Boneheaded move from Letterhead Fonts

Letterhead Fonts have added digital rights management to their font library. Now, I have no real problem with them wanting to protect their copyrights. But these kinds of moves generally are incredibly counter-productive and cause all kinds of inter-operability issues. Case in point. They’ve specifically prevented font embedding into PDFs.

Adobe really did a disservice to font designers (not to mention helping people to violate their license agreements) when they allowed for embedding of fonts into PDF files. While it certainly makes things easier for the graphic designer, it creates headaches for the font designer. And since we are trying to strike an even balance for both parties, we need to understand that there are utilities available that are created for the sole purpose of extracting fonts from PDF files.

This does not mean that Letterhead Fonts cannot be used in PDF files though. You just simply convert the text to curves (also called outlines or paths) before generating your PDF file.

Now I don’t know this for sure, but I’d imagine that would blow away any accessibility features in the PDF. I’m willing to be corrected, though.