If you have a Type 1 font family with the extra special fonts for ligatures, small caps, old style figures, non-Western Latin character sets, etc., those fonts will not be consolidated in any way. (2) Converting Type 1 fonts will not give you special OpenType features such as automatic ligature support, alternate characters, small caps, multiple numeric styles, and especially Unicode support. There may be some subtle differences between how font metrics are interpreted for Type 1 versus OpenType CFF fonts. (1) You may encounter some reformatting issues in terms of spacing, line breaks, and pagination. If you choose to “convert” your Type 1 fonts to OpenType CFF fonts via TransType (and I assume that your fonts’ EULAs permit this) or other similar applications and/or services, be aware of a few “issues” that you may encounter: Be forewarned, that at some point Microsoft and/or Apple may decide to eliminate some or all support for Type 1 fonts. Microsoft has already totally eliminated support for Type 1 fonts in the Windows version of Microsoft Office.
(4) In support of (3) above, all Adobe Acrobat software supporting reading, display, printing, creating, editing, and other PDF file manipulation with Type 1 fonts will continue for the long term. They are not “going away” and you can count on indefinite support for them in PDF files for the long term!
(3) Type 1 fonts are an integral part of the ISO PDF specification. Ironically, for PostScript printing, OpenType CFF fonts are converted to Type 1 fonts and OpenType TTF fonts are converted to Type 42 fonts when the PostScript is created by the applications (or drivers). It doesn’t actually directly support OpenType fonts anyway. The content will properly display, print, and export with those embedded Type 1 fonts intact. (1) You will continue to be able to place content in PDF or EPS format with embedded Type 1 fonts into InDesign, Illustrator, and FrameMaker documents. The folks at FontLab have also produced a video on the process of converting Type 1 fonts to OpenType.Īdobe will continue to fully support Type 1 fonts in the following situations: But since PostScript fonts lasted this long, you probably won’t have anything to worry about for another quarter century or so. Well, at least until something comes along to replace OpenType. To make the conversion, simply select a Profile and a Destination and click the button. TransType will show you a map of all the glyphs in the font, which you can export as a PDF for reference. You can also rename fonts and organize them by merging or separating families, and tweak the appearance of the font with effects such as tracking, smoothing, width, slant, and so on. You can map styles like bold and italic as needed by dragging them to the desired positions in the window. If there are any problems with your old font files, the program will alert you. To begin the conversion process, drag and drop your old font(s) into the window.
TransType will remind you to check your license before making any conversions, and display any license info embedded in the font files in the main window. Many commercial font licenses explicitly prohibit modifying the font files. In fact, the main hurdle to updating your font library isn’t technological, it’s legal. The process of converting a Type 1 font with TransType could hardly be simpler.
TransType 4 is available for both Mac and Windows for $97. My favorite option is TransType by FontLab Ltd, Inc., the purveyors of, FontLab, Fontographer, and other high-quality font-related software.
If you find yourself in that situation with some of your mission-critical fonts, there are a few different programs you can use to convert old Type 1 fonts to OpenType. And while I think we can all admit that the Type 1 format is antiquated, those fonts are still in use by some folks and in some cases, OpenType versions simply do not exist. Adobe recently announced that they would be ending support for PostScript Type 1 fonts in their applications as of January 2023.