Type1 Fonts are being phased out by Adobe and won’t be supported come January 2023. In this article, we will look at how to identify Type1 Fonts and how to remove them.
Type 1 Fonts are coming to an end in 2023. Identify them through name or by selecting them in Bridge and replace them.
If like me you have hundreds (maybe more!) fonts available, chances are some are Type1. There are so many fonts available, don’t panic that you have to delete your Type 1 Fonts.
What are Type 1 Fonts?
Type 1 Fonts first came into play in the early ’80s. They were generated to allow print on Apple Laserwriters and Postscript machines. It’s hard to believe they have lasted so long but alas Adobe is phasing them out due to their limitations.
- They generally come in more than one part which led to complications
- They only allow an 8 character name which led to hard to identify font names within a folder.
- The glyphs are limited to 258 shapes in a complete font
- They are not cross platform
The last reason is probably one of the most important as Adobe is very much a cross-platform suite in recent years, available on MAC and Windows. Technology has moved on significantly and Type 1 fonts are no longer suitable or a viable option.
How to Identify Type 1 Fonts?
So now we know where they came from, how do we identify them on our systems? There are a couple of ways to identify them. The first is in your Font Folder (Windows) / Font Book (Mac).
Open your folder – whichever OS you are using:
Windows:
Search Bar – Font Folder
MAC:
Fontbook
Each font on your system is listed as either:
OTF (Outline Font)
TT (True Type Font)
CC (Creative Cloud) or
T1 (Type 1)
Any of the Type 1 fonts will need to be removed from your system.
Adobe has already removed the support for Type 1 fonts from Photoshop in 2021 but many people have yet to be affected as they are still in use in other apps. However, in January 2023 the support will end for all Adobe products. A warning message can be seen in the interim.
The second way to identify is through your actual document files. If you open a new document in InDesign and open the Character Panel, all your active fonts are listed here. In the list on the right-hand side each font is identified by an icon. TT, O, a Cloud, or a T1.
If you have any T1’s listed you can then swap them out for another (O / TT or Cloud)
Go to Type – Find / Replace Fonts
Here you can find Type 1 fonts and replace them within the document.
There is another option which is worth doing before everything shuts down. That is to identify which documents or files on your system are using Type 1 fonts. Don’t leave it until January 2023. You won’t remember what the file format looked like, especially if like me you have hundreds (or maybe more!) of documents.
Find Type1 Fonts Through Bridge
All files within the Creative Cloud Suite will now show an error message at the bottom of the screen when you open the file – in a blue bar, if the file contains a Type 1 Font. But you can identify whole folders within Bridge through the search function.
Hopefully your filing system is somewhat organised. (i am a bit of a stickler for filing things correctly). Open Bridge. Select a Folder on your machine to be tested.
You won’t be able to tell by looking at the file icons whether or not they have Type 1 fonts but there is a handy Bridge function available.
Go to the Search Bar at the top. Choose the Current Folder option and Select Advanced Search
In the Find Panel then Select Criteria to be ‘All Metadata’ at the very end.
And in the Enter Text type in ‘Type1’, making sure there is no space.
Click on Find and any files within that folder that contain Type 1 Fonts will be shown. You can then make a note of the file name and open it to adjust the Type 1 Fonts to an alternative.
This is not something you’re going to change in five minutes, especially if you have a lot of files, and even more so if they are historical or archived files. So why do it at all I hear you say?
What’s Going to Happen in 2023?
The truth is that many files get created, go to print and are never opened or used again. But often I get requests from clients for ads that may have run in the past and the client wants it revamped or updated.
These are the files that are going to cause you grief.
Come January 2023 all Type 1 Fonts will display as ‘Missing Fonts’ which is ok if you remember how that font may have appeared in your original document but now it has the appearance of Myriad Pro or whichever your Default font is.
Some file fonts won’t be affected such as within PDFs or placed EPS files with Type 1 text fonts. But I strongly advise you to take heed of the ‘Blue Bar’ warning in your InDesign documents.
And remove any Type 1 fonts that may be on your system.
In Conclusion
Type 1 Fonts are coming to an end and it’s important to find appropriate replacement before January 2023 so you can still have working documents that don’t show missing font errors.
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