Retirement is looming for Type 1 Fonts

Since 2021 designers have been preparing for the retirement of Type 1 fonts, when Adobe announced that they would pull support for Type 1 fonts in Photoshop and end support across all Adobe products in January 2023.

What is a Type 1 font?

Type 1 fonts are an early format created by Adobe in 1984 when desktop publishing was in its infancy. Apple started supporting the technology, along with Aldus PageMaker in 1985.

Throughout the 90’s Type 1 fonts continued to be designed and developed by individuals and companies, but by the end of the decade, creative software developer Adobe, stopped developing Type 1 fonts and in 2000 introduced its own OpenType fonts, a format developed by Adobe and Microsoft. Many developers then started converting old Type 1 fonts to more widely supported formats. By 2005, it was difficult to find Type 1 fonts.

What will happen when Type 1 fonts retire?

You may not be affected by the retirement of Type 1 fonts, but It depends where and why these fonts are being used. Most major software applications, open-source libraries, and mobile platforms already do not support Type 1 fonts. 

However, if you use Adobe Creative Suite programs like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, the fonts will become unavailable to use upon retirement and will not appear in the in-program font list. Plus, any file that contains a Type 1 font will trigger Adobe's "Missing Font" error when opened within an Adobe program.

File formats such as EPS and PDF files, will be unaffected by the change, provided that they are being placed for display or printing as a graphic element. This means old PDF documents can be viewed and printed but not edited in applications like Photoshop or Illustrator.

What do you need to do?

If your corporate style has not changed for many years, you may still have Type1 fonts in use in your branding and printed marketing.  Marketing materials will need to be updated by substituting new fonts, which will require the entire document to be proofread, checked for spacing, line breaks and any layout changes. This provides a great opportunity to ask your designer or agency to review and refresh your branding both on and off line.