the card directly from my Mac and PC. I was able to copy it directly from camera to hard drive and it imported with no issues.
Could it be that a bad sector on the SD card causes the video to be corrupted when copied, then transferred bad video to PC? Should that cause PP to throw this licensing issue though? Adobe should at least know under what coding circumstances they would throw such a specific error. Maybe it could instead say the audio in the video is corrupt or something. I will update this again if next time something different happens again.

Font licensing for eBooks (epub with @font-face)

Hello,
The ePub format supports - as you may know - the CSS2 @font-face, but Adobe's fonts aren't directly embeddable that rule.
At the moment, there are not FAQs or license terms specifically written for ePub (or other kind of ebook formats) so I'm going to refer to the currently available documents I found on the web.
A Typblography blog post (http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2010/10/web-font-licensing.html) clearly describes the difference Adobe sets between "embedding" and "serving" a font.
Epub format - unfortunately - lies in a sort of no man's land, because it is a zipped container of browsable documents (xhtml files, stylesheets, images, fonts), so it can be considered a self-contained and portable document, but at the same time, it doesn't protect the fonts from unauthorized use.
Also the Adobe Font Licensing FAQs (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/antipiracy/ff_faq.html) partially clarify the field of discussion.
The Adobe's proprietary font obfuscation feature, supported by Adobe Digital Editions, can be easily overridden with few lines of python code.
Adobe doesn't allow for @font-face embedding but let authors access to use its fonts via specialized web font services such as Typekit.com which can't be used by ePubs because of its offline nature.
My questions are:
Can I use an Adobe licensed font (i.e. Minion Pro) in an ePub ebook using @font-face?
What kind of license or agreement should be used?
Is there a dedicated contact for licensing-related issues (the [email protected] address just bounces back)?
Indeed, I can already download some ePubs featuring the Minion Pro typeface. I.e: "Il fu Mattia Pascal" edited by Mondadori (the most important italian publishing company) and freely downloadable from the LaFeltrinelli store (http://www.lafeltrinelli.it/products/9788852013089/Il_fu_Mattia_Pascal/Luigi_Pirandello.ht ml).
That makes me confident that an arrangement is possible, isn't it?
I hope to hear soon from you, as I'm writing also on behalf of some others italian ebook designers.
Thank you,
Matteo Balocco

Great question. Did you ever get a reply?
Steve

Font licensing for Air apps for iOS and Android

Hi all,
I'm trying to shift into the app design world after leaving academia and I'm currently working on a couple of 'portfolio' apps for some friends of mine. One thing I'm completely confused upon is Font Licensing and I'm really hoping someone can clear this up for me. From what I've seen on the net, it seems that a lot of people just use fonts and don't bother with any licensing. I've always thought that if the font is there to choose from in Flash/Photoshop etc then you can use it for whatever you want without concern - but I've never released anything to the 'public'. This doesn't seem to be the case though and from what I've seen, Font sellers expect thousands per year to use their fonts. Do all of those developers of free or low cost apps on the app store really pay tens of thousands of dollars each year for font licenses? How can they afford to?
I just want to use some nice looking fonts for some things and as a newbie to the app development world, I can't afford to pay crazy amounts for fonts. How should I limit my font choice and how do I know which fonts I can use? Also, I got an email recently about 'Adobe Typekit' soon being included in my Adobe CC subscription with access to thousands of fonts. What does this mean? There are loads of fonts on the Typekit website, does my CC subscription mean I can use any of those fonts to my heart's content or is it just some syncing thing?
I'd really appreciate some info on this as I'm completely confused and any discussions I've found about font licenses seem to be by people who either don't give a crap and use whatever fonts they find without paying a dime or people that have been using paid fonts for decades and 'just know' how everything works and so don't talk about it.

you can use any legally obtained adobe fonts for your commercial apps and you do not need a royalty or licensing fee.
with typekit fonts, you are restricted to using them only while your subscription continues.

Licensing restrictions on cloning databases

I've asked this in the Database forum, but I've not received any meaningful replies there. Apologies in advance if I'm repeating myself here to no good purpose.
We currently run Standard Edition 10.2.0.4. We use RMAN to clone a production environment to a different server and call that clone our test environment. We do the same thing to create development environments.
Our test & dev hardware is not especially great, however, so it was supposed that we could downgrade the licenses on those boxes to Standard Edition One (SE1), which would save us thousands each year. It was also suggested that we leave the production boxes at full Standard Edition.
We have been told, however, that if production is SE and test/dev is SE1, we cannot then legally use RMAN to clone from the one to the other. That our only choice at that point would be to use export/import techniques to move the data from the SE environment to the SE1 one.
I know licensing questions are awkward, and I'm not asking for a lawyer's opinion! I would just like to know whether anyone else has heard of or encountered this licensing restriction and has had, as a result, to use exp/imp or expd/impd instead of RMAN to create dev/test environments. Or is our informant completely misguided when he states that use of RMAN to clone between SE and SE1 environments would be outside the license terms for either?

As per Licensing terms what I know is as developer Licensing you can you the DB free of licence.
I do not see any problem moving your data to the development instance and do testing and developments.
If you are doing this as a parallel reporting requirement then you may face with licensing issue. There also if both you instance as active passive. (Always one instance is in passive mode) again you may not have to face this issue.
I am not sure about using rman that there is any restriction as such if you are facing such issues why don't you do a cold backup to do the cloning.(Shutdown the DB and copy the required files to start the other instance)
I hope you might have got some kind of a useful answered.
All the best..
Regards, Shaamil.
Edited by: A Shaamil on Apr 21, 2009 8:12 PM

Font Licenses for DPS App folios

I'm trying to get my head around font licenses for DPS apps. When publishing folios in PDF format isn't everything converted to images on export? I've found font licenses that have an app embed option but say that anything part of an "image" does not require an app embed license but rather just the regular user license. I understand that different foundries will have different licenses and agreements but any insight into general font use with DPS would be much appreciated. Currently my apps are iOS only but we may explore Android in the future.

Bob, I appreciate your quick reply and expanding on the Typekit licensing, which very clearly specifies where DPS is covered. Though, I was hoping for a little more effort in response, or inquiry as to how you can better address the question. I tried calling Adobe to see if I could get some quick answers, but I did not receive support and was redirected to use the forum.
I want to better understand the technical aspects of the DPS product so I can lean it against each foundries terms. Because the additional licenses are very expensive, literally thousands of dollars for myself and colleagues in some cases if we need something more than a desktop license. Neil answered it some above, but I need a little more clarity...
I have researched and contacted a few different foundries and none of them have been able to give me a sense of confidence that they really understand what is being done with DPS and I could only articulate it in part. One foundry said I need an unlimited ebook license. Another said I need to buy a new ebook license for each digital magazine issue and also possibly an app license as well.
A specific case is with FontSpring.com. They said I need an unlimited ebook license, but their terms say a desktop license includes embedding the font in a PDF and then selling that PDF. But when I asked about it a little further, they interpreted DPS published magazines in PDF format as needing an ebook license as well because of how it is produced and delivered to mobile devices, with the addition of slideshows, etc..
Please help me understand and I'd like your opinion: When I create digital folios with DPS and the article format is PDF, should the product just be considered another method of delivering PDF content (even though it's going through an app and delivered to mobile devices)? Or is it something more? As Neil said, the fonts aren't evenly fully embedded, but rather a subset. Most places are trying to tie it into ebook licensing because it seems like more than a PDF that is sold, and it jumps pricing way up. Is it really more than a PDF and more like an ebook?
Thank you.

Font licensing questions

I have been searching around and trying to confirm a few things that I *think* I know but it's all very confusing to me:
- My client wants to publish an ebook, which will actually just be a PDF displayed online (rather than a Kindle ebook, etc.). It would likely be downloaded by others, though, for a fee. They would get access to the PDF both online and offline (if they purchase it). We haven't chosen a font, but will probably go with a standard system font (minion, myriad, etc.). Assuming we go with an Adobe font, are we covered legally to use the typeface in this way?
- Am I correct in telling the client that if we use a system font (say, minion), and they have it on their computer as well, they may also use it for their further commercial purposes without worrying about getting a license? I understand that a license would come into play only if they did NOT have the font on their computer.
- What about for web use? if we wanted to use a standard font like minion for their website, would we need a separate license? I'm not a web designer -- I focus on static graphics -- but if they hire a web designer later, I want to make sure they can still follow their style guide, which by that point will be suggesting specific fonts to use.
THANKS for any insight.

First of all, rules for any particular font depend on the EULA (End User License Agreement) associated with each particular font. The licences and rules for fonts sourced from Adobe are in many cases much more lenient than those of other font vendors.
In the case of any fonts sourced from Adobe Systems Incorporated directly (either bundled with Adobe applications or licensed from Adobe via its website, etc.), there is no issue whatsoever with regards to embedding such fonts in PDF or EPS files. Thus in your first case, a PDF-based ebook, you are OK. There are no additional license or royalty fees to use and embed fonts you licensed from Adobe in such publications.
Make no assumptions about so-called system fonts. And by the way, the Minion family from Adobe is absolutely not such a system font; if it is installed on your system, it is there either by virtue of it being bundled with Adobe applications or explicitly installed by you after licensing it from Adobe. The fonts installed on MacOS or Windows by the operating system itself or by Microsoft Office (for example) are not “free fonts.” They are subject to the licensing terms of Microsoft or Apple or possibly whoever provided those fonts to Microsoft or Apple. Again, make no assumptions.
Web use is more complicated. If you are rastering text into a .png or .jpg file for display on a web page using Adobe fonts, you have no further licensing issues. If you are trying to use “live type,” then a whole additional set of licensing issues come up. You should look at <http://www.adobe.com/products/type/font-licensing/licensing-faq.html> for an FAQ that explains web font usage. Adobe explicitly offers solutions for web use at <http://www.adobe.com/products/webfont.html> with additional information on how to license and use fonts on websites.
Hopefully this gives you the information you need.
- Dov

Font Licensing Restriction Issue

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