=========================================================================== Font Licensing Issues for Acrobat PDF Files: (file: acrobat.txt) =========================================================================== Font Licenses: -------------- SINGLE END USER FONT LICENSE: Provides for use on one display screen and one hardcopy output device. See license envelope of specific font set for details. SERVICE BUREAU: It is customary to allow embedding of fonts in a PostScript files sent to a service bureau preparing final output - provided the service bureau does not extract and retain the font. SITE LICENSE TERMS: Generous terms available if a font is to be used on more than one display screen and/or more than one hardcopy output device. For example, a font set can be used on up to five display screens and up to five printers if just two standard end user licenses are purchased. SECOND PLATFORM: A 30% discount applies on font license for a second platform. Acrobat PDF files and PostScript files containing embedded fonts: ----------------------------------------------------------------- FONT PROGRAMS ARE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: They may not be copied or distributed. Consequently, PostScript files and Acrobat PDF files containing *complete* fonts may not be sent to other users, may not be published on CD-ROMs or made available via FTP or WWW. However, Acrobat PDF files containing *incomplete* fonts may be sent to individual end users if certain rules are followed (see below). Further, individual end users may make Acrobat PDF files of *their own* articles available on WWW or via FTP, *provided* the PDF files are made according to these rules. See below. This provision does not apply to electronic publishing by companies and organizations such as publishers, university departments, industrial research laboratories --- nor to books or conference proceedings. Electronic publishing licenses are available for publishing books, conference proceedings, journals and articles in Acrobat PDF form on the InterNet via WWW or FTP, and separately for publishing books on CD-ROM. In each case, the Adobe Acrobat Distiller has to be set up appropriately (see below for details). Described here are some of the issues and current policy: (1a) Individual end user to individual end user: ------------------------------------------------ An Acrobat PDF file made *according to the rules* described below in `How to Make Conforming Acrobat PDF Files' may be sent to another individual. PDF files made in other ways may *not*. PostScript files containing fonts may be sent to another individual, *if* they are made using `partial font downloading,' and if they do not contain complete character arrays. PostScript files made in any other way may not. (1b) Electronic publishing by single end user of own articles (FTP/WWW): ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Individual end users may make Acrobat PDF files of *their own* articles available on WWW or via FTP, *provided* the PDF files are made according to the rules described below in `How to Make Conforming Acrobat PDF Files.' PostScript files may *not* be so posted for FTP or WWW access, *independent* of whether they were made using `partial font downloading.' (2) Electronic Publishing of an Individual Book or Conference Proceeding: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A special `Single Electronic Book' license is available for publishing Acrobat PDF files made according to the rules in `How to Make Conforming Acrobat PDF Files.' Such a license is for a single title --- a book, or proceedings of a particular conference meeting. A `Single Electronic Book' license may be used both for electronic publishing on the InterNet (FTP and WWW), and for publishing the book or conference proceeding on CD-ROM. The cost of the `Single Electronic Book' license is three times the cost of an individual end user license. (3a) Electronic Journals and Books - embedded fonts (FTP/WWW): -------------------------------------------------------------- For electronic journals and books, a special `Electronic Publishing (FTP/WWW)' license is available for publishing Acrobat PDF files made according to the rules in `How to Make Conforming Acrobat PDF Files' on the InterNet for FTP and/or WWW access. Note that in this situtation, the end user does *not* get the fonts for use in other work, and each article contains the (partial) fonts, making the file size somewhat larger than if the fonts were not included. There is no time limit or volume limit on such an `Electronic Publishing (WWW/FTP)' license. The cost of an `Electronic Publishing (FTP/WWW)' license is ten times the cost of an individual end user license. (3b) Electronic Journals and Books - embedded fonts (CD-ROM): ------------------------------------------------------------- For electronic journals and books, a special `Electronic Publishing (CD-ROM)' license is available for publishing Acrobat PDF files made according to the rules in `How to Make Conforming Acrobat PDF Files' on CD-ROM. There is no time limit or volume limit on such electronic publishing licenses for CD-ROM. The cost of an `Electronic Publishing (CD-ROM)' license is ten times the cost of an individual end user license. (4) Electronic Journals - fonts as part of subscription (FTP/WWW): ------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternatively, we can provide licensing terms that allow distribution of fonts to paid-up subscribers of the electronic journal. The end user license in this case is treated as part of the subscription, and royalties are due Y&Y, Inc. on the fonts being distributed with the journal subscription. In this case, the fonts may be sent to the subscriber separately, thus saving on file size of individual articles. The fonts must be provided to the end user with a font license agreement stipulating no further duplication or distribution. The end user is free to use the fonts in other work. Some users will perceive this added benefit of the subscription as a significant selling point compared to lower quality document distribution methods such as ones using fixed resolution TIFF files. Contact Y&Y, Inc. for details. A potential added benefit is that an `unintended' recipient not in possession of the required fonts will not be able to preview the document properly. Math in particular will be totally unreadable. This makes it easier to control unauthorized duplication of electronic journal articles. Contact Y&Y, Inc. for details. HOW TO MAKE CONFORMING ACROBAT PDF FILES: ----------------------------------------- Acrobat PDF files must be made in a special way to minimize the potential for `font leakage.' Such PDF files are referred to here as `conforming PDF' files. (i) Use Acrobat Distiller version 2.0 (or later); (ii) with `Make Font Subsets' checked; and (iii) `MaxSubsetPct' set to 99 (see below); and (iv) do not use PostScript files with complete character showings. REQUIRED MODIFICATIONS TO DISTILLER PARAMETERS (Setting MaxSubsetPct to 99): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Add the following short file to Distiller's startup directory / folder (on IBM PC this would typically be c:\acrodist\startup): % % File: safe.ps % %%% Increase threshold for `Make Font Subsets' << /SubsetFonts true /MaxSubsetPct 99 >> setdistillerparams %%% Print a text string to the Messages window in the Status dialog (**** Set up for maximizing use of Font Subsets ***) print flush %%EOF Remember that PostScript is case sensitive, so please check the exact case of letters in the word `/MaxSubsetPct.' Also check that the messages marked with asterisks actually appears when you start Distiller. Please do *not* simply add the above code to the existing `example.ps' file, since `example.ps' may be replaced when you next upgrade or re-install Distiller. Instead, create a new file called `safe.ps'. Also, since the Distiller reads *all* files in the `startup' directory, make sure your editor does not leave old backup copies of the file there. For some additional details check page 127 in `Acrobat 2.1: Your Personal Consultant' by Roy Christmann, Ziff-Davis Press, Emeryville, California, 1995, ISBN 1-56276-336-9; the Distiller on-line help file; and page 15 in Adobe's Technical Note 5151 ``Acrobat Distiller Parameters'' (available from http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/devtechnotes.html). CHECKING THAT DISTILLER IS PRODUCING CONFORMING PDF FILES: ---------------------------------------------------------- To verify that the above modification is working: (1) Check that the asterisk-marked message appears when you start Distiller. (2) Check that only partial fonts appear in the PDF file. Do this as follows: In Acrobat Reader 2.1 open the PDF file, pull down the `File' menu, select `Document Info,' then `Fonts.' Click on `List all Fonts...' Each line listed starts with the `Original Font' name. Names with a six letter prefix followed by `+' are partial `sub fonts'. This is the desired form. In Acrobat Reader 3.0, this six letter prefix is *not* shown, instead check the `Font Used' column --- it should say `Embedded Subset.' If this field is blank, page forward through the file to `touch' all fonts. Fonts that are not `subsetted' as above have either (i) been included verbatim (not what is desired), or are (ii) in the list of fonts wired into the Acrobat Reader (Times, Helvetica, Courier, and Symbol), or (iii) have not been included, and will be approximated in Acrobat Reader using Multiple Master technology - which is almost never what you want (unless these happen to be fonts from the Adobe Type library). To avoid approximation of fonts using Multiple Masters, force embedding of fonts, by adding them to the list of fonts to be always embedded. From the `Distiller' menu select `Font Embedding' and add the troublesome fonts to the `Always Embed' list - or just check `Embed All Fonts'). (3) You can also run Distiller twice on the same PostScript file, once with this file in the startup directory and once without. In the former case the resulting PS file should be smaller --- typically between 25% and 45% (with a smaller reduction if the file is very large due to large images). By the way, Acrobat Readers (particularly on the Mac) tend to have problems with PDF distilled from PS produced by certain TeX systems. The Y&Y TeX System incorporates a number of work-arounds for known Acrobat Reader problems. See `acrofix.txt' for additional details. SPECIFICALLY NOT ALLOWED: ------------------------- X Fonts licensed from Y&Y may *not* be embedded in Acrobat PDF files made using the Acrobat Distiller if `Make Font Subsets' is *not* checked; or if `MaxSubsetPct' is set to any value smaller than 99 (such as its default of 10); or if the document calls for complete character tables. X Fonts licensed from Y&Y may *not* be embedded in Acrobat PDF files made using the Acrobat PDFWriter - or using Acrobat version 1.0. X PostScript files containing complete fonts (such as those made using DVIPS or Textures) may *not* be sent to other end users. X PostScript files containing complete character showings made using DVIPSONE (or any other driver) may *not* be sent to other end users. BACKGROUND: Acrobat and `Font Leakage': ======================================== Acrobat PDF format is the highest quality platform-independent document-interchange format because it uses scalable outline fonts --- either close approximations of the original fonts using Multiple Master technology, or the actual fonts themselves. Acrobat is however a format that presents some rather obvious `font leakage' problems, which --- although not as bad as with PostScript files are potentially serious. Plain vanilla text fonts in the Adobe library are typically *not* included in the PDF file. Instead, enough information is provided in the PDF file to allow the Acrobat reader to create a look-alike font with the same metrics on the receiving end. There clearly is no `font leakage' issue in this case. However, symbol fonts, decorative fonts, math fonts - in fact, any font not using `/Encoding StandardEncoding def' *and* any font with a glyph complement other than the `standard' Adobe set of 228 glyphs - *will* be embedded in PDF documents. This means *all* fonts commonly used with TeX will be embedded. While parts of the PDF file may be compressed using LZW compression and/or ASCII85 compression, it is easy to decompress a PDF file (Actually, one can extract the fonts from a PDF file more directly using any PostScript printer driver). Hence `font leakage' is a serious concern with Acrobat PDF files. In fact, one can extract a dozen or so useful fonts directly from the PDF files supplied by Adobe in promoting of Acrobat! And many more from PDF documents on the World Wide Web --- including some trade-secret fonts! Acrobat version 2.0 (and later) does provide some protection: it is possible to ask the Distiller to use `Make Font Subsets' (a.k.a. `partial font downloading'), which not only reduces the file size, but makes the included fonts much less useful (DVIPSONE, by the way, has used `partial font downloading' since 1990). This capability is not present in the Acrobat 2.0 PDF Writer, or version 1.0 of Acrobat. Fonts supplied by Y&Y are particularly vulnerable to Acrobat font leakage problems, since most of them either use unusual encoding (e.g. math fonts), or contain glyphs beyond the basic 228 in standard Adobe fonts (e.g. many Y&Y text fonts contain the ff, ffi, ffl ligatures in addition to the usual fi and fl ligatures). As a result these fonts are *always* embedded in PDF files rather than being approximated on the receiving end using Multiple Master technology. Acrobat Information from Adobe and Adobe's Font Embedding Policy: ================================================================= The potential `font leakage' problem is a deterrent to wide-spread adoption of Acrobat. While some publishers of electronic journals seem not yet aware of the potential for font license violation, this will be an obstacle. Adobe has been working hard to prevent this from undermining the widespread adoption of Acrobat. `Damage control' included a series of sometimes contradictory statements regarding the legality - or lack thereof - of font embedding in Acrobat files. Recently, Adobe was able to persuade many - but not all - of the foundries from whom Adobe licenses typefaces to sign up on a policy to allow font embedding (with some language included to discourage end user font extraction from PDF files). From Adobe's Acrobat Exchange / Acrobat Distiller 2.0 manual: You may embed Adobe Originals and fonts owned by Linotype-Hell AG, International Typeface Corporation, Agfa-Gevaert, Fundicion Typografica Neufville, and Monotype Typography, Ltd. that are available from the Adobe Type Library. You may need permission from the font supplier to distribute PDF files containing other embedded fonts. Note also that these foundries, and Adobe, have much lower exposure to potential `font leakage' than most foundires, since in many cases fonts in the Adobe Type library are in fact *not* embedded in the PDF file, and instead are approximated on the receiving end using Multiple Master technology. Adobe has worked hard to bring `partial font downloading' (`Make Font Subsets') to the Acrobat version 2.0 Distiller. PDF files containing such partial fonts are of much less use to a potential font thief. A determined effort would have to be made in most cases to collect enough information to reconstruct something approximating a useful font. This greatly reduces, but does not eliminate the potential for `font leakage.' (R) Acrobat is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. (TM) PDF is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. ******************************************************************************* Y&Y Inc, Tuttle's Livery, 45 Walden St. Concord MA 01742 USA (508) 371-3286 (voice) --- (508) 371-2004 (fax) sales-help@YandY.com http://www.YandY.com *******************************************************************************