Adobe Ends Support of Type 1 Fonts in 2023 Update
Big changes are coming to Adobe products in 2023. The Type1 font format, which was originally designed by Adobe, will be officially discontinued. Adobe ends support of Type 1 fonts after the update of its 2023 software.
Adobe first created the Type1 format in 1984. It was used with Postscript applications and became more widely used as desktop publishing software became popular.
The counterpart to Type1 fonts is the OpenType format. This format was created jointly by Microsoft and Adobe on top of its TrueType predecessor in 1997. This format has been improved and updated over the last few decades and has become the choice format for Adobe. By the end of 2022, all of Adobe’s font library had been converted to OpenType.
REASON BEHIND THE STOP OF SUPPORT
So why the drop of Type1 fonts? Well, this has been a long time coming. Adobe has been concentrating most of its efforts on developing OpenType since 1996. Support for Type 1 fonts has already been dropped by most web browsers and mobile operating systems. Type 1 fonts stopped being an industry standard many years ago and most users have already switched to an OpenType or TrueType alternative to their favorite fonts.
The transition will happen with an update to the 2023 versions of the Adobe software. The updated versions will no longer accept the Type 1 fonts and will trigger a missing font warning. This means that you can no longer create new projects using the Type1 font. Specifically for printing, the use of the outdated font will look like a “dropped font” on an exported PDF.
HOW TO FIX THE ERROR
The error is easy enough to fix. Find an OpenType or TrueType version of the font to download and use. Or don’t update to the 2023 version of Adobe software. Older versions of Creative Cloud applications will still support these fonts, but many operating systems are taking cues from Adobe and ending support for Type 1 fonts soon. At some point, even older versions of Creative Cloud applications will no longer support Type 1 fonts.
Embedded Type 1 fonts in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) files will still display after support is dropped, but you won’t be able to make any text edits; non-embedded fonts in these file formats will be replaced with default fonts instead.
Adobe has built-in tools that make it easy to update the fonts to a compatible OpenType version. Type 1 fonts will show as missing with a prompt window that appears when a file is opened. From this prompt simply click “Find Fonts” and you can choose which missing fonts to replace. This will allow the missing Type 1 font to be updated throughout the whole document.
Alternatively, you can access the missing font interface through the Type drop-down menu if you do not get a missing font prompt. Follow the Type drop-down and click “Find/Replace Font.”
FINDING NEW FONTS
Finding OpenType or TrueType versions of popular fonts is easy enough to find. Adobe’s integrated font library, Adobe Fonts, is full of compatible fonts. Adobe Fonts is a free service that comes with a Creative Cloud subscription. There are other online font libraries that offer many compatible fonts such as DaFont, FontSquirrel, and FontSpring. Modern Litho has also gathered a small resource of some of our favorite free fonts.
As long as fonts are upgraded to OpenType or TrueType there should be no issues with printing after the 2023 change.
