🚀 go-pugleaf

Kyle,

Aside from the way many people perceive font software, there is also no particular consistency for how licensing works across foundries. So, there you are with a 32-page document, 14 different fonts from 5 different foundries, each with different EULAs, and you need to get the document to the printer now to make your client's deadline...

...with the inability to temporarily transfer some of those fonts to your printer simply for output, with his promise of destruction of the fonts upon successful plating. It could be a nightmare for even the most fastidious designer who might have 1,500-2,000 fonts or more, from two dozen different foundries to keep tabs on what he or she has, and what each font's specific licensing allows.

So, the only reasonable option then becomes to make a PDF of the final document, with embedded fonts. But, then, because of a few foundry restrictions, you find that some fonts cannot even be legally embedded.

Of course, you can generally have fonts tag along with your files for output if the service provider has the same font(s) from the same foundry(ies). Aside from perhaps the Adobe library, one cannot expect the local printer to have the font resources of myfonts.com sitting in a cabinet in his office.

So, there is no clear-cut, universal answer to the problem.

Trust that this is a difficult position for Adobe (and other foundries) to be in with their loyal licensed software users; having to balance protection of their intellectual property along with attempting to provide fair-use access to their software.

Personally, I would prefer the sheer convenience of an across-the-board simplification of type foundry EULAs to allow for the short-term/temporary transfer of fonts to legitimate service provider businesses (with the promise of destruction upon output; but not to colleagues, friends, or clients.

Neil